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SACRAMENTO, CA- 10/12/2010 - The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) commends Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) for voting against the recent health and retirement cuts in the state budget.
"It's times like this when we see the true colors of our elected leaders," said Willie Pelote, AFSCME's political and legislative director. "It's incredibly disappointing that no other Senate Democrat joined Leland Yee in standing up for Californians who have to work for a living."
Only Yee voted against all the proposed cuts to education, social services, and health care.
And only Yee registered his support for the retirement security of civil servants
He also successfully deleted a provision to suspend the Brown Act-the local government open meeting and public notice law-from the budget deal.
"It's unconscionable what the legislature and governor did in this state budget," said Pelote. "Not only did they suspend the state's constitutional guarantee for school funding, they also took an ax to California's network of essential services, including severe cuts to in-home supportive services, CalWORKS, child care, and Medi-Cal. To top it off, they also approved a statewide version of San Francisco's egregious Measure B, which endangers the ability of civil servants to retire."
While nearly every elected leader in San Francisco has come out in opposition to Measure B-a local ballot initiative that exempts elected officials from retirement and health care cuts faced by city employees-only Senator Yee opposed similar changes at the state level among members of San Francisco's state delegation.
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