8/20/13 Feds delay move to withhold California mass transit funding - Transportation - The Sacramento Bee

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U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez

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Feds delay move towithhold Californiamass transit funding

By Jon Ortizjortiz@sacbee.comPublished: Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 3A

Last Modified: Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013 - 8:31 am

With billions of mass-transit dollars at stake, the U.S.

Department of Labor said Friday that it will delay rulingon whether California's new pension law violates a 49-year-old federal statute that ties the funds to collectivebargaining rights.

A spokesman for the Labor Department confirmedthat federal officials are holding off on making anydecisions for now while they continue talks with Gov.Jerry Brown's office to resolve the thorny issue.

Brown spokesman Jim Evans said in an email that theadministration is "gratified" federal authorities aregiving the state and dozens of regional transitauthorities more time and that officials "will continue towork closely with the federal government in an effort toresolve this issue."

Earlier this month, U.S. Labor Secretary ThomasPerez warned Brown that the department would beginwithholding the funds because the state's new public pension law likely violates the collectivebargaining rights of some 20,000 mass transit employees. California has more than 100 regionalmass-transit grants to regional agencies in the pipeline with a total $1.6 billion in funding earmarkedfor this year alone.

Sacramento's regional transit district is waiting on $60 million in federal money, including $45 millionfor work on a light-rail extension to Elk Grove. It plans to apply for another $60 million to $70 millionsoon. All of the money could be denied if state and federal officials can't harmonize two apparentlyconflicting laws.

8/20/13 Feds delay move to withhold California mass transit funding - Transportation - The Sacramento Bee

www.sacbee.com/2013/08/17/5658055/feds-delay-move-to-withhold-california.html 2/3

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Federal law enacted in 1964 requires that the Labor Department certify that mass-transit grantrecipients preserve their employees' collective representation. At the time, governments around thecountry were taking over failing privately held transit companies. Congress passed the law to protectthe rights and benefits of unionized transit workers who became government employees. At the time,most state and local civil servants didn't belong to a union.

Mass-transit labor groups say that the California pension law, intended to roll back benefits and shiftmore cost to employees, imposed terms on their members instead of bargaining for them, a violationof federal law.

In a letter to Brown earlier this month, Perez signaled that he agrees with the unions and set Friday asa deadline for what could have been the first of many decisions to decertify one transit agency afteranother, which would block their federal grant funds. The law took effect Jan. 1.

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration has said the pension law merely sets a new framework for publicpension bargaining but that it doesn't weaken collective bargaining itself.

Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Follow him on Twitter @thestateworker and read his

blog, The State Worker.

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