Members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and victim advocates with 400 members in California and close to 5,000 members nationwide, visited the State Capitol today to urge legislators and administration officials to support evidence-based programs proven to keep children in school and away from crime.

Every eligible Californian would be automatically registered to vote under legislation Secretary of State Alex Padilla is exploring.

"If government knows who's here, who's 18, who's a citizen, why go through hoops?" Padilla said in an interview. "Let's just register folks automatically."

It started like any number of budget debates at the Capitol: The University of California argued that it has been shortchanged and students will have to bear more of its rising costs if the state doesn't pay up.

But this year's back-and-forth with Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers not only has unleashed unprecedented fiscal scrutiny of the 10-campus system, it has also placed on the table the previously unthinkable option of stripping UC's constitutional independence.

As a former governor and cabinet secretary, Janet Napolitano came to the University of California with hefty political credentials many hoped she would wield in Sacramento as a champion for the state's prestigious public research university. But the UC president's play for more state money after years of deep budget cuts has put her and the 147-year old institution on the firing line.

When Gov. Jerry Brown took office in 2011, one of his first acts was to make state employees give back their sweet government cellphones and state cars.

The savings was a drop in the bucket, given the state's massive budget, but Brown was sending a message: This is the people's work, not the private sector. That can be easy to forget in a culture where the median CEO pay now tops $10 million. Sometimes white-collar public servants need a reminder.