"California's budget stalemate triggered partisan mudslinging Wednesday when the Senate's Democratic leader
accused minority Republicans of 'fiscal terrorism' for demanding more cuts from welfare, public transportation and other programs," writes Judy Lin in the Bee.
"'
As far as I'm concerned, (Republicans can) continue to hold up the state budget because I'm not going to capitulate to this kind of terrorism,' Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata said after delaying a scheduled vote by one day.
"The 40-member Senate
is expected to convene this morning to consider the GOP plan, although Perata cautioned in a letter to Senate Republican leader
Dick Ackerman that he wouldn't take up the proposed cuts unless the GOP caucus had unanimous support for the budget bill.
"Ackerman said he did not agree to those rules: 'You can't solve a budget by name-calling.'"
Must be time to bring out the sticks and stones...
Capitol Weekly looks at
the origins of the budget stalemate. "
The story of this year's state-budget delay begins in December 2006 in Newport Beach.
"
It was there, just weeks after Gov. Schwarzenegger's re-election, that Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, announced he was challenging Dick Ackerman's leadership. In the end, Ackerman fended off Battin's challenge by the narrowest of margins--with seven of the caucus's 15 members voting to dump Ackerman as leader.
"But
the seeds planted in Newport last December are now beginning to flower. The result is a unified Republican caucus, and a state budget delay that is moving into its fourth week.
"
When Dick Ackerman became more conservative, stopped cutting deals and started representing our caucus, we became unified," Battin said Wednesday.
A number of other factors have contributed to the budget delay. Senate Republicans have felt slighted by Gov. Schwarzenegger, both as a group and individually, dating back to last year's campaign season. (Maldonado, for example, lobbied for Schwarzenegger's support in a primary against conservative Tony Strickland. Schwarzenegger refused, and Maldonado lost.)
Possible changes in state term-limits law, non-competitive Senate districts, the rise of conservative blogs and the changing political goals of a moderate GOP senator have all contributed to the budget quagmire we now see in the Senate.
"In the past, Democrats could rely on Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, to be the 27th vote needed to pass a budget out of the Senate. Denham was elected in a district drawn for a Democrat, and cast his votes with an eye on a possible electoral challenge from a Democrat.
"But last year, Denham was re-elected to the Senate (without a strong Democratic challenger) and has set his sites on running for lieutenant governor. A closed Republican primary in 2008 is a very different political audience, and there are signs Denham has been mindful of that during this budget standoff."
"The first statewide
effects of the nearly monthlong budget impasse may be felt today when transportation projects are expected to be put on hold, as Republican vows to reject a spending plan without major cuts to parks, healthcare and social services provoked a torrent of critics," writes Evan Halper in the Times.
"Staff at the California Transportation Commission advised board members meeting in Glendale this morning to put off approval of $800 million in projects until a budget is in place. The release of funds for the projects, including the Expo light rail line linking Culver City to downtown and work on the 105 Freeway near Los Angeles International Airport, is expected to be delayed until the board's next meeting in September.
"The consequences of the impasse could soon spread elsewhere. By the end of July, roughly $1.1 billion in other scheduled payments could be withheld, state Controller
John Chiang said.
"Local schools, county governments, community colleges and contractors doing business with the state are among those that would not receive checks."
"Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger -- who has a cool relationship with most Republican lawmakers after spending the last two years courting Democrats -- said he is growing concerned that the late budget will create hardships for some employees and vendors who are not getting paid,"
reports Tom Chorneau in the Chron.
"'The time has come to solve this,' he said at an event is South Lake Tahoe. 'I would hope that we will have an agreement by tomorrow.'"
CW's John Howard tells of
the odd saga of budget trailer bills. "When the Assembly gave its thumbs up to the state budget, the spending plan and its posse of come-along "trailer" bills headed immediately to the Senate. All except one, that is. And therein lies an instructive Capitol tale--one of several in the saga of the trailer bills.
"
A little-known bill that contains $18 million in critical funding for charter schools was approved by the Assembly but never made it out of the chamber. Like magic, it had disappeared from the public's view. But, in fact, as of Wednesday afternoon, it was still sitting on the Assembly clerk's desk, frozen by order of the Assembly leadership.
"It was halted by an unusual parliamentary maneuver:
The bill was approved, but Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, asked for reconsideration. Authors of bills typically ask for reconsideration after a bill goes down, hoping to delay final action for another vote. In this case, the opposite was true: The request for reconsideration froze the bill in its tracks.
Meanwhile, "Californians overwhelmingly believe global warming is a serious threat but they
seem less than impressed with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's six-month, highly publicized international campaign on the problem, a poll released Wednesday shows," reports Steve Geissinger in the Merc News.
"Instead, Californians want more progress to protect the environment and say they are willing to pay for it, but have been disappointed so far this year,
according to the survey by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California.
"At least some of that dissatisfaction is directed at Schwarzenegger, whose approval rating has slipped 6 points since January, to 52 percent. More telling, his approval rating on handling environmental issues has plummeted from 55 percent in January, when he signed an executive order to curb greenhouse gas emissions, to 47 percent."
CW's Daniel Macht reports on a new study that is set to cause a stir at CalTrans. "A new study commissioned by Caltrans is expected to recommend that
the state should again set goals for awarding a portion of federal transportation contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses."
"The findings are all but certain to be controversial because
the inclusion of race and gender in state contracting was eliminated years ago by California voters."
CW takes a look at initiatives headed for next year's ballots. Malcolm Maclachlan reports the state's voters are going to be asked again to
vote on gay rights.
"There are four anti-gay-marriage initiatives currently cleared for signature gathering with the secretary of state's office. The two measures gay political activists are taking most seriously are a group that includes
Gayle Knight, widow of
William "Pete" Knight, the late GOP state senator who wrote the Proposition 22. Lined up behind her are Focus on the Family and a long list of potential donors.
"Most prominent among these are pair of Southern Californians, Orange County-based billionaire financier
Howard Ahmanson and Christian radio magnate
Ed Atsinger. Each gave $100,000 to the original Knight campaign. A spokesman for Atsinger's radio company, Salem Communications, said that Atsinger is monitoring the situation but has yet to make any donations in the current cycle."
And Daniel Macht reports on
a new initiative tort reform measure that could be headed for the June ballot. "It's Round 2 in the Capitol's tort wars: A move by industry and business interests to throttle class-action lawsuits died in the Legislature earlier this year. But the issue is back via the initiative process--and portends a high-stakes fight between big business and labor, trial lawyers, and consumer advocates.
"On July 19, the Civil Justice Association of California, a coalition of businesses and local governments filed a ballot-initiative proposal with the secretary of state's office called the "California Class Action Lawsuit Fairness Act." The initiative is very similar to Assemblywoman Nicole Parra's AB 1505, which CJAC sponsored earlier in the year. Its backers hope to make the June 2008 ballot."
"The extramarital affair between Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa and a newscaster for Telemundo
has created a new set of complications for the broadcaster's corporate parent, NBC Universal — and possibly the mayor himself," reports the LAT's David Zahniser.
"Even as its Spanish-language subsidiary is poised to decide the future of
Mirthala Salinas, the now-suspended reporter who embarked on a romantic relationship with Villaraigosa while she reported on him, NBC Universal is proceeding with a massive $3-billion development plan that city officials must ultimately approve.
"Although Telemundo executives hold the key to the career of Salinas, now the subject of an internal investigation into whether she compromised the company's journalistic mission, Villaraigosa holds his own considerable power over NBC Universal. The entertainment conglomerate will very likely need Villaraigosa's help to navigate the city's approval process as it spends the next year pushing its Universal City Vision Plan, a concept the mayor embraced seven months ago.
"'The only one who knows whether there is a conflict is the mayor, and if there is, the mayor needs to acknowledge it and recuse himself,' said
Richard Bogy, a Toluca Lake resident who is on a panel reviewing part of Universal City's development plans."
"Among the many perks Assembly members receive, in addition to a car of their choice,
is a benefit that pays to fix any damage to that vehicle, no matter who is driving, and whether or not it is being used for legislative business," writes Edwin Garcia in the Merc News.
"That policy is one reason
taxpayers have forked over more than $300,000 in the past five years in repairs, according to a Mercury News review of public documents. The benefit likely helped lawmakers save thousands of dollars of their own money by avoiding premium increases to their personal insurance policies.
"The review found a number of startling facts and incidents that call into question the state's policy. Among the more notable:
"While many Californians go five years without an accident, some lawmakers filed claims for multiple repairs,
including two Bay Area legislators who turned in a dozen between them.
"Lawmakers are especially prone to fender-benders in the Capitol's basement garage - so much so that security personnel have begun parking the cars.
"In several instances, lawmakers initially filled out the state's accident-report form acknowledging the damage was caused on personal business, but later decided they were, in fact, working.
"On at least two occasions, a lawmaker's spouse or child was behind the wheel, and the repairs were covered with public funds."
Paging
Rocky Delgadillo..."Curiously, the state Senate, which also buys cars for senators, has a slightly different policy. Senators are billed for the damage they cause to their vehicles while on personal business or for accidents caused by their family members, said Glenda Smith, director of Senate Rules accounting."
A word to the wise:
beware of Oscar the Cat. "The cat
seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone.
It usually means they have less than four hours to live.
"'He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die,' said Dr.
David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine."
Oscar was last seen cuddling up to the term limits initiative headed for the February ballot.
