"While motorists fume over the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, state officials say
the extra sales tax revenue from high prices at the pump is proving to be a boon as California faces an $8 billion budget deficit," reports Matthew Yi in the Chron.
"And lawmakers are likely to tussle in coming weeks over how to spend the unexpected revenue.
"Sales tax receipts from gasoline have been rising sharply over the past five years - from $2.1 billion in 2003, when a gallon of regular unleaded cost an average of $1.88, to $3.8 billion in 2007, when the same gallon cost $3.12, according to the state Board of Equalization.
"If gas hits an average of $4 a gallon this year - not an unrealistic possibility considering that fuel prices rose to an average of $3.63 on Monday - state and local governments could collect nearly $5 billion in sales tax on gasoline."
Just think, if gas hits $18 per gallon, we can eliminate the budget deficit without a tax increase!
Since that probably won't happen for, say, a couple of years, Dan Weintraub
writes that the governor may be considering a sales tax on services.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he does not want to raise taxes to solve California's budget problem. But he also says he has not ruled anything out, and he is willing to discuss any idea that could reasonably help narrow a persistent gap between the state's spending and its revenues.
"One of those ideas might be to broaden the sales tax to cover some services rather than only the sale of goods, Schwarzenegger said last week at a town hall meeting in the Northern California city of Pleasant Hill.
"
'The way we are taxing. I mean, we are missing a lot out there,' the governor said. 'There's whole new economies that are developing, service-oriented economies. Manufacturing is going down.'"
That's right...make
Lenny Goldberg calculate sales tax. Now, that's tax reform.
"Lawmakers
killed a proposal Monday to qualify women for "temporarily disabled" parking placards in the final three months of pregnancy and the first two months after birth," reports Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"Assemblyman
Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, said he hoped to provide a "transition period" for women struggling with birth-related problems.
"'For that brief five-month period, let's give them some consideration,' DeVore said.
"Assembly Bill 1940 died in the Assembly Transportation Committee despite an amendment by DeVore to bar the placards from being used beside meters or where parking fees are charged.
"Needing eight votes for passage, AB 1940 received one yes vote and one no vote. Twelve committee members took no position."
San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom is coming to Sacramento today to announce a lawsuit against the state. Newsom, who is the lunchtime speaker at the Sacramento Press Club today, "is expected to announce in Sacramento today a lawsuit rolling back the 10 percent cuts in state Medi=Cal reimbursments approved by the state Legislature," reports the Examiner's David Smith.
"
Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said his office agreed with Newsom that the cuts should be rolled back and would use the opportunity to 'talk about health-care reform' in the state."
Speaking of potential gubernatorial candidates, the LAT's Maeve Reston
takes a look at eBay's Meg Whitman.. "As John McCain begins a three-day swing today through California -- one of the newest members of his campaign team, outgoing EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, may draw much of the attention.
"Whitman, a 51-year-old billionaire, according to Forbes magazine, is said to be considering a run for California governor in 2010 after getting her first taste of politics on the finance team of ex-presidential candidate
Mitt Romney, a former colleague at the consulting firm Bain & Co.
"'
By the end of this experience . . . she'll have a real good idea of what she'd have to go through herself to win an election in a state the size of California," said Republican strategist Rob Stutzman, a former California campaign advisor to Romney.
Republican consultant
Don Sipple said
Whitman would get to know political donors "that she will need to tap if she was to pursue a political career of her own."
That's tap in the political sense, not the
hip-hop sense...
"A
bill meant to stanch local government losses in the municipal bond market cleared the Senate Monday, putting it on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk," writes John Hill in the Bee.
"Senate Bill 344 by Sen.
Mike Machado, D-Linden, allows governments and other issuers of municipal bonds to escape volatility in the bond market by buying back their own debt.
"Since last month, two little-known municipal bond markets have been in turmoil, a spillover from the meltdown in mortgage-backed securities. Interest rates in the bonds, which are resold at short intervals, have spiked after years of exceptionally low costs.
"In California, the bonds are issued by the state treasurer, local governments, hospitals, universities and others.
"State Treasurer
Bill Lockyer, who sponsored SB 344, estimates that more than $40 billion is outstanding in one type of bond, known as variable-rate demand bonds. Another $28 billion is outstanding in the other type, auction-rate securities."
Meanwhile, the LAT's Myron Levin reports that the
requirement to use a cellphone hands-free device while driving may not accomplish much.
"The risk doesn't stem from whether one or both hands are on the wheel, the research suggests. It's whether the driver's mind is somewhere else.
"The biggest danger is "cognitive capture" -- or being blind to driving cues because one is absorbed in conversations, especially emotional ones.
"'
There's a common misperception that hands-free phones are safer when the research clearly suggests that they they're both equally risky,' said
Arthur Goodwin, a researcher at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center.
"California motorists will be required to use a hands-free device to talk on a cellphone starting July 1 under a new traffic safety law. Such laws are already in effect in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Utah, Washington state and the District of Columbia."
"Already coping with a rise in tuberculosis cases and staff cuts from previous years, Bay Area TB
officials warned Monday that proposed state budget cuts will further handicap their ability to protect the public from the airborne infectious disease," reports Mike Swift in the Merc News.
"Speaking at a press conference at San Francisco International Airport on World TB Day, the top TB officials from the counties of Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo said they are worried that they will have significantly less money next year because of cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as federal and local budget cuts.
"'If our infrastructure crumbles, we will see a rise in TB cases again and deaths,' said Dr.
Lisa Gooze, the TB control officer for San Mateo County. "That would not only be preventable, but that would be shameful."
"While the number of TB cases in California has declined in recent years, cases in most Bay Area counties were up last year, just as the World Heath Organization warns of the growing global threat from antibiotic-resistant strains."
And from our
Putting the Dog in Dogma Files, AP reports "At a Zen Buddhist temple in southern Japan, even the dog prays. Mimicking his master, priest Joei Yoshikuni, a 1 1/2-year-old black-and-white Chihuahua named Conan joins in the daily prayers at Naha's Shuri Kannondo temple,
sitting up on his hind legs and putting his front paws together before the altar."
"Yoshikuni said Conan generally goes through his prayer routine at the temple in the capital of Japan's southern Okinawa prefecture (state) without prompting before his morning and evening meals.
"'I think he saw me doing it all the time and got the idea to do it, too,' Yoshikuni said.
"The priest is now trying to teach him how to meditate."
