With Armageddon Day approaching, the U-T's James Sweeney reviews the impacts of a state cash crunch.
"People dependent on local health and welfare programs,
businesses that have contracts with the state, anyone
due a state income-tax refund and college students expecting state grants
are expected to be among the first to feel the squeeze.
"Most state employees should continue to be paid, although
they have been asked to accept two furlough days a
month, a de facto pay cut and partial shutdown of the
state government.
"To accomplish the furloughs, the administration on
Friday ordered most state offices to close on the first
and third Fridays of each month, starting Feb. 6. Thousands of state workers also could be laid off
beginning next month under an executive order issued
by the governor.
"California's 120 legislators as well as 1,600 elected state officials, judges and appointed staff
members probably would receive IOUs instead of paychecks,
state Controller John Chiang has said."
"Bond repayments and public-school revenue should be safe, because the state will
continue to receive billions in tax revenue – just not enough to pay all its bills. But some are
warning that schools could be forced to close if a
stalemate drags on too long. And schools probably will
face at least some midyear cuts in any budget agreement."
Meanwhile, Josh Richman says the treasurer and the governor are in a little political
showdown of their own.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to require state workers
to take
two mandatory, unpaid furlough days — the first and third Fridays of
every month — in order to help defray a tiny fraction of the state’s
whopping budget deficit. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer
is having none of it.
"Gubernatorial directives can’t be imposed on constitutional officers such as the
Treasurer, or the agencies they head; Lockyer sent a letter Friday to DPA
Director David A. Gilb rejecting the governor’s request."
And yet, they're lining up to spend millions to hold what would appear
to be the worst job in the western universe. "With almost 18 months to go before the June 8, 2010, primary, a host of likely candidates already are positioning
themselves to become California's next governor, replacing termed-out Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger," reports John Wildermuth in the Chron.
"That's not nearly as long as it seems, particularly for
the power players, donors and political junkies those
early moves are aimed at.
"'It's important to remember that no normal person could
possibly care about the governor's race yet,' said Dan Schnur, head of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics
at the University of Southern California and former
aide to GOP Gov. Pete Wilson."
That might explain why we care so deeply.
"The conventional wisdom has a shorthand description
of the 2010 race: For the Democrats, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein clears
the field if she runs, with Attorney General Jerry
Brown the big favorite if the former San Francisco
mayor stays in the Senate. On the GOP side, it's a battle between megarich Silicon Valley types Meg
Whitman and Steve Poizner, with former Rep. Tom Campbell
of San Jose hoping to sneak by both of them."
Ouch...the Golden Boys don't even get a top paragraph mention anymore.
Those darn affairs...
"But there's a reason governors are chosen in elections and not
by polls taken 18 months out. The political world can alter dramatically
in a year and a half, and there are plenty of governor
wannabes hoping any changes can put them in the governor's office.
"'People who belong in Gamblers Anonymous are attracted
to politics,' said Darry Sragow, a Southern California attorney
who ran Democrat Al Checchi's unsuccessful run for governor in 1998. 'You're at the mercy of a political environment that's always precarious and can't be predicted.'"
The Bee's Peter Hecht writes that the magnitude of the budget
crisis hasn't yet reached the street .
"Sacramento lobbyists, state worker unions and advocates
for health, education and welfare may think of little
more than the state's financial mess. Yet the Capitol isn't being overwhelmed by calls or letters from average
Californians demanding a budget.
"In Sacramento, the action movie-star governor furiously warns of the costs of inaction
on a budget deficit that could reach $40 billion over 18 months. Lawmakers fight over taxes, state worker furloughs
and slashing cuts for schools and services.
"Outside the capital, they will draw little notice – or scrutiny – until they actually make decisions and act or let
state government go belly-up.
"'Certainly voters are aware of the (state budget) problem,' said California Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo.
'But it hasn't really reached their own pocketbooks or own lives
in a direct way. You're just waiting for the train wreck to happen.'
"'At the point when the state stops paying its bills
or starts issuing IOUs to creditors, that's when this will really hit the fan.'"
"Efforts to bridge California's budget abyss collapsed last week as
talks hit a formidable roadblock -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's demand that long-standing environmental protections be stripped from
10 big highway projects.
"The governor's aides say his plan would give the financially strained
state a $1.2-billion economic boost and create 22,000 jobs over the
next three years. Environmentalists say the governor
is backpedaling
from the heavily publicized push to curb global warming
that landed him
on magazine covers delicately balancing a globe on
a beefy finger.
"Schwarzenegger is proposing that the California Department
of
Transportation forge ahead with some construction projects
that are
tied up in court over environmental issues. One is
a $165-million
carpool-lane expansion on U.S. 50 in Sacramento that a judge has
delayed because of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions
it could
generate, among other concerns.
"Protections would also be lifted on a freeway-widening project through
an ecologically sensitive area of coastal San Diego
County and on a
controversial plan to drill a tunnel into the Berkeley
Hills. And
Schwarzenegger wants to empower a panel of his appointees
to waive
environmental rules on other projects.
"Schwarzenegger has infuriated the Sierra Club and other
groups with
such proposals and with a letter he sent to President-elect Barack
Obama last week asking that federal environmental reviews
be waived on
the highway projects.
"'This is a stunning turnaround by the governor, and
I am baffled by it,' said Tom Adams, board president of the California League of Conservation
Voters."
While others may be suffering economically, Jim Sanders
writes that 55 senior Assembly staffers are sitting pretty, thanks
to former speaker Fabian Nunez.
"Dozens of California Assembly employees can thank the
state's
fiscal crisis for padding their pensions through a
controversial
program pushed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez before he was termed
out last year.
"Fifty-five
Assembly employees received "golden handshakes" that can be worth
thousands annually by awarding two years of extra service
credits for
retiring by last month, records show.
"Recipients included nine aides to Núñez – eight of whose salaries exceeded $90,000 per year.
"Prominent retirees included Danny Eaton and Steve Maviglio,
who left
jobs paying $212,000 and $175,000, respectively, the former as Núñez's
chief of staff and the latter as press secretary for
the Assembly
speaker's office."
"A decade of academic advancement due to class-size reduction, tougher curriculum, higher standards,
testing, accountability and other reforms could be stalled -- even reversed -- by the necessity to cut spending," writes George Skelton in the Times.
"But there's no way around it. When the state's general fund is projected to be nearly $42 billion in the hole by the middle of next year and
the cost of kindergarten-through-community college eats up roughly 40% of that fund, schools must take a hit, even after
the probable tax increases.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed shorting schools
$2.1 billion during the rest of this academic year and
$3.1 billion the next. Perhaps most eye-opening, he'd save the state $1.1 billion by cutting off money for one week's worth of instruction. The number of school days would
be reduced to 175 from 180.
"'It's a loss of learning opportunities,' notes state Supt. Of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. 'Only eight states have fewer than 180 days.'
"Also in jeopardy are class-size reduction, advanced placement programs for the
university-bound, extra help for English learners, special ed,
summer school, counseling, gifted programs, arts and
music and a long list of other "categorical" programs that local districts would be free to cannibalize
to make ends meet."
Dan Walters writes that CTA's sales tax proposal is reminiscent of the discussions
leading to 1988's Proposition 98, and wonders if it's real or a budget negotiating ploy.
"The new CTA measure not only recalls the 1980s-vintage battle but echoes a CTA-sponsored initiative eight years ago that would have
compelled California to match the national average
in per-pupil spending but was dropped when then-Gov. Gray Davis agreed to boost school spending by
$1.8 billion a year.
"That makes one wonder whether the new measure is for
real, or merely a bargaining chip in this year's jousting over school money."
Matier and Ross review the report recommending standards for the new prison hospitals.
"Aerobics and yoga classes, workout rooms and open-air courtyards were just a few of the amenities recommended
for California's hospitalized felons in a draft report for the court-appointed receiver tasked with overhauling the state's prison health care system.
"The recommendations called on the cash-starved state to spend $8 billion on seven new hospitals - each roughly the size of 10 Wal-Mart stores - to replace a decrepit health care system that a federal
judge says is killing an average of one inmate per
week. Judge Thelton Henderson said state officials were incapable of fixing the
system and handed the job to receiver Clark Kelso.
"The report also said there should be day rooms for
patients featuring a 'quiet room for reading and study, as well as a separate
room for group TV watching.' Each should include 'a liberal use of sound attenuation materials and be
designed to maximize natural light to create a normative
environment,' the document said.
"The report also recommended plenty of landscaping along
the perimeters of the lockups to hide the fences and
electronic surveillance systems."
We really wouldn't want inmates to know that they're still in prison...
"The overall idea is to create something that doesn't resemble a prison, the document said - hence, designers should "explore a unique blend of hospital, community college
and residential scales as a basis for the site plans."
We interrupt this Roundup to bring you a breaking news
alert. Authorities have warned us to be on the look out for a ... fat ninja?
"The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office says a heavyset man with a visible potbelly
and a ninja costume unsuccessfully tried to steal two
different ATMs over
the past two weeks.
"Security video from the automated teller machines showed
the unidentified man dressed in a black ninja
outfit with a hood that showed only his eyes.
"Authorities
say the first attempt was made at a bank on Dec. 29 and the second at a
Walgreens on Tuesday. Authorities did not say how the
man tried to
steal the machines."
But they did make this authentic surveillance video
available.
