The Times reports on the
governor's Orange County visit: "'
They want to punish all of you,' Schwarzenegger said. 'Even though you may think they haven't talked much about the sales tax [increase], the rumble is there,' he said of legislators. 'They say, what about a half-cent on the sales tax, what about bringing back the car tax? I say no, we have to live within our means.
We have plenty of money in California.'"
AP's Don Thompson reports the governor "kicked off his special election campaign this week by
shifting attention from the three initiatives he has qualified for the ballot and instead
trying to raise fears that Democrats want to increase taxes."
After the Bakersfield visit, however, the governor
toned the rhetoric down a bit. "Schwarzenegger, speaking with reporters at the end of his visit, said he knows the tax proposals aren't on the agenda now. But he warned that they surely will be because the Legislature can't stop spending money."
"An obviously incensed Sen.
Dean Florez, D-Shafter, later accused the governor of using scare tactics to grab headlines and blasted him for being out of town when the Legislature needs his leadership to broker a budget by Wednesday night's deadline.
'He should be here in Sacramento. That's his job," Florez said. '
What does sitting in a car wash in Bakersfield have to do with passing a budget? We have a constitutional mandate to pass a budget. We miss him tonight.'"
Anyway, the Legislature missed the constitutional deadline that they haven't met since 1986. "'We missed the constitutional deadline,' [Speaker
Fabian] Nuñez said, 'but that does not mean we should not be working hard and diligently to get a budget in the next week or week and a half.'"
In the Assembly, Democrats amended
Wilma Chan's AB 6 to raise takes on top income earners specifically for education. The bill died with 46 votes, on a partisan vote with
Tom Umberg taking a walk.
"The spending addicts are back to score their fix once again," said Assemblyman
Ray Haynes (R-Murrieta). "Just like the common heroin addict, you are going to steal the money…. And you are going to justify the theft by saying the people you are doing this to are rich."
The governor's budget chief,
Tom Campbell, explained
how a budget could come together. "'So, within two very important principles, the governor and the Legislature can work toward a budget for our state,' Campbell said. 'Those principles remain:
Don't use one-time money on permanent spending, and don't try to tax your way out of a spending problem.'"
Meanwhile, the Daily News reports Republicans from far and wide are
getting ready for a little vacation in California. "Building on the strategy President
George W. Bush used to lure record numbers of voters to the polls last year, California Republicans are poised to deploy a volunteer army to turn out votes for Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's initiatives and other measures on the Nov. 8 ballot.
But Republicans could not have been happy with the Associated Press headline on the budget story: "Democratic budget nearly mirrors governor's plan, still no Republican support." Of course, some papers
put this headline on the exact same story: "Calif. lawmakers fail to pass budget again."
We're guessing that one's more to the governor's liking.
Contra Costa Times/Mercury News reporter Kate Folmar writes: "Republicans blocked passage Wednesday of a $116.6 billion budget that is strikingly similar to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spending plan, thus thwarting an effort to pass an on-time budget for the first time since 1986."
If the Democrats were going to
sell out their buddies in the education community, at least they're getting the good press they wanted in framing this budget debate. If this keeps up, and Republicans keep a budget bottled up, someone's going to have a little PR problem on their hands.
And, then there were two: With yesterday's
qualification of the pharmaceutical industry's drug pricing ballot measure, only two are awaiting signature verification: the Alliance for Better California's own pharmaceutical measure and its initiative re-regulating the energy industry.
In other newsThe Union Tribune reports that
Juan Vargas has dropped
a bill that would "
liberalize rules on the counting of write-in ballots." Vargas offered a rationale that likely won't be heard much in the next several months leading up to the special election. "'
There's no sense in throwing it down there just to get it vetoed,' said Vargas, D-San Diego."
The governor has signed on to an
effort to bring Highway 99 into the federal highway system. "In a letter to the valley's congressional delegation, Schwarzenegger said he is committed to 'investing significantly in Highway 99, which he called a vital part of the nation's transportation system."
While the AFL-CIO
may be crumbling at the national level, California Federation of Labor chief
Art Pulaski is pledging unity on the fight against the governor's November ballot measures. "'We are committed to be together on that,' meaning defeating the ballot initiatives. 'Further, we are in the process of building our own strong movement in California,' he said."
From our
"Your Governor Is Cooler Than You" Files. British music site Contactmusic.com reports the governor
was a huge fan of British hipster rockers Kasabian "until he saw them and discovered how
thin and pale the band members are. The rag quotes the governor as saying "They have the combined bodyweight of one man only" and goes on to quote "a source for the star" as saying, "He doesn't get their
pale and skinny appearance, but he loves playing [the band's single] Club Foot when he has a training session."
You can have a listen to the governor's favorite jam
here.