The Bee's Kevin Yamamura writes that, despite criticisms from both sides of the governor's spending plan,
term limits likely will bring a quick resolution to the budget debate. "Lawmakers want voters to pass an initiative in February to change the state's term limits law so members may serve up to 12 years in any one house. One proposal would ensure that Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez and Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata can remain beyond 2008 even though current law would force them out of office next year.
"To build support for the initiative, lawmakers will need to appear productive this year, and the budget is the Capitol's most symbolic gauge of productivity, said
Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento.
"'All policy initiatives are impacted by the budget, so
it has become a single, deceivingly simple symbol of the ability for state government to work,' Hodson said. 'Frankly, the political players and the news media have reinforced this notion of the budget being no more complicated than the arithmetic it takes to balance a checkbook. So if the Legislature and governor can't, the public thinks they're obviously inept or corrupt.'"
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
rejected a proposal to build a liquefied natural gas terminal off the Southern California coast Friday, saying it was too harmful to California's environment," writes the Chron's Greg Lucas.
"The proposed project, located 14 miles offshore near the cities of Oxnard (Ventura County) and Malibu (Los Angeles County), was rejected in April by both the Coastal Commission and state Lands Commission.
"Australian energy giant BHP Billiton has tried to win approval of the $800 million project for four years. It is one of five groups proposing LNG terminals in California but BHP was the furthest along. In 2005 and 2006, BHP spent more than $2.8 million lobbying for the project.
"'I am mainly focused on the environmental impacts of air quality and marine life associated with this particular project,' Schwarzenegger wrote in a letter to federal maritime officials.
"'Although I strongly support building an offshore LNG facility in California, based on the unmitigated and significant environmental impacts associated with Cabrillo Port LNG's proposed project, I disapprove this application.'"
It's like we can still hear
Bonnie Reiss in the prose...
The LAT's Evan Halper
looks at proposed spending under the state's recently approved water bond. "Shoring up levees, building reservoirs and purging pollution from the state's bays and streams may have been what voters had in mind in November when they approved billions of dollars of borrowing for crucial water projects.
"So it may come as a surprise that some of the debt they authorized could be headed toward a bike path through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, or "water-accessible overnight accommodations" on Lake Tahoe. Or a museum in Los Angeles. Even an aquarium 100 miles from the sea in Fresno.
"Proposition 84 was a $5.3-billion bond measure that the official voter guide said would provide borrowing for 'Water Quality, Safety and Supply. Flood Control. Natural Resource Protection. Park Improvements.' Less visible was the fine print that allowed state officials to authorize millions of dollars in spending with limited constraints."
"'This was supposed to be about strengthening the levees and water safety issues. That was the context under which people voted for it,' said
Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. 'If we really wanted a museum and aquarium bond, voters could have considered that. But that is something that may not have been approved, considering the state's current economic situation.'"
George Skelton
criticizes the governor's proposal to divert $1.3 billion in transportation dollars to avoid raising taxes. "Ten years from now, Californians won't remember whether or not Schwarzenegger raised taxes. But they would remember gratefully if he provided them with more transportation options."
"As the costs for fixing the state's troubled corrections system rocket higher, California is headed for a dubious milestone --
for the first time the state will spend more on incarcerating inmates than on educating students in its public universities," writes the Chron's James Sterngold.
"Based on current spending trends, California's prison budget will overtake spending on the state's universities in five years. No other big state in the country spends close to as much on its prisons compared with universities.
"But California has all but guaranteed that prisons will eat up an increasingly large share of taxpayer money because of chronic failures in a system that the state is now planning to expand.
"Under a new state law, California will spend $7.4 billion to build 40,000 new prison beds, and that is over and above the current annual operating budget of more than $10 billion. Interest payments alone on the billions of dollars of bonds that will be sold to finance the new construction will amount to $330 million a year by 2011 -- all money that will not be available for higher education or other state priorities."
The Bee's Jim Sanders writes that legislators
want to crack down on sprays that claim to obscure license plates from enforcement cameras. "For about $30, motorists can buy a can of glossy spray that doesn't hide license plates but vows to thwart enforcement cameras from taking a usable photo.
"An Internet advertisement for one such spray, PhotoBlocker, promotes it as a way to 'prevent a costly ticket.'
"'With PhotoBlocker, your license plate is invisible to traffic cameras yet completely legible to the naked eye,' the ad says.
"'PhotoBlocker's special formula produces a high-powered gloss that reflects the flash back toward the camera. This overexposes the image of your license plate, rendering the picture unreadable.'
"Critics say such sprays are largely ineffective, perhaps a waste of money, but lawmakers are not taking any chances. The Assembly recently passed legislation, Assembly Bill 801, to ban the sale of any product intended to obscure recognition of a license plate.
"'There's no law in place that says you can't put spray on your license plate,' said Assemblywoman
Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel, who crafted the bill."
Speaking of bills, "A freshman legislator, Assemblywoman
Mary Salas, D-Chula Vista, has introduced
a bill requiring bottled water labels and water vending machines to identify the source of the water," reports Ed Mendel in the U-T.
"Salas' theory is that if people on tight budgets see that the water comes from a public water system, as is often the case, they will be more likely to switch to much-cheaper tap water.
"'In my own experience in San Diego, there are many immigrants that are not accustomed to having quality water flow from their taps at home,' she said.
"Salas has stepped into an ongoing battle in the Legislature over increased regulation of bottled water. U.S. sales totaled $10.8 billion last year as volume jumped 9.5 percent to 27.6 gallons per capita."
Meanwhile, Los Angeles mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa announced Friday that he
would stop his legal effort to uphold the legislation giving him control of L.A.'s school district. "'This has been a tough and contentious year,' he said. 'We've had debates. We've had arguments. We've been to the Legislature. We've been to the courts. We've been to the ballot box. We've enjoyed victories large and small, and we've shared more than our share of defeats�. It's time for each and every one of us to pick up the oar, get in the boat and start rowing in the same direction.'"
As for the court case, '
it's time to get out of the courtroom and into the classroom,' the mayor said."
"State Sen.
Carole Migden, D-San Francisco,
was involved in an auto accident on Highway 12 in Solano County on Friday that left one person with minor injuries, the California Highway Patrol said," writes Matthew Yi in the Chron.
"The senator rear-ended a 2005 Honda sedan, which was slowing to a stop behind a van that had already stopped at a red signal light at the intersection of Beck Avenue and Highway 12, said CHP spokesman Marvin Williford.
"Migden told CHP officers that she had gotten lost while driving to Marin County for a noon meeting when the accident occurred. Migden's office later released a statement saying that
her cell phone rang and in reaching for the phone she took her eyes off the road.
"Migden was driving her new state-issued 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid sport utility vehicle, which replaced her previous taxpayer funded
2005 Cadillac STS."