Shortly after midnight, the Assembly
approved a budget, "after Democrats agreed to shift more than $1 billion from local transit agencies to other purposes and approve a series of business tax breaks in an effort to reach a compromise with minority Republicans," reports Judy Lin in the Bee.
The vote was
53-26.
"With the transit shift emerging as a key component of a potential deal, legislative leaders worked into the night in hopes of reaching an agreement before the Legislature's scheduled summer adjournment today.
"But Assembly Democrats struck the deal without consulting their fellow Democrats in the Senate, where the plan could face a rockier path to approval today.
"Shortly before midnight, it appeared Assembly Republicans had persuaded their Democratic colleagues to back as much as $500 million in tax credits for research and development, movie and television production and jet fuel."
However, it is unclear that the Assembly's budget version will pass the Senate.
"An outraged Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, released a letter to Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, complaining that the compromising had gone too far.
"'
Most ironic, we have surrendered $185 million in teacher tax credits to balance the budget!!!' he wrote. '
How could you now throw them over for Hollywood movie moguls and multinational corporations???'"
The impact of Perata's fist hitting his desk
could be felt around the Bay Area.
Meanwhile, Dan Walters writes about
the interplay between the budget and timing for the term limits initiative. "
Rob Lapsley, the California Chamber of Commerce's vice president for public affairs, e-mailed a memo to key supporters of term limit modification telling them that enough signatures had been gathered and "the current plan is to turn the signatures in after the state budget is completed."
"Why? Because backers of the measure believe that it would bode ill were the signatures to be submitted to qualify it for the ballot while the Legislature struggles with an overdue, deficit-ridden state budget. Simply put, it would make lawmakers look like they want to extend their careers even though they're not doing their jobs.
"When The Sacramento Bee got the memo, there was some behind-the-scenes scrambling and Lapsley then retracted the note, saying it was 'a miscommunication on my part.'
"Lapsley, never believing that his completely truthful memo would surface, let the cat out of the bag. It badgered his bosses, and he had to become the goat and eat crow, to hopelessly mix animal metaphors.
"Opponents of the measure, of course, gleefully jumped on their rivals' boo-boo. '
Apparently the speaker doesn't think the timing is right to make the case for extending politicians' terms when legislators have recently been seen pocketing extra tax-free per diem while simultaneously failing to perform their most fundamental responsibility and pass a budget,' the CA Term Limits Defense Fund chortled.
"Núñez continues to insist that legislators will do their jobs diligently, not even thinking about the effect on term limits. Yeah, right."
Speaking of February 5, "[t]he Republican National Committee
has told top California party leaders they can still change their voting rules so independents can vote in February's presidential primary," reports the AP's Laura Kurtzman.
"Party insiders say the change seems unlikely, given the GOP's long-standing antipathy to the idea, but the issue may come up at the state party convention in September.
"Changing the rules could help a moderate Republican, such as former New York City Mayor
Rudy Giuliani, especially since California's Feb. 5 primary may come early enough to influence the nominating contest.
"
Democrats already allow independents to vote in their presidential primary, and GOP moderates say they must follow suit to remain viable in California. Decline-to-state voters make up about 19 percent of the electorate and are growing, while registration in both major parties is shrinking.
But GOP conservatives say only registered Republicans should choose the party's presidential nominee."
By "registered Republicans," GOP conservatives were referring to those with suffrage rights in 1878.
From our
First Thing We Do, Kill All the Lawyers Files: "Annual fees for law, business, pharmacy and other professional schools at the University of California
could skyrocket by double digits in the next three years -- topping $40,000 in some cases -- under proposals by campus administrators," reports Tanya Schevitz in the Chronicle.
"On Thursday, the UC Board of Regents heard the requests from the schools' deans -- some of whom have threatened to quit if higher fees are not approved.
"The issue could come to a vote in September.
"If implemented,
the cost of attending the UC Berkeley's Haas Business School would soar by 65 percent to $44,154 a year in 2010-11, from $26,713 this fall.
"Fees at UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law
would rise by 64 percent to $43,932 a year, from $26,729.
"Fees for other programs -- from nursing to public policy -- would also rise significantly. UC has 35 professional schools.
"Most on the 26-member panel appeared alarmed at the hefty increases the deans were requesting."
And, for the only group loved less than lawyers, "[h]undreds of prisoners who had hoped to win reductions in their sentences after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled California's sentencing law unconstitutional
were rebuffed Thursday by the state's highest court," writes the Chron's Bob Egelko.
"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January that the California law violates a defendant's right to a jury trial by allowing the judge to impose a maximum sentence -- sometimes years longer than the term prescribed by a verdict -- based on the judge's findings of facts that were never submitted to jurors.
"On Thursday, the state Supreme Court issued two unanimous rulings that preserved judges' power to order maximum sentences by reinterpreting -- and, in part, rewriting -- the 1977 state law.
"The court's standards will allow lower courts to dismiss most of the appeals filed by prisoners since 2005, when the nation's high court first called state sentencing laws into question. In the cases that require a new sentencing hearing, the trial judge will have broad authority to reaffirm the original sentence."
"A state senator
asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office Thursday to provide dozens of documents by next week that might reveal why changes were made to both state policy and state contract bids that ultimately benefited General Motors, a longtime and multimillion-dollar donor of the governor's non-profit foundations and political campaigns," reports Kimberly Kindy in the Merc News.
"The request was made the day after a three-hour Senate hearing during which Schwarzenegger officials were grilled about why they purchased a fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles that have been running on nothing but gasoline for more than two years. To meet their eco-friendly goals, the cars and trucks would need to run on high-grade ethanol.
"At the hearing - called in response to a Mercury News investigation into the car purchases - state officials and auto manufacturers confirmed that the contract specifications for the alternative-fuel fleet could be met only by General Motors.
"The state Department of General Services has purchased 1,138 'flex-fuel' Chevy Impala sedans and Silverado pickups since early 2006. Sen.
Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield, believes that Schwarzenegger's longstanding relationship with GM, which included a stint as a spokesman for the Hummer, should be explored to see if it had any influence over how the contract was structured."
Finally, "[t]he
Michael Vick dogfighting case
made its way to the floor of the U.S. Senate Thursday when its most senior member publicly declared his outrage,
saying he's witnessed one execution but wouldn't mind seeing another 'if it involves this cruel, sadistic, cannibalistic business of training innocent, vulnerable creatures to kill.'
"The strong words from Sen.
Robert Byrd, D-WV, widely known for his devotion to animals, come as dogfighting controversy swirls around the Atlanta Falcons star quarterback. Vick and three others were indicted earlier this week on felony charges of competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting, and conducting the enterprise across state lines.
"The dogs were housed, trained and fought at a property owned by Vick in Surry County, Va., under an outfit named 'Bad Newz Kennels,' the indictment says."
Now, THAT's a conflict for anti-death penalty Lloyd Levine.