The partisan bickering picked up yesterday, as Republican holdout
Jeff Denham responded to his removal by Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata from the contribution-rich Government Organization Committee. "'The Pro Tem is desperate to get a budget deal and he thinks his latest move to kick me off the Government Organization Committee will make me fold,' said Senator Denham. 'These scare tactics are only measures to try and pressure my vote.
If you want me to vote for a budget, make it balanced and don’t repeal the teacher’s tax credit, for starters.'"
Meanwhile, Speaker
Fabian Nuñez wrote to Senate Republican Leader
Dick Ackerman stating that, if the budget the Assembly passed is reopened, Assembly Democrats want to renegotiate their earlier compromises.
"Should you continue to labor under the false impression that the return of the Assembly will result in more changes to the budget, you should understand the clear views of the Assembly Democratic Caucus.
"First, any change
would require restoration of the funding for the five-month delay in the SSI/SSP COLA for the poorest Californians who are aged, blind, or disabled.
"Second, any change
would require restoration of a substantial portion of the $1.3 billion that was diverted from public transportation to cover General Fund expenditures.
"Third, our caucus will not consider any additional cuts to education programs or to the health and human services safety net.
"Finally,
we will not entertain discussions on reforms to CEQA or any revenue reduction measures as part of the budget. Those issues are clearly outside of this budget and have only been raised at the thirteenth hour to provide cover for your failure to act responsibly."
"The budget deadlock gripping the Capitol
has put Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's policy agenda in jeopardy, with prospects for bringing healthcare to all Californians or solving the state's water problems dimming every day that lawmakers fail to pass a spending plan," reports Evan Halper in the Times.
"
The impasse has brought legislative business to a standstill -- from the governor's sweeping proposals to lawmakers' efforts to enhance the quality of life for family pets. It threatens to transform what promised to be one of Sacramento's more productive years into a flop.
"'Everything has been put on the sidelines,' said Senate Leader
Don Perata (D-Oakland). 'No one would like to have a healthcare bill more than I would. But if we don't have a budget, nothing else matters.'
"Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledged that the stalemate might doom any proposals now on the table in Sacramento.
"'
If we don't have this thing resolved by the time we reconvene, we will not be doing any legislation,' Perata said.
"Ackerman concurred: 'We shouldn't be doing other things until the budget is resolved.'"
Meanwhile, the Bee's Judy Lin reports: "Senate Democrats
enlisted environmentalists Wednesday to chastise Republicans for holding up the state budget, arguing that the GOP is seeking a rollback of a Ronald Reagan-approved environmental law at the behest of business interests."
"Despite a pledge by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto spending in the Assembly-approved plan, Republicans also are demanding a provision to prevent cities and counties, as well as developers and businesses, from being sued on climate change for the next three years.
"Republicans cite concerns about Attorney General
Jerry Brown's use of the California Environmental Quality Act to stall local development projects. They worry that Brown and environmentalists will use the courts heavily as the state doles out nearly $40 billion worth of public works projects.
"'
This gang of 14 -- all privileged white men -- is obstructing the budget for the entire state of California, holding up funding for health care, for schools, for parks,' said
Bill Magavern of the Sierra Club, who spoke out during a Democratic news conference on the budget."
George Skelton
argues that Abel Maldanado deserves accolades: "Make no mistake: The Assembly-passed budget is a Republican budget. It hits society's most vulnerable. It cuts funds for inner-city transit. It reduces the budget deficit to $700 million -- half of what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed in May -- and the governor has promised to whittle that down to zero with line-item vetoes. The budget sets aside a record $3.6-billion reserve. And there's no tax increase.
"That's basically what Republicans have demanded for months. They've won. But in the Senate, Maldonado is the only one trying to wave the flag -- before Democrats turn around and run them over."
Capitol Weekly reports that
a second eminent domain initiative may be headed to the June ballot.
"A coalition led by the League of California Cities and state redevelopment agencies will take to the streets this week gathering signatures for their own eminent-domain ballot initiative. The move is seen by Capitol insiders as a defensive maneuver,
just in case a more restrictive eminent-domain measure, which also would phase out rent control statewide, qualifies for the June 2008 ballot.
"The rival initiative is being pushed by the California Farm Bureau and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
"Both initiatives are gathering signatures as the Legislature continues to try to hammer out a compromise to curb local governments' eminent-domain powers. While the signature gathering marks an escalation in the game of chicken between local governments and property-rights groups, there is some guarded optimism that it ultimately may lead to a brokered, legislative compromise.
"
In a preview of what a campaign against the Coupal measure may look like, backers of the local-government measure say their campaign may not have very much to do with eminent domain. Instead, they will focus on language in the measure that would phase out rent control around the state."'The no campaign will be focused on rent control,' said Mike Madrid, a spokesman for the League of Cities. 'A lot of the apartment owners they say they're trying to help are disavowing the measure.'"
"Coupal said inclusion of language that would abolish rent control is consistent with the principals of the initiative. 'What good is Kelo protection if the government continues to tell property owners what they can and cannot do,' says Coupal. 'The government should not regulate the sales prices or lease price of property.'"
In the legal world, Assembly
Mervyn Dymally was on the witness stand in a southern California courtroom yesterday,
answered a couple of questions, took the Fifth Amendment, and was done. The Daily News's Denise Nix has details. "During a brief court hearing Wednesday, state Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally denied that he ordered the manufacture of 80 honorary badges, or that he authorized his daughter's former boyfriend to have one.
"Those claims have arisen in the case against
Pirikana Johnson, who faces charges of misusing an official-looking badge that Dymally allegedly gave him.
"
Dymally was expected to assert his constitutional right against self-incrimination at an evidentiary hearing Wednesday, but the 81-year-old lawmaker answered seven questions posed to him by Johnson's defense attorney. He asserted his right only once, after saying he did not know the answer to one of the questions."
A lawsuit filed in Sacramento yesterday says
the state's new prison bond plan is a violation of the state constitution. CW's Malcolm Maclachlan has the details:
"Representatives for Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety (TIPS) plan to deliver the lawsuit to state Superior Court here today. Their complaint alleges that the plan outlined in AB 900 is illegal under California's constitution because it lacks an "independent revenue source" to pay off the costs of the bonds. It also notes that Article XVI requires voter approval for any bond larger than $300,000.
Carried by Assemblyman
Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, AB 900 call for the state to sell bonds to finance 53,000 jail beds and 16,000 prison beds. The final cost to taxpayers would be $7.4 billion. The bill passed with widespread bipartisan support, receiving only a single no vote in the Assembly."
Speaking of lawsuits against the state, "Santa Clara County officials
may sue the California secretary of state over the last-minute decision to curtail electronic voting next year because of security concerns.
"'There's a high level of frustration,' County Executive
Pete Kutras said Wednesday. 'We're trying to walk a very fine line, trying to be respectful of the secretary of state. It's her prerogative. But we're not sure we're not going to proceed with some litigation.'
"Kutras said other counties also are considering a lawsuit over Secretary of State
Debra Bowen's Aug. 3 decree 'decertifying' most touch-screen voting machines, starting with the Feb. 5 presidential primary. She cited concerns that security flaws are too great for widespread use."
CW's John Howard reports on
Pete Wilson's return to Sacramento.
"
The former two-term Republican governor, U.S. Senator and mayor of San Diego is opening a strategy and policy office in Sacramento, the latest outpost of Bingham McCutcheon, an international law firm with A-list corporate clients. The firm includes a consulting arm that advises clients on environmental, regulatory, legal, governmental and other issues.
"Wilson, a lawyer who is based in Los Angeles where he is an adviser to Bingham McCutcheon, said the Sacramento office likely will open next month,
in part to deal with the myriad issues raised by California's laws to curb greenhouse-gas emissions."
"State Sen.
Carole Migden will be charged with one misdemeanor count stemming from a wild ride in her state vehicle this spring that ended with a wreck on Highway 12 outside of Fairfield," writes the Bee's John Hill.
"Migden, D-San Francisco, will be charged Friday,
L. Kathryn Coffer, chief deputy district attorney of Solano County, said Wednesday. Coffer would not specify what charge Migden would face.
"But she said the state senator will not be arrested or booked into jail, and will allowed to appear with her attorneys in court, as is customary in misdemeanor cases."
And in bad news for the Baja, California press, crocodile-skin wearing gambling tycoon
Jorge Hank Rhon "
conceded defeat in Sunday's election, saying “the trends obviously are not in my favor," reports the U-T's Sandra Dibble.
Like another certain governor, Rhon has been known to wear the occasional animal skin. Although that may be where the similarities end.
"When the news conference was over, a reporter shot out one more question:
Why does he own a vest made of the skins of donkey penises?"Hank was happy to respond: '
I don't know if you've ever stopped to think about what is the softest part of an animal's skin,' he said, before stepping away through the crowd of chuckling journalists."