Pity the poor budget reporters who have to continually
write new stories about the non-deal, while all of the interesting stuff gets hashed
out behind closed doors. Today, the Ventura County
Star's Tim Herdt examines the cone of silence around the budget talks.
"In a grand show of both urgency and bipartisanship, Darrell Steinberg, the new leader of the California Senate, announced in December that every single senator would be a member of the Budget Committee.
"All 40 senators, he said, must be engaged in solving the fiscal crisis that envelops Sacramento like a cold, winter fog.
"That was the theory.
"In practice, the process leading up to a potential budget-balancing deal has purposefully — and unavoidably — left nearly every legislator, as well as the public, largely in the dark.
"The secrecy of the negotiations, the lack of public input, the likelihood of a rushed vote — the process is undemocratic, unproductive and unwise.
"It stinks.
"But the terrible truth is that it’s the only process that has a chance, given the difficulty of the two-thirds vote threshold."
The Bee's Kevin Yamamura also looks at the reason behind the Big 5's secrecy.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the four legislative
leaders have continued their negotiations behind closed
doors for weeks, bypassing open legislative committees
and offering the outside world few details as a precondition
of their talks.
"They fear special interests will mobilize on every
proposal they hear about, ramp up pressure on lawmakers
and prevent any possibility of reaching a deal that
could secure enough votes.
"'Whether it's education or labor or any of the other groups, when
we get wind of something that has significant jeopardy
for us, we fight against it,' said Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist for hundreds of California school districts.
'It's a (lobbying) system set up to defeat the latest idea that's been hatched, which makes it that much harder to
get a solution.'
"Leaders have yet to announce they have solved the state's $40 billion deficit, despite earlier pledges to reach
agreement by Feb. 1. Meanwhile, state Controller John Chiang has stopped paying some bills, and Standard & Poor's downgraded California's general obligation bond rating Tuesday from A+ to A, the lowest in the nation."
Gotta love rating houses, where "A" can be lowest in the nation. It's like every kid getting a soccer trophy.
"When they do reach a deal, legislative leaders intend to hide it as long as they can until a floor vote, for fear that lobbyists may undermine the agreement by persuading key legislators to vote against it."
That's democracy in action.
The LAT's Jordan Rau and Patrick McGreevy look at what the rating downgrade means.
"By reducing California's bonds from an "A-plus" to an "A" rating, the agency declared that it now considers
even the debt of Louisiana -- whose credit had been ranked equally with California's -- a more trustworthy investment. Most states are rated
"AA" or "AAA."
"'Our rating recognizes our view of the lack of political
progress around the budget negotiations that we believe
is serving to exacerbate the state's current and projected cash position,' Standard & Poor's wrote in its report.
"The immediate impact of the credit downgrade is not
clear. California cannot arbitrarily default on its
debts, because the state Constitution requires that
debt principal and interest be paid as promised. But
a lower credit rating can lead investors to demand
higher interest rates on new bonds the state sells
for infrastructure projects, or short-term loans when the state is low on cash.
"Currently, financing for $4 billion in public works projects is on hold because
the state lacks money and investors won't provide any more while California's fiscal issues remain unresolved."
Meanwhile, Rau and McGreevy report that, following
Jon Fleishman's threat against GOP members that might be considering
a vote for tax hikes, labor increased pressure on Democrats
that might be considering loosening labor laws.
"On Monday, the California Labor Federation summoned
Democratic legislators to the union's office in Sacramento. There, they reiterated organized
labor's opposition to Republican demands for changes in some
workplace rules governing when employees take breaks
and when they are paid overtime. About 30 lawmakers attended the meeting, said union officials
and legislators.
"'It was an important meeting for us to have,' said Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Newark). 'There were issues that labor was concerned about.' He called the proposed changes 'a nonstarter.'
"Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the federation, said in an interview that
there were "no explicit or implied threats" of retaliation against Democrats during the meeting.
But he said some lawmakers were elected only because
of heavy support from labor. "I think that's less likely to happen if they vote" to weaken labor protections, he said.
"Chuck Mack, secretary-treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Local 70, had been more blunt Friday in a conference call with
reporters, saying unions 'have to send a message to legislators that there are
consequences to this.'
"'If we've got to marshal our resources, if we've got to engage in recalls, then we are going to have to do that,' Mack said."
"With thousands of state workers facing their first
unpaid day off on Friday, the fight over whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can
legally cut employee hours and pay split into two courts
on Tuesday," reports Jon Ortiz in the Bee.
"State Controller John Chiang asked a Sacramento Superior
Court judge to clarify an earlier ruling that Schwarzenegger
interprets as license to furlough 15,600 employees previously thought outside of his executive
control.
"Meanwhile, two of the unions leading the battle to
keep the governor from furloughing any of the state's 238,000 workers took their case to an appeals court but did
not seek an order to block the start of furloughs."
The Merc News's Edwin Garcia writes up yesterday's e-spat between Abel Maldonado and John Chiang.
"Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-San Luis Obispo, hit the send button on a scathing
e-mail attacking Chiang, a Democrat:
"'The Controller's office requested $924,500,000 worth of new office furniture from this fiscal year!' Maldonado's news release charged. But that nearly billion-dollar figure turned out to be a typo; it should have read $924,500, a later news release noted."
Hey, what's two or three zeros among friends?
"Still, that's a huge amount, seethed Maldonado, whose district includes Almaden Valley, Saratoga and Los Gatos. 'He's been a controller for over two years, and he sends out a press release saying he's going to send IOUs to my constituents? And by the same token he sends out a work order that he wants a million dollars worth of furniture last year, and a million dollars this year?'
"Chiang spokeswoman Hallye Jordan countered in her own news release that the furniture for the controller's office expansion was approved before Chiang took office. And once he took the post, Jordan said, Chiang scaled down the $7 million project to a $4 million project.
"(She, too, later had to send out a correction, saying the project actually came in at $3 million thanks to Chiang's modifying the building's design)."
"The state Supreme Court will hear arguments March 5 on the validity of California's ban on same-sex marriage, which voters approved in November after an emotionally
charged and expensive campaign," writes Bob Egelko for the Chron.
"The court said Tuesday that it would hold a three-hour hearing on Proposition 8, from 9 a.m. to noon, at its chambers in San Francisco . The
proceedings will also be televised statewide on the
California Channel, the court said. A ruling is due
within 90 days of the hearing."
Hopefully that's not the first action the California Channel gets this year.
"Prop. 8 amended the state Constitution to declare that marriage
only between a man and a woman is valid or recognized
in California. It overturned the court's May 15 ruling throwing out state laws that banned same-sex marriage.
"Along with arguments over the constitutionality of
Prop. 8, the court will hear views on whether 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California before the November
election should remain legally recognized if the ballot
measure is upheld."
"Led by the heated fight over gay marriage, campaigns
spent $227.2 million to pass or defeat 11 propositions on California's November ballot, according to post-election contribution reports that had to be filed
with the secretary of state's office by midnight Tuesday," reports the AP's Steve Lawrence.
"That's short of the record but still represents a huge investment
in television and radio advertisements and other campaign
spending.
"'That's a lot of money,' said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies,
a Los Angeles-based think tank that studies campaign finance issues.
"The record for spending on ballot measures in one California
election was set in 2006, when donors poured $333 million into campaigns for and against 13 propositions on the November ballot."
"Seven years after the federal government gave California
$66.1 million to modernize its unemployment insurance call
centers and claims processing systems, state workers
are still manually processing claims that the jobless
now submit online," writes Andrew McIntosh in the Bee.
"Neither of two projects that were to be completed with
the federal money in four or five years are done as
workers grapple with a computer system that is 30 years old.
"The delays have hampered the state Employment Development
Department's ability to quickly process thousands of applications
for unemployment insurance and issue checks to the
jobless in the worst recession in 28 years.
"They have also forced swamped department employees
to work costly overtime at night and on weekends to
keep up with the surge in unemployment claims, which
now total as many as 75,000 a week, EDD officials say."
Darrell Steinberg has made his preference known in
the race to succeed Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas.
Steinberg "announced his endorsement of Assemblyman Curren Price for state Senate on Monday," reports the Bee's Shane Goldmacher.
"'Curren Price has the experience and leadership California needs,' Steinberg said in a prepared statement. 'He is a tireless and effective advocate for better education, access to healthcare and safer communities.'"
Price is running against Assemblyman Mike Davis for the seat.
And finally, from our Down Under Files, " An Australian traveler was caught with two live pigeons stuffed in his pants following a trip to the Middle East, customs officials said Tuesday. The 23-year-old man was searched after authorities discovered two eggs in a vitamin container in his luggage," AP reports.
"They found the pigeons wrapped in padded envelopes and held to each of the man's legs with a pair of tights, according to a statement released by the agency. Officials also seized seeds in his money belt and an undeclared eggplant.
DIng! Ding! Ding! We have a winner of the previously unannounced Roundup Band Name contest. Undeclared Eggplant! Thank you to everyone for playing.