Beat it

 

"The current proposal in the Legislature amounts to nothing more than a piecemeal proposal and a second day of drills and if passed, I will veto it because it doesn't solve the problem," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

 

The Press-Enterprise's Jim Miller reports, "Senate Republicans criticized the Assembly bills as inadequate and said the Legislature needs to solve the whole problem.

 

"I don't care what they did over in the other house. It's not right," said state Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, the Senate GOP's point man on budget issues.

 

"It's just two different strategies on how to solve the problem. They want to solve it all at once," said Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, of Senate Republicans. "The Assembly tactic is let's eat the elephant one bite at a time." 

 

Mmmmm....Elephant.....

 

The Merc's Mike Zapler looks at what IOUs might actually mean for state vendors.

 

"Unless legislators quickly fix California"s $24.3 billion deficit, State Controller John Chiang says his office Thursday will begin issuing IOUs, or "registered warrants," to every company that does business with the state.

"The same goes for taxpayers expecting refunds. And agencies that provide services to California"s most vulnerable populations "” the poor, blind and elderly "” would have to find a way to keep benefit checks flowing.

"If you"re a college student expecting Cal Grant money, state officials say they hope to work with public universities to make sure students don"t suffer. Most other folks who get the IOUs would have to convince banks to cash them or simply make do until October, when state officials would make good on the paper promises."
 

John Myers and Anthony York break down the week's events in this week's podcast.

 

Capitol Weekly also has footage of this week's legislative smackdown between Anthony Portantino and Sen. Roy Ashburn . Click here to see the footage. 

  

The Chron's Rachel Gordon says negotiators are trying to thwart a planned strike by BART workers.

 

"The lead mediator, Paul Roose, manager of mediation services for the California Department of Industrial Relations, was at the table four years ago during the last round of contract negotiations at BART, said department spokesman Dean Fryer. The unions requested mediation Wednesday and the district's negotiators agreed.

 

"The current contracts for the five BART employee unions expire at midnight Tuesday.

 

"Members of BART's largest union, Service Employees International Union, Local 1021, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to authorize its leadership to call a strike if deemed necessary.

 

"Members of two other big unions, Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1555, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3993, voted earlier this week in favor of strike authorization."

 

CalBuzz reports on a private poll that shows Jerry Brown with a 20-point lead over Gavin Newsom in a head-to-head race. 

"Not only does Brown – who has yet to announce his candidacy — hold a 20-point lead more than a year before the primary, but among voters age 60 and older, the AG’s lead is 54-20 percent. And that matters because, as Moore told us:  “The average age in the June 2010 Democratic primary electorate will likely be over 60.”

 

"As Calbuzz sees it, Newsom has a humungous challenge."

 

Marc Lifsher devles into the wild world of water softeners.

 

"The company behind the renowned "Hey Culligan Man!" advertising campaign of the 1950s has launched a political and public relations offensive to kill a bill targeting its signature product.

"That proposal would allow regulators to ban conventional water softeners that discharge salt into municipal sewer lines. The mineral makes it tough for sanitation districts to clean and reuse their sewage, which is an increasingly crucial source of irrigation water in drought-plagued California.

"The bill pits giant Culligan International Co. and smaller water-softener manufacturers and their dealers against a broad coalition of interests that includes California cities, water districts, big farming groups, chicken ranchers and even the golfing industry.

"It's a water-quality issue," said Mike McCullough, the director of environment and water resources for the Northern California Golf Assn. "If you have better-quality recycled water, obviously the turf can respond accordingly."

"But Culligan, based in Rosemont, Ill., contends that it's not to blame for California's water woes. It's portraying the legislation as a Big Government grab of private property." 

 

And Dan Walters questions the usefulness of enterprise zones. 

 

"

On June 10, the Public Policy Institute of California issued a report that was highly critical of California's  "enterprise zone" program that gives tax breaks and other economic incentives for employers to establish new facilities in areas of high unemployment.

 

The 42 zones, established by local governments with state permission, cost local and state governments about a half-billion dollars a year in lost revenues but have "no statistically significant effect on employment," the PPIC study concluded.

 

"The state can ill-afford to continue the enterprise zone program without clearer evidence of its benefits or a well-defined plan to make it more effective," said Jed Kolko, co-author of the PPIC study."