"Exploiting a legislative loophole, Assembly Democrats late Sunday passed a tax increase and other fixes to bridge the state’s $24.3 billion deficit without a single Republican vote," Brian Joseph reports.
"Exploiting a legislative loophole, Assembly Democrats late Sunday passed a tax increase and other fixes to bridge the state’s $24.3 billion deficit without a single Republican vote," Brian Joseph reports.
"Typically, tax increases and budget votes require a two-thirds majority. Since just over one third of the Assembly is controlled by Republicans, that means Democrats need at least a handful of GOP votes. But under the plan approved late Sunday, the Democrats were able to approve the tax increases and budget fixes, which come close to solving the entire deficit, on a simple majority vote.
"The State Senate is scheduled to vote on the same plan starting at 9:30 a.m. today."
Bloomberg's budget team reports ,"Democrats, who control the legislature, are at an impasse with Republicans and Schwarzenegger over whether to make up the difference with spending cuts or tax increases. Absent a fix by July 1, the state will begin issuing IOUs to pay bills.
“We are facing the real prospect of running out of cash here in California,” said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, an Irvine Republican. “What we are dealing with here is an utter lack of compromise.”
Republicans argued that the measures violate California’s Constitution, which requires all taxes be approved by a two thirds vote.
The LAT's Shane Goldmacher reports, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto any budget package that includes tax increases, and he vetoed a budget last winter that contained a similar tax ploy.
"The move, coming as the state is days away from having
to issue IOUs
instead of paying its bills, is unlikely to do much
to break the
legislative logjam.
The plan, approved in a rare Sunday night session,
would balance the
budget with the help of more than $2 billion in new taxes on smokers,
oil companies, drivers and homeowners. State Senate
leaders said they
would take up the bill today."
While the plan was debated on the floor, Bass was negotiating
with the governor on an alternative.
The leader of the Assembly's minority Republicans, Sam Blakeslee of San
Luis Obispo, said the proposal is illegal and Democrats
would set back
budget negotiations by passing it.
"It makes moving forward in a cooperative way more difficult
when these types of drills are undertaken," he said.
This all comes a day after the governor laid out a new batch of budget demands.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, seeking to conquer what could be the last budget crisis of his tenure, is engaged in a high-stakes negotiating strategy with lawmakers that could force him to preside over a meltdown of state government," the LAT's Halper and Rothfeld report.
"The governor readily admits that he sees the
crisis as a chance to make big changes to government
-- to "reform the
system," he said Friday -- with proposals he has struggled to advance
in the past.
Among them: reorganizing state bureaucracy, eliminating patronage
boards and curbing fraud in social services that Democrats
have
traditionally protected. The governor also would like to move past the
budget crisis to reach a deal on California's water problems that has
so far eluded him.
"By agreeing to a partial budget solution such as one
the Assembly
approved Thursday, the governor would lose leverage
to accomplish many
of those things. Without the pressure of imminent insolvency,
Democrats
might be less likely to agree to his demands.
"But if his strategy fails, he could be blamed for unnecessarily
subjecting state residents to misery."
George Skelton lays out his six rules for fixing the state. "Much repairing is needed," he writes. "Just don't tell me that California's budget can be fixed "once and for all" before the Fourth of July fireworks. If at least a patchwork budget isn't enacted by then, the state could explode into a grand finale."
We may be broken. But the LAT's Cathleen Decker reports California is no longer weird.
"The
governor of South Carolina disappears and is thought
to be hiking in
the Appalachians. On Naked Hiking Day, no less. He
turns up at the
Atlanta airport and later admits spending the previous
several days
crying in Buenos Aires with a woman not his wife.
That followed close on the heels of the admission from
a U.S. senator
from Nevada that he'd had an affair with a campaign worker married to
one of his aides. That followed the threat by the governor
of Texas
that it might consider seceding from the United States.
That followed
the governor of Illinois allegedly holding out for
money as he decided
whom to appoint to Barack Obama's former Senate seat. That followed the
governor of New York consorting with a call girl.
"Tell us again: How is it that California is still seen as the kingdom of weird?"
"The state has offered up its share of celebrity officeholders. But Iowa sent Gopher from "The Love Boat" to Congress and Georgia forwarded Cooter from the "Dukes of Hazzard" -- and somehow those states managed to remain respectable. That is, to some extent, because the California stereotypes have been driven by perceptions of the populace, not the politicians."
Michael Gardner reports this year's budget may fundamentally alter the way Californians receive certain services. "Overshadowed by the more immediate budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are crafting separate plans to restructure state fire protection and water-delivery services across California.
"Desperate to save money and under intense pressure to shrink government, lawmakers have caught reorganization fever – evaluating offices that oversee everything from fishing to logging to boating.
Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, one of the leaders of the reorganization drive, said deliberations are designed to “see what makes sense for the 21st century.”
What emerges could determine who controls two of the most vital public services the state provides. But major political fights loom, particularly for the water portion, given that even modest and inexpensive variations in the status quo can set off turf battles."
The Chron's Joe Garofoli writes about Democrats' favorite scapegoat for the budget mess . "About this time every year, as the Legislature and governor wrestle over how to pass the state budget, somewhere, somebody blames Sacramento's stalemate - and the state of the California's mediocre schools and crumbling roads - on Proposition 13.
"Californians will have the chance to debate Prop. 13 beginning next month, when the California Tax Commission is expected to issue a report on the state's tax system that participants say will include some game-changing proposals.
"Later this summer, the nonpartisan California Forward, which includes former Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson and former Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, will issue recommendations on how local communities can have more power in the budget process."
Jim Sweeney reports that community college fees will spike by 30 percent, if things go according to plan in this year's budget.
"The increase would lift fees to $26 per unit, about $780 a year for full-time students. But most students would qualify for waivers, grants or enhanced federal tax credits that should cover all of their fees, state and college officials say.
"Unlike University of California and California State University students, who have endured a relentless run of tuition increases in recent years, those at the state's 110 community colleges have not seen fees raised in five years. That boost, also to $26, was rolled back to $20 in 2007."
The LAT's Carol Williams reports the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court are keeping a watchful eye on the famously liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"From prisoners' rights to environmental protection, laws set by the West's powerful appeals court were overturned in 15 of the 16 cases reviewed this term by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Although the added $6 appears steep when measured as a percentage, it is much less than the doubling or tripling of fees that the nonpartisan legislative analyst suggested as a revenue-raising option."
"A prominent under-bite, scrunched face and floppy ears are the hallmarks of a winner. The winner of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest , that is.
"Pabst, a boxer-mix rescued from a shelter by Miles Egstad of Citrus Heights, Calif., won the annual contest on Friday at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Northern California.
"Pabst's owner took home $1,600 in prize money, pet supplies and a modeling contract with House of Dog."