The first battles over Gov. Brown's pain-and-cuts budget aren't taking place in the Capitol, they're being fought in city council chambers and redevelopment agencies up and down the state. On Wednesday, Brown went into the heart of the cities' lobbying operation and scolded the locals for jump-starting projects to beat his budget.
From Jim Miller of the Riverside Press Enterprise: "The redevelopment shutdown has dominated the early days of California's budget debate. Brown's plan calls for shifting $1.7 billion to county courts and Medi-Cal in 2011-12, with some of the money flowing to cities, counties and schools thereafter. The state confronts an estimated $25.4 billion budget shortfall through June 2012."
"City and county leaders accuse Brown of trying to grab local money that has fostered economic development. But Brown and others say the state subsidizes the agencies at a time when major cuts loom for health and welfare programs, higher education and possibly schools."I have to tell you, none of the choices are easy," Brown said at a hotel across from the Capitol. "We haven't got the votes on the budget. And you might win on redevelopment."
More on the state-local confrontation from the Bee, the LA Times and the Contra Costa Times.
Not all fiscal news is bad, however. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had a dramatic increase in commerce, a major boost for Southern California where the ports directly affect some 500,000 jobs. The LA Times' Ronald White has the story.
"At the Port of Los Angeles, which ranks first in traffic, overall container traffic -- including empties -- rose 16% in 2010 to 7.8 million containers, up from 6.7 million a year earlier. That included a record year for exports at the port of 1.8 million containers, up more than 10% from less than 1.7 million in 2009 and surpassing the previous best of less than 1.8 million in 2008. Imports rose 12.8% to nearly 4 million containers, up from 3.5 million a year earlier."
"It was an even better year for the Port of Long Beach, which ranks second in container traffic only to Los Angeles. In 2010, the Long Beach port saw an increase in total traffic of 1.2 million containers to Containerized cargo at the Port of Long Beach increased by 1.2 million units in 2010, the largest single increase of any seaport in the United States, according to numbers released Tuesday."
A move is under way -- again -- to force online retailers like Amazon.com to collect California sales tax. An earlier attempt was vetoed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The LAT's Marc Lifsher tells the tale.
"The new governor, Jerry Brown, who is scrambling to fill an estimated $25-billion budget shortfall, hasn't taken a position on the issue, Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said…”
"This legislation will close the current loophole in tax law which has allowed out-of-state companies to avoid collecting California sales and use tax," Skinner said. A number of court decisions have ruled that companies that don't operate stores, warehouses or offices in California do not have to collect sales taxes from customers and turn the money over to the state."
From budgets to prisons, Capitol Weekly's Jennifer Chaussee takes a look at a little-known unit that handles the psychological assessments of prisoners sentenced to life who are eligible to apply for parole.
"Now, state prison officials are writing a formal regulation to govern the entity, known as the Forensics Assessment Division, or FAD, and place the unit into a statute. The shift to a formal status is something that inmate-rights advocates have urged, as have psychologists within the prison system."
"The proposed changes would put FAD, which works for the Board of Parole Hearings, in charge of performing risk assessments on life-sentenced prisoners who are eligible for parole. The mandatory assessments have been around for more than 25 years but were previously performed by psychologists on staff at the various prisons."
And from our "Encore, Encore!" file, we learn about the patrons at Guadalajara's Divine Life bar who got testy after the weary band refused to keep playing.
"After members of the band La Excelencia in Guadalajara, Mexico refused to play more songs after closing time, irate members of the audience killed two members of the band and detonated a grenade inside the bar, Vida Divina, according to Mexican newspaper El Occidental."
"A 26-year-old woman attending the concert was also shot and injured."
"According to El Occidental, four drunk men aggressively demanded the band play more after their set ended - and they did - for a while. After they stopped around 4 a.m. local time Monday morning, one of the men threw a grenade at the stage, and people ran out of the bar. As they did, two of the band members were shot."
And so it goes...