From the Bee's Dan Walters: "However, even if they succeed, which is no better than a 50-50 bet, it won’t make much practical difference."
"Although we pundits consumed much ink and airtime speculating about what Democrats would do if they achieved supermajority status in 2012, in fact it meant very little. In theory, they could have raised taxes and placed constitutional amendments on the ballot, but their leaders were reluctant to do either."
"Meanwhile, business interests were busily electing pro-business moderate Democrats, which turned out to be a much more important factor in what happened, or didn’t happen, on legislation, particularly in 2015."
A new year, a new Assembly speaker and a new plan -- education.
The Bee's Jeremy White has the story: "Soon Rendon will be able to throw the full weight of the speaker’s office behind that conviction. As head of the Democratic caucus and a lead player in budget negotiations that launch next week with Gov. Jerry Brown’s initial proposal, Rendon will place a premium on directing more resources to preparing young Californians for school."
“It’s something I think there’s already support for and something, from a leadership perspective, I’m going to make sure is on the top of the agenda,” Rendon said. “Our leadership team, through the budget process and in terms of prioritizing bills that go to the governor’s desk, we’ll have a fair amount of power to do something about this.”
"As annual surpluses have refilled California’s depleted budget chest, Democratic lawmakers have pushed to restore or increase social spending lost in the recession. They are increasingly focusing on education and care for the state’s youngest children."
By the way, when it comes to education, there is a lot going on this year, notes EdSource's John Fensterwald. Here's his rundown of the big education issues, starting with two landmark lawsuits.
Meanwhile, what do the Super Bowl and some political nonprofits have in common? Lack of transparency. We're accustomed to the big bucks raised for political campaigns, but how about for the Super Bowl? The Host Committee has raised some $50 million for the Bay Area events leading up to the big game next month in San Frrancisco.
From the Chronicle's Joe Garofoli: "But because the NFL requires its host committees to be structured as nonprofit organizations — claiming the same tax-exempt status that the National Football League enjoyed for decades — it doesn’t have to reveal its contributors or how much each donor gave."
"That opacity is raising concerns in an era of “dark money,” where politicians use the tax code to hide contributions. Watchdog groups, which also question why wealthy professional sports leagues get to classify themselves as nonprofits, say any entity that’s raising and spending millions — with little transparency — needs to be monitored closely."
"They’re filling public roles in very private ways,” said Philip Hackney, a professor of law at Louisiana State University who has researched and written extensively on 501(c)(6) organizations, so named for the section of the tax code. Given how host committees often involve the wealthiest and most powerful people in a region and have major contracts at stake, “it has the potential for graft.”
From the LAT's Patrick McGreevy and Melanie Mason: "But the typical chaos of the Capitol may be intensified this year, the last of the two-year session, with turnover among three of the four top leadership positions and increasing overlap between ballot measures and legislative action."
"And looming large are the November elections, in which every Assembly seat and half the Senate seats will be up for grabs, which could make it more difficult to push through controversial proposals."
"I've got a feeling that this being an election year, lawmakers won't want to ruffle any feathers because this electorate is so volatile, even in California," said Patrick Dorinson, a political blogger and former deputy secretary for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger."
Finally, from our "Eating Out" file, comes the tale of a Chinese farmer's idea for a new eatery that has taken flight, sort of: He wants to use a jet plane. I guess if old train cars can be turned into diners, a Boeing 737 can be turned into a restaurant.
"Wang Lin, 61, who said he grew up uneducated and illiterate, led a team of farmworkers in constructing the replica aircraft shell on his Henan Province land after he began studying mechanical engineering and metal work in late 2014."
"The farmer said the plane shell, which measures about 115 feet long with a wingspan of 125 feet, cost him about $22,000 to build."
"Wang said the next step for the faux plane is to turn the interior into a fully functioning restaurant."
