The governor and legislative leaders emerged from talks yesterday to
announce a budget deal. The plan is expected to be voted on by both houses tomorrow.
According to the LA Times, "[t]he
key difference is that it includes an agreement to pay down all of a $1.3-billion loan owed to local governments in the fiscal year that ends next June, instead of a year later. That provision came in response to threats by Republican lawmakers to continue blocking the budget unless it erased more of the state's future debt."
For those of you keeping score at home, that's now two consecutive years that local government funding has held up a state budget. Guess
the era of ERAF is truly over.
"This is a
terrific budget; it's a budget that moves California forward," Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger said,
according to the Bee."'This is a
terrific day for California,' said Schwarzenegger. 'This budget is
terrific for California and the future of the state,'"
according to the Chronicle.The
Merc calls the budget a plan that "raises some fees without raising taxes, boosts funding for cities and counties, and grants a reprieve to in-home workers who care for the elderly and disabled.
The
OC Register says "If the roughly $117 billion spending plan passes the Legislature as expected on Thursday, it will be seven days late - the
best the Legislature has done since the dot-com bust shriveled revenues four years ago, creating monumental deficits."
Dan Walters
gives the pessimistic reality check. "The bad news is that as they split their differences on a half-dozen or so outstanding issues, the state's political leaders are
still spending several billion more dollars than the tax system is producing, are still covering the shortfall largely with borrowed money, and are still facing more multibillion-dollar deficits in the years ahead."
Dan, you're so off message.
Local government is
happy to receive the vehicle license fee payback, sort of. Laguna Woods Councilman
Bob Bouer declared the deal "better than a kick in the teeth. Yes, it always helps to have a little more money in the treasury. (But) until you have it in your hands, you don't count it."
Compromise also ruled the day in the Bay Area, as
BART avoided a transit strike with a last-minute labor accord. The deal was reached a "little more than an hour before the trains that carry more than 300,000 riders each day were set to shut down."
Terrific.
Now that the budget is behind us, we can focus on the battles at the state Supreme Court and the special election ballot. The LA Times takes a look at the governor's upcoming task of
filling the Supreme Court vacancy created by
Janice Rogers Brown's departure, and his appointments since entering office.
"Of 70 judges the Republican governor has appointed since he took office,
37 have been Republicans, 25 have been Democrats and eight have been Independents or have declined to state their party affiliation."
"In my recollection, we have never had as bipartisan [an] approach to judicial appointments,' said California Chief Justice
Ronald M. George, a Republican."
The redistricting measure qualified for the November ballot by
Ted Costa is
under legal review by the attorney general's office, by request of the secretary of state's office. "In what proponents acknowledge was a mistake,
wording on the document used to gather signatures was different from the text submitted to the attorney general's office to secure a title and summary for the measure."
It's now up to
Bill Lockyer to decide whether to file a lawsuit to try to remove the measure from the ballot.
Speaking of the ballot, Secretary of State
Bruce McPherson assigned numbers to all of the measures that have qualified for the ballot so far. They are:
Proposition 73: Parental notification for abortion
Proposition 74: Teacher tenure
Proposition 75: Union dues checkoff
Proposition 76: Live Within Our Means budget reform
Proposition 77: Reapportionment
Proposition 78: Prescription drugs (industry-sponsored)
Proposition 79: Prescription drugs (consumer/labor-sponsored)
Proposition 80: Electricity regulation
While parental notification for abortion receives top ballot billing, Peter Schrag writes that the measure will be
overshadowed by the fight over the Supreme Court vacancy created by Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement.
Looking ahead to the next cycle,
Ray Haynes will have to hit the streets to get signatures for his idea to create a state border police, as his
ACA 20 to do it legislatively
died in Assembly Public Safety yesterday.
With
memorial services for the late Assemblyman Mike Gordon commencing today, the Bee
writes a preview of the
53rd Assembly District race to replace him.
Speaking of AD53, we're hearing buzz about likely candidate
Greg Hill's upcoming marriage in August to a very wealthy woman who may become a benefactor to the race. And, no, he
didn't meet her on "Blind Date."
Kosher: We made an unfortunate error in yesterday's issue. While we alluded to the ability to stuff oneself full of pork products at the national hot dog eating contest, the purveyor of said hot dogs, the Coney Island institution Nathan's, uses all beef hotdogs. The Roundup regrets the error.
