"With four days to go before the end of the fiscal year, legislative leaders and the governor
reached agreement Monday on a state spending plan that they predicted would be in place by the July 1 deadline for the first time in six years," reports Evan Halper in the Times.
"The roughly $131-billion deal would pay back billions the state borrowed from schools in recent years to close budget shortfalls, as well as accelerate repayment of billions of dollars in bonds the state sold to fund transportation and other projects."
"Left out of the deal are the funds the governor and Democrats were hoping would be used to expand healthcare programs for low-income children. GOP lawmakers refused to support such an expansion because it would make health insurance available to children who are here illegally."
Chalk one up for
Dick Ackerman and
George Plescia.
"'It's a good budget for all Californians, and it is also a very good budget for both parties,' Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger told reporters during a break in a meeting with legislative leaders and senior staff members."
Uninvited to the bipartisan party,
Phil Angelides dismissed the agreement.
"'We're still left with a dramatic budget deficit next year,' he told reporters,'and
if Gov. Schwarzenegger is reelected … the bloom will be off the rose: He will cut schools; he will raise tuition and fees.'"
Meanwhile, "Unsuccessful in getting prisons into the state's infrastructure package, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is
asking the Legislature to convene a special session to give him more than $1 billion in bond money to build two new institutions to depressurize the correctional system's overcrowding crisis," writes Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"The $500 million-a-prison building plan is only the beginning of a correctional construction program Schwarzenegger unveiled Monday in a speech to the California District Attorneys Association meeting in Newport Beach."
By asking for lease revenue bonds, the bonds wouldn't appear on the November ballot for voter approval.
"'
If we don't address this very dangerous situation as quickly as possible, the courts may very well take over the entire prison system and will order … the early release of tens of thousands of prisoners,' Schwarzenegger said."
Not to mention taking over that collective bargaining with CCPOA.
Dan Walters
takes a look at the prisons proposal. "
There's nothing there to offend the prison guards union. More prisons mean more guards and thus more members for the CCPOA.
But it does offend liberals who contend that a major cause of the overcrowding is that parole officers, members of the CCPOA, are much too eager to send parolees back behind bars and that the state needs to offer more drug treatment and job training."
"Would a liberal Legislature be willing to launch California on a new prison expansion program? Would urban legislators such as Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, be willing to put new prisons, even miniprisons such as the "re-entry facilities," in their communities? And, realistically, could Schwarzenegger hope to get all this passed by the Legislature before it adjourns Aug. 31?"
"It's a very dicey, late-blooming proposition at best."
From our
Everything But the Kitchen Sink Files,
Jamie Court and company are leading a protest against
Nuñez's cable bill because it would "put a white refrigerator on every corner." We're not sure what he's talking about, but as long as the aforemention fridges are stocked with beer and snacks, there shouldn't be any problem.
A would-be Spielberg calling him or herself "Ma Bell," has put together a little music video montage of what the fridge expansion might look like. You can watch it
here.
(Be sure to turn up the sound on your computer before you click)
But as we all know, it's not really about refrigerators, it's about ... the DMV? Ma Bell strikes again with
another cheesy music vid. (Keep that sound on...)
Or maybe, as CW's Shane Goldmacher reports,
it's really about privacy.
"Consumer advocates say AT&T's new privacy rules
open the door for the company to share personal data--such as the Web sites that customers visit and the TV shows they watch--with government officials.
Under the new policy, AT&T declared that a customer's viewing information is the property of AT&T--not the customer.
"While your Account Information
may be personal to you, these records constitute business
records that are owned by AT&T," reads the policy. "As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process."
Meanwhile, for our readers in the political campaigns sector, rest assured,
stricter campaign finance reform won't be coming soon. "Vermont's limits on campaign contributions and on campaign spending by candidates are unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a splintered 6-to-3 decision suggesting that efforts to limit the role of money in politics might face considerable resistance in the Roberts court," reports Linda Greenhouse in the NYT.
"The decision was clear in reasserting a 30-year-old precedent against the constitutionality of imposing spending limits on political candidates. But it also showed that the court continued to grapple with how far it is permissible to go in limiting campaign contributions, a topic that remains a heated political issue and one likely to come before the justices again."
California will have its own vote on campaign finance reform in November, thanks to
a new initiative led by the California Nurses Association. The Chron reports, "An initiative to provide voluntary public financing of California election campaigns will be on the statewide ballot in November. The new campaign money would come from a $200 million-a-year boost in the state's corporate tax rate.The measure, dubbed the Clean Money Initiative, qualified for the ballot Monday."
And will be kicked by the courts two years from next Friday...
"A bill to permit horse tracks to install nearly 13,000 video gambling machines
stalled Monday when a key legislator blocked a hearing set for today."
"Sen.
Dean Florez (D-Shafter), chairman of the governmental organization committee, which was supposed to consider the measure, put off a hearing until mid-August at the earliest. The legislative session concludes at the end of August."
"Florez said
the bill would amount to a huge policy shift. 'The key is not to buy into a fast track for something so significant,' he added."
From our
Red-Headed Step Child Files, it looks as though the high-speed rail bond has been
kicked off the ballot yet again.
AP reports "The measure by Assemblyman
Alberto Torrico of Fremont would remove the bond measure from this November's ballot and place it on the November 2008 ballot."
"It's headed for Governor Schwarzenegger's desk after passing both the Assembly and Senate today without debate."
"Lawmakers initially placed the bond measure on the November 2004 ballot, then decided the state faced more pressing needs and bumped the bonds back to this year's ballot."
We must admit, we were concerned when
Rush Limbaugh was detained at a Florida airport for having
prescription drugs that were not in his name.
"Customs officials found a prescription bottle labeled as Viagra in his luggage that didn't have Limbaugh's name on it, but that of two doctors, said Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office."
"A doctor had prescribed the drug, but it was 'labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes,'
Roy Black, Limbaugh's attorney, said in a statement.'"
Good to hear Limbaugh is on the up and up.
