"As the California Legislature
kicked off a two-year session Monday, Democratic leaders promised more of the same cooperation with Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger that brought them major successes in the past session, while outnumbered Republican lawmakers immediately dimmed the bipartisan glow," writes Nancy Vogel in the Times.
Riding high from the deals they struck with the Republican governor last summer to raise the minimum wage, lower the cost of prescription drugs, regulate greenhouse gas emissions and borrow $37 billion to upgrade the state's schools and roads, Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata (D-Oakland) vowed another two years of teamwork."
"'If we reject stalemate and stagnation, and if we commit ourselves to a path of civility and cooperation,' Nuñez said in a speech after being reelected leader of the 80-member Assembly with boisterous applause, 'who knows — 25 years from now, this body may be honoring the lasting results of what we achieved together here, here in what we call the people's house.'"
"In an unusual appearance for a governor,
Schwarzenegger attended the swearing-in ceremony at Nuñez's invitation. The governor told the lawmakers and their families: 'We can accomplish extraordinary things this year if we continue working together. Let us find what we have in common rather than things we should fight about.'"
"New Republican Leader Assemblyman
Mike Villines, R-Clovis, introduced a bill in preliminary form Monday to
rework how the state draws boundary lines for legislative districts. The key, he said, is to not have legislators involved in drawing their own district lines, and instead have a citizen commission perform that duty," writes Harrison Sheppard in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
"'The basic principles of the redistricting that I believe we should be looking at are very simple,' said Villines said. 'They basically just say we are going to have competitive elections. We are going to have geographically compact districts, which is code for common-sense districts. And it's a citizens commission with no hands from the Legislature involved in it.'"
"Villines added that he opposes tying a deal on redistricting reform with reworking term limits, as other elected officials have suggested, and he would like to see the current limits stay in place."
John Myers reports that
the governor will release details of his redistricting plan today.
Senate Republican caucus leader
Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, narrowly survived an attempt by Jim Battin to take Ackerman out as GOP leader, reports the Capitol Weekly.
"Our caucus has made a decision that Dick will continue on as leader," Battin said immediately after the closed-door vote in the Capitol that followed a two-hour meeting. Battin described the final vote as "razor-thin," but declined to elaborate.
"There were 'several votes,' he added. 'And we had a long discussion on how the leaders should act with the governor.'"
Sen. Abel Maldonado reportedly had the deciding vote. Gotta wonder if that conveniently-timed front page story on Battin in the Sacramento Bee may have made the difference.
"Battin, who has close ties to Indian tribes that operate casinos,
criticized Ackerman for cutting deals with the governor and Democrats without winning approval from the entire GOP caucus," reports the Chronicle.
"Ackerman said his caucus' power stems from two Republican votes being needed to reach a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Without GOP support, no spending bills -- including the state budget -- can be passed."
"'Our intention is to use our two-thirds leverage,' Ackerman said. 'We didn't complete work on balancing the budget this year, so we need to do that and make sure the money from the (infrastructure) bonds goes to bricks and mortar, not fluff.'"
The Bee's Jim Sanders
follows new Assemblyman Ted Gaines around on the first day on the job.
"Newly sworn-in Assemblyman
Sandre Swanson, who replaced termed-out Wilma Chan to represent Oakland and its environs, introduced a bill Monday that
would force the state to return some control over schools back to the Oakland school district," report Steve Geissinger and Grace Rauh in the Oakland Tribune.
"The legislation, Swanson's first, would restore the school board's ability to exercise control over personnel and facilities management, community relations and student achievement. If approved, it would go into effect in January 2008."
"'This is the first step to ensuring a quality education for the students of the Oakland Unified School District,' said Swanson, a Democrat who represents the 16th Assembly District, which also includes Piedmont and Alameda."
"The state took over the Oakland school district in 2003 after it overspent its budget by millions and fell into financial decline. State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Jack O'Connell appointed an administrator to run the district until it was determined to be fiscally stable and prepared for self-governance."
"California's newly sworn Legislature on Monday picked up where the old one left off, introducing an emotional bill to
legalize gay marriage and delving into a power struggle over Central Valley flooding," write Samantha Young and Don Thompson for the AP.
Cue "wrath of god" jokes.
"Assemblyman
Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, reintroduced legislation that would allow gay couples to marry in the state of California. And Sen.
Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill that would let unmarried, heterosexual couples register as domestic partners."
"Leno said he hoped the Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vetoed a nearly identical gay marriage bill in 2005, would change his position on the new bill. Schwarzenegger has said it is up to voters or the courts, not lawmakers, to settle the contentious issue of gay marriage."
Punt!
The Bee's Judy Lin reports "On Monday, the first day of the new legislative session, Sen. Mike Machado
introduced a bill that would order the state Department of Water Resources to update its flood control plan. Sen.
Mike Machado, D-Linden, said he wants the state to take a comprehensive look at the role of state and local governments, as well as developers and property owners."
"'One of the problems of doing things serially is you could affect one part of a community -- or parts of a community -- and leave old parts or other communities unprotected,' Machado said. '
Then you have a New Orleans-type situation, and that's what I'm so very much concerned about.'"
"Machado said his bill, Senate Bill 5, directs the Department of Water Resources to clarify the roles of the state, local flood agencies, city and county governments, and private property owners and developers. The bill authorizes the state to implement projects providing 500-year flood protection to urban areas."
"State tax authorities
defied lawmakers Monday by reviving ReadyReturn, a program that allows some taxpayers to have the state do their returns for them, and expanding it from a tiny pilot project to a service for 1 million Californians," writes Evan Halper in the Times.
"The move was engineered by outgoing Controller
Steve Westly and his successor,
John Chiang, both champions of the program. Intuit, the Silicon Valley manufacturer of TurboTax,
spent $1 million trying to defeat Chiang on Nov. 7 and stop the program."
Payback, as they say, is a bitch.
"ReadyReturn is designed to ease the burden of filers with the simplest returns: single taxpayers with one employer and no complicated deductions. Despite rave reviews by most of the 11,000 taxpayers who used it last year, the Legislature over the summer yielded to an intense lobbying campaign by Intuit and let the program die."
"But Chiang, Westly and Department of Finance Director
Mike Genest, who make up the state's Franchise Tax Board, made the move after receiving legal opinions from legislative and tax board staff suggesting that they have the authority to implement the program on their own. Chiang has a seat on the tax board by virtue of his leadership of another tax panel, the state Board of Equalization."
Finally, some good news for Muni riders in San Francisco -- sort of. "Hoping to stir up thirst for milk,
officials installed advertisements in several San Francisco bus shelters on Monday that give off the scent of freshly baked cookies.
"The technology that creates the scent is very similar to that used in magazine ads. Scented adhesives are placed throughout the interior of the bus shelters, including under the benches."
The cookies are apparently a new recipe: urine-chocolate chip.
