"The state Public Employee Relations Board
has determined that an 'initial' impasse exists in the Schwarzenegger administration's negotiations with the prison officers union and has decided to subject further talks between the parties to mediation.
"'Initial impasse means the parties have reached a point where they're not making progress and it's appropriate to have a neutral third party assist them to narrow the gap or reach agreement,' said
Les Chisholm, the general counsel division chief for the employee relations board.
"Chisholm said the initial impasse is different from a 'hard' impasse where the parties can't reach agreement and the state Department of Personnel Administration could submit a 'last, best and final' offer to the union. If the union rejects the offer at that point, the state can impose new working conditions unilaterally.
"'But we're not there yet,' Chisholm said."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
sought to reassure small-business owners in San Diego yesterday
that his universal health insurance plan would not impose an undue financial burden on them," writes the U-T's John Maurelius.
"At a town-hall meeting at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park,
Joseph Casas, chairman of the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, told the governor he was concerned about the impact of the proposed tax for some businesses that don't provide employee insurance.
The 4 percent payroll tax would help the state finance the health plan."'To a small-business owner, that could be a significant bottom line,' Casas said.
"Schwarzenegger contended that to make universal health insurance work, the burden must be spread among businesses, employees, doctors and insurance companies. Under his plan, doctors would pay a 2 percent fee on gross revenue and hospitals would pay 4 percent.
"'I think that shared responsibility is the most important ingredient in this health care reform,' the governor said.
"Schwarzenegger's plan would require all Californians to have health insurance -- much the way the law requires drivers to have car insurance -- either through their place of employment or government programs, or by buying individual coverage."
But businesses might be a bit more concered with the goings on in the Senate, where
Don Perata has dumped two mdoerates from the Appropriations Committee.
"Sens.
Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, and Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, were removed from the committee and replaced with Sacramento Democrat Darrell Steinberg and San Jose Democrat Joe Simitian," Capitol Weekly reports.
"The move comes just days after Correa and Calderon voted against a bill by Sen.
Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, that would have created new civil and criminal penalties for hospitals that discharge homeless patients without their consent. Cedillo said he will bring the bill up again next week, and when he does, he is expected to be able to marshal the two additional votes he needs to secure the bill's passage."
"As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces a budget deficit and asks for deep cuts in public transit and social service programs,
records show the payroll of his own office has been among the fastest growing in state government -- led by a big jump in staff members earning more than $100,000," report Tom Chorneau and Todd Wallack in the Chron.
"Salaries and other payments to the governor's 260 staff members cost taxpayers $16.9 million last year, up 12 percent from 2005. This year, pay for those staff members will increase at least another $500,000, but plans are in the works to boost salaries even higher.
"As of January, the governor's staff numbered 268, including those working in his Capitol suite as well as the governor's Office of Planning and Research. That's up from 236 in January 2005.
"The number of highly paid workers also has increased: Two years ago, 20 staff members earned $100,000 or more, costing taxpayers $2.3 million.
"Payroll records from January showed that last year 41 staffers received a salary of $100,000 or more, which works out to nearly $5 million.
"
Aaron McLear, the governor's press secretary, said that while payroll might have gone up in recent years, the overall budget of the governor's office has increased by only 8 percent since 2005 because increases in payroll have been offset by cuts in other spending."
The Merc News's Steven Harmon writes that
the desire to change term limits is working in to many policy and political developments in the Capitol. "It's a simple formula for state legislators these days. Get things done, work with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on issues that will burnish his legacy, and you may get what you really want: more time in office.
"Grumbling over the budget aside, Democratic lawmakers have been especially conciliatory of late toward the governor, and Capitol watchers suspect for good reason: It's widely believed that lawmakers must have the support of the governor if they are to have any hope of coaxing voters into loosening term limits.
"In a world of unspoken agreements and phantom handshakes, it's difficult to say how much of what's happened this spring is directly related to lawmakers' desire to get voter approval of a term limits initiative - one that would allow 42 termed-out lawmakers to run for re-election."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration
failed to include $117 million to begin construction of a new Death Row at San Quentin in his revised budget plan, potentially stalling progress on the project for at least one year.
"The project, which has ballooned in cost by 53 percent to $337 million without ground being broken, has been criticized by Marin County residents and legislative budget analysts. The project, which has been in the planning stages for years, is not directly related to construction of a new execution chamber at the 154-year-old prison.
"We will pursue the additional spending authority for the new Death Row housing facility in a larger capital outlay plan. Work on the project will begin as soon as we gain approval by the Legislature,' said Bill Maile, a spokesman for the GOP governor."
"But approval is far from certain.
"The failure to include the money for the new Death Row in the governor's updated budget plan, released Monday, makes it far easier for Democratic lawmakers, who already lack confidence in manangement of the prison system, to reject it.
"'
The governor is cutting aid to poor children and seniors and now wants $117 million for this monstrosity of a project?' said Sen.
Carole Migden, D-San Francisco. '
The new Death Row at San Quentin will halt.'"
"If California tries to lease its state lottery to private investors or unload a state-owned student-loan business, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes,
there will likely be no shortage of interested parties.
"Providing capital to a growing privatization movement, investors are offering billions for state lotteries, toll roads and other government-owned assets nationwide.
"Indiana sold the operating rights to its main toll highway last year to an international consortium for $3.8 billion. Chicago has leased out its Chicago Skyway toll road for $1.8 billion and is thinking of auctioning off Midway Airport. Texas just passed a law authorizing privately financed construction of several highways.
"Meanwhile, several states besides California -- Colorado, Maryland, Michigan and Illinois, among them -- have mulled the privatization of their lotteries."
The governor
makes his case for leasing the lottery in an op-ed in the Bee.
"My new budget allocates $3.1 billion to retire that debt this year, and we plan to pay another $3.1 billion in 2008-09. With the lottery deal, whose value was pegged by one firm at $37 billion, we could pay off those bonds all at once, strengthen our credit rating and have tens of billions left over for other investments.
"State government cannot generate revenue like that on its own. What I am saying with this proposal is,
'Let's get creative. Let's team up with the private sector to maximize our resources without putting a burden on taxpayers so we can pay our debts, refurbish our infrastructure and make smart investments that secure California's future.' Exactly how to use the lottery lease proceeds is a decision to be made jointly by the executive and legislative branches of state government, but a carefully crafted deal would provide a boon to the state's resources that we would be irresponsible to ignore.
"By teaming up with the private sector, we would continue to own and regulate the lottery to make sure it was operated responsibly and in the public interest. And by using the private sector's management and marketing skills to full advantage, we could make sure taxpayers' -- and our schools -- get the benefits that were envisioned when the lottery was approved in the first place."
Dan Walters
discusses the criticisms of privatizing the lottery. "One is that lottery employees now are unionized civil service workers, and the state's unions, which also wield great power in the Legislature, stoutly resist what they see as an expanding trend toward privatization of public functions, from contracting out highway engineering work to shipping felons to private prisons.
"Another is that virtually every study of lottery operations has concluded that devotees of the officially sanctioned numbers game are overwhelmingly lower-income, non-white urbanites, so expansion of the business would, more than likely, come out of the pockets of those least able to afford long shot wagering.
"California
plans to enact the most costly pesticide regulation in state history as it cracks down on use of fumigants in farm fields to comply with a court-ordered deadline to combat smog," writes Marla Cone in the Times.
"Under the proposed regulation, to be unveiled today, California will be the first place in the nation to target the widely used chemicals, imposing statewide restrictions on how fumigants are applied as well as limits on use in three farming regions.
"State officials warned that
the cost will be extremely high — estimated at $10 million to $40 million a year — and that growers of strawberries, carrots, tomatoes and peppers will bear the brunt of it. The biggest burden will fall on Ventura County's strawberry growers, who will face strict caps on emissions and may have to resort to pulling thousands of acres out of production to meet the smog targets.
"'We are very concerned about the cost of the regulation,' said
Rick Tomlinson, director of public policy for the California Strawberry Commission, which represents the state's strawberry growers, who produce almost 90% of the nation's crop.
"'Using old, obsolete data, they are imposing a regulation that could drive a third of the acreage out of production in Ventura [County]. If the draft that is proposed is implemented, it will definitely drive growers out of business,' he said."
And good news for the whales stuck in the Sacramento River --
John Garamendi is on his way!
Capitol Weekly reports that the state's "prince of whales" is taking a keen interest in the wayward humpbacks.
"So, just what does the California lieutenant governor do, you ask? Apparently, he blankets local TV news coverage, inserting himself into the now-national story of two wayward whales dangerously of course in the Sacramento River.
"
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi hosted a press conference in West Sacramento to give an update to an anxious world about the whales' welfare. The whales have now received global attention, and this morning, for a moment, so did Garamendi."
Garamendi also had his own meetings with whale experts Thursday. "
