Jul 25, 2007

Ready for his close-up

Senate Republicans are scheduled to introduce their own budget this morning, after stalling the plan passed by the state Assembly. Dick Ackerman has details some of the proposed cuts on the Flashreport. "Perhaps the most important proposal in our budget plan reinstates the Governor's CalWORKs reform. This $300 million savings proposal focuses on getting welfare recipients back to work and into self-sufficient living.

"We cannot postpone tough choices. Next year's projected budget deficit would balloon to $5 billion. The Senate Republican budget balances the budget this year and reduces next year's deficit by $800 million! If we do not seriously close the revenue/spending gap now, we face options that Californians repeatedly declare they do not support," writes Ackerman before blowing a kiss to Don Perata.

"Senate Republicans thank our Democrat colleagues for the opportunity to present a balanced budget that demonstrates the 'undoable' is doable."

"After holding up the state budget nearly a month past deadline, Senate Republicans offered Tuesday to end the impasse if Democrats would move tens of thousands of poor families off welfare and make dozens of additional program cuts," write Evan Halper and Jordan Rau in the Times.

"The Republicans will present their proposed state budget before the full Senate today. It would cut numerous programs Democrats hold dear, including the elimination of an institute for labor studies at the University of California. The budget plan includes nearly $1 billion in spending reductions beyond those in the bipartisan plan approved by the Assembly on Friday.

"Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) made public only a few of the cuts his caucus would propose.

"School groups and law enforcement organizations remain skeptical of his promise that they will be unaffected. On Tuesday, they unleashed an aggressive lobbying and media campaign to pressure moderate GOP senators to vote for the Assembly-approved budget.

"Also targeted for elimination is a facility owned by UC in Mexico, and a plan to fill 6,000 vacancies on the state payroll. The Republicans also are demanding the elimination of certain environmental restrictions on builders, as well as forbidding bond money approved by voters to be used on environmental programs."

The Bee's Aurelio Rojas looks at how Tom McClintock has kept the pressure on his fellow caucus members. "As last week's all-night lockdown in the state Senate ended without a budget, Sen. Tom McClintock thanked fellow conservatives on his daily blog for their calls and e-mails and proclaimed, 'You've made a difference.'

"By many accounts, so has the rock-ribbed Republican who during the current stalemate has reached out to the party faithful via the blogosphere and urged them to implore the Senate's 15 Republicans to hold firm.

"Railing against what he sees as profligate spending by Democrats is nothing new for McClintock, who during his 21 years in the Legislature has often been dismissed by critics as inflexible and out of touch with mainstream voters.

"'For many years, McClintock has been somewhat isolated in the message he has consistently delivered,' said Kevin Gordon, a consultant on education budget issues. 'The difference is, this year he's got a technology-driven megaphone.'"

Dan Walters writes that GOP lawmakers are trying to use their budget clout to curtail Jerry Brown's efforts to enforce emissions standards on local government. "Brown, a former two-term governor who was elected attorney general last year, has filed a lawsuit against San Bernardino County, alleging that it is obligated to consider global warming while updating its general land use and development plan, and interceded with letters in several other local planning processes, including a regional transportation plan in San Joaquin County.

"Brown's actions have a common point -- that with the passage of last year's anti-global warming law, Assembly Bill 32, local authorities have an implicit responsibility to include greenhouse gases in the environmental impact assessments of their decisions, even though AB 32 doesn't contain a word to that effect."

Meanwhile, the Legislature plans to slash public transportation funds for said local governments...

"Environmental groups, of course, take the more activist approach favored by Brown, demanding that local development and transportation plans contain full greenhouse gas analysis and mitigation -- a position that has not, however, as yet found favor in the courts in the few instances in which it has been tested.

"As governor, Brown was often on the freewheeling edge, and he appears to have returned to that mode as attorney general. And that has placed him at the center of the budget impasse."

Or at least off-center.

"California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Tuesday that the recent $5.85 million gender discrimination judgment against CSU Fresno was 'excessive' -- a description that prompted a stinging rebuke from the former women's coach who filed the lawsuit.

"At a legislative hearing Tuesday, Reed said he thought the jury 'was essentially trying to punish the CSU.'

"Testifying later, former volleyball coach Lindy Vivas shot back: 'I can only say that Chancellor Reed is 100 percent responsible for what happened in that courtroom, and I'm not sure why he's complaining.'

"The exchange was one of many flashpoints at the first-ever hearing of the state Senate Select Committee on Gender Discrimination and Title IX Implementation. Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, asked Senate leaders to create the panel after a jury earlier this month sided with Vivas.

"The committee also plans to explore gender discrimination in the University of California system. On Tuesday, three female athletes filed a Title IX lawsuit against UC Davis, claiming systemic gender discrimination in campus athletic programs."

"California slipped one spot to No. 19 in an annual state-by-state analysis of child well-being -- a report that some advocates said raises concerns about the state's education system and the availability of health care for children," reports the Chron's Kantele Franko.

"The report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that California improved in half of the 10 key categories, such as the child death rate, teen birth rate and percentage of children living below the poverty line.

"But the state lags behind national averages for children's health insurance coverage and basic education benchmarks. The findings are based on the most recent data available, either 2004 or 2005, and compared to data from 2000."

Meanwhile, Cindy Sheehan has announced her candidacy against Nancy Pelosi.

"It is also with a heavy heart that I announce my candidacy against Nancy Pelosi in California's 8th. If anybody would dare think I am not serious, I would hope they would look back at the last 3 years of my life and everything I have sacrificed to restore our nation to one that obeys the rule of law and can be looked up to with respect once again in the international community and not as the hated laughingstock on the block.

I am committed to challenging a two-party system that has kept us in a state of constant warfare for the last 60 years and has become more and more beholden to special interests and has forgotten the faces of the people whom it represents."

And from our Captain Calamari Files, Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds are invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday.

"An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid -- or Dosidicus gigas -- can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

"'Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another thing for fishermen to compete with,' said the study's co-author, Stanford University researcher Louis Zeidberg."