"Lawmakers made little progress Monday as California entered its sixth week of a budget morass even as the Schwarzenegger administration
issued more warnings of delayed payments to vendors and medical institutions," reports Judy Lin in the Bee.
"The state Department of Finance said hospitals, clinics and nursing homes will not receive $212.6 million in medical reimbursements on Thursday. The delayed payment follows $227 million in Medi-Cal bills missed last week.
"Meanwhile, capitalizing on interest in bridge safety following the Minneapolis bridge collapse last week,
the California Department of Transportation warned Monday that the budget impasse is holding up seismic bridge work in Alameda, Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties.
"Senate Republican leader
Dick Ackerman said the stalemate continues.
"'
We're about where we were last week,' Ackerman said Monday. '
It'd be nice if the Assembly came back, but they've indicated they won't come back.
Meanwhile, Democrats are spearheading
a nascent Recall Jeff Denham movement, reports Ed Mendel.
"Denham was regarded as a potential decisive vote when a $145 billion budget approved by the Assembly on July 20 failed in the Senate, creating a deadlock that has left the state without a budget since July 1.
"
The recall campaign, with its rudimentary web site to gather signatures, may be more of an attempt to persuade Denham to change his budget vote than a serious attempt to oust him from office.
"'We just don't want Denham to take a vacation,' said
Bob Mulholland, a spokesman for the California Democratic Party. 'He is not going to Hawaii yet. We want him to be looking over his shoulder for what's next.'"
Meanwhile, the boys from the LA Times suggest that
the $100 billion-plus budget is being held up over a $150 million allocation for street lights.
"A proposal to ease traffic congestion in Los Angeles by providing $150 million in state bond money to synchronize hundreds of traffic signals has become a point of contention in the state budget dispute, with key Republicans saying that other cities should be allowed to vie for the money.
"The traffic light money, part of a pot of $250 million in the budget for signals, is one of a handful of issues that Republican lawmakers in the Senate have cited in refusing to vote for a budget approved last month by the state Assembly.
"'It's a sticking point,' Senate Minority Leader
Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) said Monday. 'I would just like to see a fairer distribution of that money by having all congested areas of the state compete.'"
Meanwhile the Chron reports the stalemate is delaying the construction of the governor's
Secret Death Chamber. "In addition to holding back payments to health care providers and service vendors, the Legislature's failure to adopt a new state budget
is also delaying work on San Quentin State Prison's new death chamber," writes Tom Chorneau in the Chron.
"The construction of a new chamber began in January but stopped after costs escalated and state lawmakers complained the project had not undergone a public review.
"The $180,000 needed to complete the project was included as part of the new proposed state budget, but because of a partisan standoff inside the state Senate, officials said it will likely take at least 10 additional weeks after the budget is signed to finish the chamber."
Dan Weintraub writes that Republicans
have found a pressure point by trying to force Jerry Brown to stop using the state's emissions law to stop local development. "As a proud advocate of AB 32, the governor has traveled around the country and around the world promoting California's leadership in the fight to limit greenhouse gas emissions. He says he thinks Brown has probably gone too far, too fast, in pressing their mutual cause, but he does not believe his fellow Republicans should be using the issue to further delay an already tardy budget.
"
Behind the scenes, Schwarzenegger's staff has been trying to broker a compromise that would limit lawsuits over land-use planning until the state establishes standards for local governments to use in measuring the potential greenhouse gases from development. A provision restricting the use of AB 32 in such lawsuits might satisfy Senate Republicans, even though Brown says he believes the state's other environmental laws give him wide leeway to intervene.
"A perpetual minority, Republicans in the Legislature have leverage only when a bill requires a two-thirds majority to pass, as is the case with the budget.
That's the only time their votes matter, and that's the only time anyone listens to them. At the moment, on this issue, they're making it clear that they want to be heard."
Meanwhile, the Bee's Tony Bizjak and Carrie Peyton Dahlberg report: "The number of
California bridges deemed structurally deficient has more than doubled in the past decade, data show, but highway officials say it doesn't mean the state's bridges are becoming more dangerous.
"California has expanded some relatively minor criteria, such as poor pavement and peeling paint, that it uses to determine whether a bridge is deficient, state Department of Transportation Director
Will Kempton said Monday.
"However, Kempton acknowledged that money problems also played a role. The state has not had enough funds in the past decade to repair some deficient bridges or to keep others from slipping onto the list."
"Santa Clara County's registrar of voters says the last-minute decision by the state secretary of state to curtail electronic voting next year
could cost the county as much as $500,000, create lines up to three hours long on Election Day and slow voting results by as much as three days after the polls close," reports Deborah Lohse in the Merc News.
"The decision 'put us into a delayed mode for informing the public,' said Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters
Jesse Durazo.
"Durazo's frustration was echoed by registrars around the state, in the wake of Secretary of State
Debra Bowen's decree late Friday that - because of security concerns - most voting machines would be 'decertified' for use starting with the Feb. 5 presidential primary.
"The state Department of Insurance
plans to issue an annual health insurance report card rating preferred provider organizations or PPOs, similar to what's already being compiled for HMOs," writes Clint Swett in the Bee.
"Insurance Commissioner
Steve Poizner on Monday said the state's six biggest PPOs -- Aetna, Blue Shield, Cigna, Health Net, WellPoint and United -- have agreed to voluntarily provide data on quality of care and patient satisfaction starting in 2008.
"'This is a new program to improve the quality of health care in California,' Poizner said. 'Consumers should have this information before they sign up for an insurance plan.'
"PPOs cover about 34 percent of Californians insured by their employers, according to the California HealthCare Foundation."
"A state law intended to bar California retailers from selling or renting violent video games to minors
was declared unconstitutional Monday by a federal judge in San Jose who concluded that the legislation violates the First Amendment," reports Edwin Garcia and Howard Mintz in the Merc News.
"In a 17-page ruling, U.S. District Judge
Ronald Whyte permanently blocked the law, which was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 to address mounting concerns that some violent and mayhem-filled video games incite violent behavior in youth. Among other things, the law required video game publishers to put an '18' label on particularly violent games.
"The ruling was expected by video game makers - which have seen similar judgments in other states -
but Schwarzenegger immediately vowed to appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Whyte indicated he was 'sympathetic' to the concerns of lawmakers, but he found insufficient evidence to continue the law of a connection between violent videos and violence in children."
And from our Grieving Dog Owner Files, the AP reports, "
Judy Hagan thought she was only paying loving homage to her beloved pet, an animal she had treated as her own child. After her dog died, Judy purchased two plots in a local public cemetery. That was eight years ago. She finally decided to put up a tombstone on the grave and that is where the problems began for the inscription read:
In memory of Sh*thead."
