"Numerous California legislators
are lodged in a $300-a-night Maui hotel this week to mingle with business, labor and other interests that do business at the Capitol," reports Jim Sanders at the Bee.
We never get invited to these things.
"The weeklong conference, in the luxurious Fairmont Kea Lani resort, is touted as a chance to escape the capital's glare for bipartisan policy discussions, scuba diving and beachcombing.
"Lawmakers are picking up the tab themselves, either through personal or campaign funds, but some political analysts say lawmakers should be rolling up their shirt sleeves -- not their beach towels.
"'It's business as usual with the good-old-boy network,' said
Ted Costa of People's Advocate, a Sacramento-based watchdog group.
This from a man who vacations in Turlock.
"
Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University, said the state can benefit from such conferences.
"'We have this huge deficit looming,' Gerston said. 'This is the kind of a place where legislators can get away from the posturing and say, 'How are we going to deal with this?' ... But I'm not saying they aren't having their share of mai tais; I'm sure they are.'"
But hey, who isn't?
George Skelton argues that the discussion of the new health care plan in the time of a looming state deficit
provides an opportunity for a real discussion about the state's finances.
"Actually, this would be an opportune time for Capitol politicians to reform many things: a volatile tax structure that's too dependent on affluent-income taxpayers, autopilot budgeting that is straitjacketed by past ballot initiatives, an education system that is the biggest gobbler of tax money but clearly needs reforms, and a healthcare system that leaves 6.7 million uninsured during any given year. It all fits together: the money, the policy, the politics.
"That's probably too much to expect.
"Universal healthcare could be worthwhile and admirable. But the state's budget structure -- the dilapidated house -- should be shored up along with adding on a costly new program."
Hey, let's rewrite Prop. 98 while we're at it!!
Speaking of which, Capitol Weekly gets ahold of
a draft report of education recommendations ready to be presented to the governor.
"Capitol Weekly has obtained a draft of the report that the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence plans to submit to administration officials in the coming weeks.
The report calls for a wholesale restructuring of the categorical funding system and some tinkering with Proposition 98, the initiative that sets up school funding guarantees. The report also calls for a merit-based pay structure for teachers, an idea which has been vehemently opposed by teachers unions in the past, and providing a “weighted formula” that would give more money to schools for poor pupils or English-learners. "Schwarzenegger has said he will take the work of the committee into account when crafting his education proposals for 2008. In March, the committee unveiled a 1700-page collection of 23 separate studies that looked at school finance and education policy. The studies found California schools to be woefully under-funded—by as much as $1 trillion.
"The committee's work is nearly finished. We look forward to a public conversation about our recommendations when they are completed and after we have had a chance to present them formally to the governor," said Committee chairman
Ted Mitchell."
The
behested payments that have gotten so much press attention in the last week or two are now online, thanks to the work of the FPPC, reports CW's John Howard.
"Until recently, the millions of dollars worth of donations—there has been $11.2 million since January 2005 alone—have flown under the public’s radar. But recent news reports detailing the magnitude of the payments prompted the FPPC, the state’s political watchdog, to make the information widely available. Until Tuesday, the payments were recorded only on paper at the FPPC’s Sacramento headquarters. The payments, known as “behested payments” because a donor contributes them to a third party at the politician’s behest and direction, had been going on for nearly a decade with virtually no public or media attention.
"Senate Leader Don Perata, a Democrat, behested nearly $90,000 a month since January to a variety of groups, including a breast-cancer research organization, the United Way, a Livermore-area school district and a group called the Third Wednesday Peacekeeper Fund. The money came from Kaiser Permanente and several others who each gave $25,000; Del Mar businessman John J. Moores and the CSU Institute of Long Beach, who each gave $100,000; and $50,000 each from Chartwell Partners, a national law firm, and the California Alliance for Jobs, a political campaign committee.
"
More than half of the $530,000 went to the Rebuilding California Foundation, a new nonprofit—not to be confused with a political committee with a similar name—that was created in January.
"Speaker
Fabian Núñez came under fire last week for donations made at his behest. Among them were
$120,00 from Verizon after Núñez shepherded through a utility deregulation bill supported by the phone company. The LA Times reported Núñez
used a small charity “as a conduit to funnel almost $300,000 from companies and organizations with business in the Capitol to events that helped him politically.”
You can see the reports online
here.
"California officials
plan to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today for allegedly stalling the review of a 2002 state law that requires automakers to slash tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases from new cars starting next year," reports Jim Downing in the Bee.
"The legal challenge could be short-lived, however, if EPA chief
Stephen Johnson follows through on a promise to issue a ruling by Dec. 31 on Assembly Bill 1493, which requires automakers to cut emissions of greenhouse gases from new California vehicles 30 percent by 2016.
"Johnson can grant or deny the state the right to enforce the law as written, or allow the state to implement a watered-down version.
"State officials say the suit will hold Johnson � and by extension the Bush administration � to the promise of a decision by the end of the year. The suit was expected to be filed two weeks ago, but the wildfires in Southern California delayed any action."
"The number of
California high school dropouts spiked in 2006, the first year seniors were required to pass the state's exit exam to graduate, according to a report presented yesterday to the state Board of Education," reports Juliet Williams for the AP.
"California's high school graduation rate also fell by about 4 percent from the previous year.
The analysis found 24,000 high school seniors dropped out in 2006, about 10,000 more than four years earlier."The information could give ammunition to lawmakers and others who have criticized the exam, as well as those who have lobbied for alternative assessments.
"The firm that prepared the report, Human Resources Research Organization of Alexandria, Va., made seven recommendations to the board, including a suggestion that California explore other ways for high school seniors to demonstrate proficiency. In Massachusetts and Washington state, for example, students can be judged on a portfolio of high school work.
"Superintendent of Public Instruction
Jack O'Connell has consistently opposed such an option. His chief deputy,
Gavin Payne, told the board the superintendent thought all but one of the recommendations were 'extremely good.'"
And it looks like Lloyd Levine's mandatory spay/neuter bill has
spawned a litter of ballot initiatives.
"Opponents of Assemblyman Lloyd Levine’s mandatory spay/neuter bill have filed seven separate initiatives with the Secretary of State’s office.
They hope to insert changes in the state Constitution barring any law mandating that owners spay or neuter their pets."
Only in California: The Constitutional right to bear balls...
