The Bee's Aurelio Rojas looks at the debate of
which problem to tackle first--health care or the state's deficit. "[S]ome budget experts say the practice of creating a funding stream for a particular program -- a mechanism that has increased in California in the past two decades -- eliminates money that could be used to shore up the state's finances.
"'Inevitably, as a policy solution, these things meet up,' said
Fred Silva, an adviser to the nonpartisan fiscal policy group California Forward, and a former state Senate legislative budget director.
"Silva said the Republican governor's proposal to lease the state lottery to help pay for health care and the Democrats' counter-proposal to increase taxes on tobacco products raise another question. Would it be better to use the proceeds to meet the state's general fund obligations?
"But Schwarzenegger believes the deficit provides even more urgency for policymakers to agree on a fix for the 6.7 million Californians without health insurance.
"
Doing so would allow policy makers to concentrate on managing the deficit next year without cutting health care, the governor is expected to say today in a speech in Los Angeles.
"On this point, Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, are in accord.
"'
We are entering into one of those dark periods in the California economy,' Perata said earlier this week. '
We have to do this now and move it off the table to get our attention on the budget, which will dominate next year.'"
Meanwhile, the Merc News's Mike Zapler
looks at the likely fight over using tobacco as a revenue source for health care.
"Searching for ways to fund their plan for universal health care, Democrats this week turned to an easy-to-vilify target: tobacco. They proposed a $2-a-pack cigarette tax that would generate nearly $2 billion a year and, supporters say, carry the added benefit of curbing smoking, a worthy goal in the context of health care reform.
"Problem is, it might be the very thing that dooms health care reform.
"
A new cigarette tax would be tantamount to a declaration of war on Big Tobacco, which last year spent more than $65 million to defeat a $2.60-a-pack tax on the California ballot and just this week easily turned back an attempt in Oregon to raise tobacco taxes.
"'
You can bet they would aggressively fight it, and I don't think they'd be alone,' said Sacramento political consultant
Frank Schubert, who advised tobacco companies during last year's ballot campaign.
"'
Everyone knows that a $100 million opposition campaign is an overwhelming proposition,' said the governor's communications director,
Adam Mendelsohn. Schwarzenegger, who made his opposition to taxes the centerpiece of his re-election campaign, so far is resisting the tobacco proposal."
And, as expected, "California
took its global-warming dispute with the Bush administration to court Thursday, demanding that the federal government act on a request filed nearly two years ago to let the state limit motor vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases," writes Bob Egelko and Matthew Yi in the Chron.
"'
California is ready to implement the nation's cleanest standards for vehicle emissions, but we cannot do that until the federal government grants us a waiver allowing us to enforce those standards,' Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at a Sacramento news conference.
"Attorney General
Jerry Brown, who filed the suit on behalf of Schwarzenegger and the state Air Resources Board, said the Environmental Protection Agency, 'despite the mounting dangers of global warming ... has delayed and ignored California's right to impose stricter environmental standards.'
"The federal Clean Air Act allows California to regulate air pollution more strictly than the federal government, but only if the EPA grants a waiver, based on evidence that the state has shown "extraordinary and compelling conditions." The agency, which has issued such waivers every time California has sought one over the past 30 years, has not acted on the greenhouse gas emissions law since the state submitted its application in December 2005."
The Press-Telegram's Gene Maddus looks at the challenge facing
Warren Furutani, who
is both trying to use Fabian Nunez's support while distancing himself from the speaker.
"Warren Furutani has worked full time as a consultant for Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nunez and has the speaker's crucial support in his campaign for the 55th Assembly District.
"But lately that support has become a potential liability as Nunez finds himself caught up in a pair of campaign finance scandals.
"In recent days, Furutani has worked to distance himself from his employer.
"
'The speaker is in absolutely, definitely a difficult situation,' Furutani said at a campaign forum Monday night, adding that Nunez should be 'held accountable by his constituents.'"Nunez's support has helped Furutani build a 4-to-1 fundraising advantage over his opponent, Carson City Councilman
Mike Gipson. Furutani has also won the endorsements of the Democratic Party and the L.A. County Federation of Labor, consolidating his position as the establishment favorite in the Dec. 11 special election."
"Adding a green twist to an old political tactic, an environmental group
sent a mailer to 50,000 Los Angeles County homes Thursday urging residents to vote by mail to eliminate the 'carbon footprint' they would leave by driving to the polls on election day," writes Patrick McGreevy in the Times.
"The mailer is being derided by some, while others are questioning whether it is improperly trying to influence a state Senate election in the West L.A. area by prominently featuring one of the candidates, former Assemblywoman
Fran Pavley.
"'It looks dubious,' said
Tracy Westen, chief executive of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based non-partisan group that promotes political reform in Los Angeles. 'It's coordinated with her, it has her picture on it and it is going into that Senate district.'
Also complaining are the Republican and Libertarian candidates for the seat, who
sang their objections.
"The mailer is being distributed by EdVoice, an education-oriented nonprofit based in Mill Valley, Calif. There is a picture of Earth on the cover and the request 'Protect Our Planet.' It urges residents to 'vote for president with a carbon free ballot' and includes a dig at those who would drive to the polls by car for 'polluting the air and contributing to global warming.'
"Although many of the mailers will land in the 23rd Senate District, they also are going to other areas of the county, including Glendale and Pasadena, [EdVoice Political Director [
Paul] Mitchell said. The goal is to get thousands of additional voters to file applications with the county to become permanent absentee voters."
Meanwhile, cleanup has begun on an
oil spill in San Francisco Bay. "As oil spread throughout San Francisco Bay on Thursday, forcing the closing of 16 beaches and shoreline parks from San Francisco to the Marin Headlands, questions arose about the U.S. Coast Guard's response to
the worst spill in the bay in more than a decade," reports the Merc's Paul Rogers.
While they're in there cleaning, maybe they can find those floating ballots that seem to turn up after every election.
From our
Nothing to See Here Files, "The FBI said it has
received a tip that al-Qaida was planning to attack shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago this holiday season, but downplayed the purported threat," reports the AP."
"The warning, contained in an FBI memo to local law enforcement agencies that was declassified Thursday, said the terror network "hoped to disrupt the U.S. economy and had been planning the attack for the past two years."
And from our
Where's Willie Files, Willie Brown, who as the legendary speaker of the California Assembly and later as San Francisco's mayor inspired both reverence and scorn, is now
hoping to build a new legacy: grooming the next generation of local government leaders."
"His quest has found a home at San Francisco State University, his alma mater, with the creation of the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Leadership Center. S.F. State officials will formally announce the news Thursday. The center's mission is to train students for careers in municipal, county and regional governments - as political officeholders, managers or policy wonks."
We're guessing the course in haberdashery selection weeds out at least half of the students...
