As the Assembly prepares to vote on the speaker's new health care plan, he
faces a power opponent -- the state labor federation. LAT's Jordan Rau reports, "In a letter obtained Saturday, the California Labor Federation's leader,
Art Pulaski, urged Assembly members to postpone the Monday vote on the bill, which Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) submitted Friday after reaching agreements with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the scope of a plan to require almost all Californians to hold healthcare insurance.
"Writing that 'we are dismayed at the process,' Pulaski complained that neither labor nor lawmakers had had enough time to vet the complex measure and decide whether it offered adequate protections against middle-class workers' being forced to purchase insurance policies they could not afford.
"'
We feel cheated of the opportunity to take a position on a bill that will impact the lives of every working family in California,' Pulaski wrote. 'We do not know whether this bill will protect working families who cannot afford a healthcare mandate or whether families will be driven into low-quality, high-deductible plans.'"
Meanwhile, accentuating the ongoing split in labor, the Speaker's office sent out a press release Sunday afternoon announcing labor support for the bill.
"The Service Employees International Union, California State Council of Laborers, and California Conference of Carpenters announced their support of AB 1X1, the historic compromise health care reform bill co-authored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President pro Tem
Don Perata (D-Oakland).
"'
AB 1X1 would make health care more secure for everyone by controlling costs, improving quality and providing health coverage to almost four million uninsured,' SEIU leaders said in a statement. The SEIU State Council has voted unanimously to urge members of the Assembly to pass AB 1X1."
Meanwhile, the Speaker
still hasn't gotten support of Senate pro tem Don Perata.
The Bee's Aurelio Rojas reports: "Even if the bill finally clears the Assembly,
Perata has not agreed to put it to a vote of his members. Earlier this month, he told Democratic senators at a retreat they would not be returning to Sacramento before the new year."
"And last week, the senator said he wanted to wait to see the fallout from California's $14 billion deficit -- and what cuts the governor proposes next month.
"'
It's a very difficult conundrum for a member (of the Legislature) to have to explain that we're going to have to cut some jobs and (program) eligibility, but we'll have a real good deal in a couple of years,' Perata said after a meeting in the governor's office.
"Any health care plan would not provide coverage until 2010, while the across-the-board budget cuts the governor is seeking could be implemented next year.
"Schwarzenegger maintains the proposed health care plan, which would require contributions from employers, workers, hospitals and other sources, would not need more state spending and would prevent some budget cuts."
Meanwhile, the Merc News's Edwin Garcia features
Fabian Nunez, and listens to
critics who argue he has strayed from his working class background.
"The Tijuana-reared son of a gardener and maid is in turmoil over extravagant spending on first-class travel, fine wine and purchases at high-priced retailers such as a Louis Vuitton store in Paris, a surprising revelation about someone who has fashioned himself a champion of the poor.
"Nunez insists the campaign expenses were legal, ethical and directly related to invitations from dignitaries for whom he bought gifts. But his foes await the results of an investigation by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission.
"
Others say the flap only exposes a deeper question that persists about Nunez: Has this once-tireless advocate for the working class - who as a child was so poor he borrowed his sisters' clothes, who dropped out of college to support his pregnant girlfriend - abandoned his core causes and humble roots for political power and a lavish lifestyle?"'As an overall picture of what's going on,' said
Juan Jose Gutierrez, a Los Angeles immigrant rights activist who hired Núñez in the late 1980s and has closely followed his career, '
a lot of us scratch our heads and say, 'Well, what happened here?' '
"In many ways what happened is a familiar story about the clash of idealism and political reality. How does one remain loyal to old constituents and causes in the face of political ambition that dictates serving broader interests? And how does one retain the appearance of humility while being required to move effectively and effortlessly in a world of deep-pocketed movers and shakers?"
George Skelton
argues that the state's budget situation must be fixed now, and throws out some revenue-side options. "California's sales tax on goods was designed for the mid-20th century and ignores the fact that our economy increasingly relies on sales of tax-exempt services.
"The erratic roller coaster also is fueled by a system that depends on the wealthy paying too high a percentage of the state income tax. Their taxable incomes rise and fall steeply with the economy. In 2005, people making more than $100,000 comprised only 14% of all taxpayers but paid 84% of the income tax. Even more striking, million-dollar earners amounted to a mere one-third of 1% of taxpayers, but paid 36.5% of the tax. Middle-income taxpayers need to kick in more to smooth out and stabilize the revenue flow.
"The property tax is low -- not only for homeowners, but for corporations, which aren't paying their fair share.
"
Schwarzenegger did himself in four years ago when he ceremoniously cut the car tax and pushed through legislation that zapped a governor's power to raise the tax on his own. That popular move currently is costing the state $6 billion annually."
"After banning plastic bags from chain grocery stores and bottled water from City Hall, San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom has set his sights on soda -
working up a plan to charge a new city fee to big retailers of sugar drinks."
After soda, the next microtaxes will be on fetuccini Alfredo in North Beach and dim sum in Chinatown.
"'
The bottom line is that there is a direct nexus between high-fructose corn syrup drinks like colas and Big Gulps and obesity among schoolkids,' Newsom said Friday.
"The idea of taxing soda to combat obesity - which is being touted as the first in the nation - has been roiling around in health circles for some time, including backing from the American Medical Association.
"In San Francisco, Newsom said a recent Health Department survey found that 24 percent of fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders were overweight and that high-sugar drinks accounted for 10 percent of the kids' caloric intake.
"All in all, he said obesity accounts for tens of millions of dollars of the city's health costs."
From our
High IQ Cat Fight Files, looks like
the firing of the dean at UCSF is about to get nasty. The LAT's Charles Ornstein reports, "The decision shocked faculty members and even some of the dean's confidants, but it followed nearly
three years of increasingly bitter disputes between Kessler and top university officials about accounting practices at the medical school and whether Kessler was misled about the school's finances during his 2003 recruitment.
"Based on financial data he was given by officials in 2003, Kessler said he expected to have tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue at his disposal than he actually did. UCSF officials say Kessler was not misled and that he was never promised specific funds.
"
In the end, Kessler, who gained fame nationally as FDA commissioner by seeking curbs on tobacco marketing, was fired by the man who wooed him to UCSF, Chancellor Dr. J. Michael Bishop, a renowned immunologist and Nobel Prize winner."
And finally, a bunch of
Canadian children are receiving poison pen letters -- from Santa. Canada's post office and police are trying to track down a "rogue elf" who wrote obscene letters to children on behalf of Santa Claus, a newspaper reported on Friday.
"The Ottawa Citizen said at least 10 nasty letters had been delivered to little girls and boys in Ottawa who wrote to Santa this year care of the North Pole."
