"Assembly Republicans on Wednesday night
blocked proposed taxes on oil companies that Democrats said would offset Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's planned cuts to schools," reports the LAT's Evan Halper.
"The Democratic proposal would generate $1.2 billion from an extraction tax on oil companies and a tax on windfall profits, neither of which they say would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
"Republicans dismissed the proposal as a political "drill" and said during a three-hour floor debate that they would hold to their commitment to block any new taxes.
"'It will result in higher gas taxes at a time when [they] are already a burden to working families,' said Assemblywoman
Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield), a former school superintendent who represents California's top oil-producing county.
"Democrats said they had no choice but to bring the measure to the floor because the state was facing a multibillion-dollar deficit and GOP lawmakers were refusing to discuss raising new revenue. They painted the proposal as a way to fend off what they characterized as devastating cuts to the state's schools.
"'
Oil companies in this state aren't conducting bake sales so they can get by,' said Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank). 'Our schools are.'"
Capitol Weekly takes a look at
the filing deadline hokey-pokey, and some of the big names who have opted not to seek legislative seats.
"Among them was former Assemblyman
Jerome Horton, D-Inglewood, who’s three-way race with Assemblyman
Merv Dymally and former Assemblyman
Rod Wright was going to be one of the most closely watched in the state.
"
In the race to replace Fabian Nuñez, two of the top candidates, Arturo Chavez and Ricardo Lara, have decided not to run, after a series of meetings with top Los Angeles power brokers, including Nunez, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Maria Elena Durazo, the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor."
"
Lara, who is Nunez’s district director, got into the race with the speaker’s backing. But Nunez reportedly made a decision to back Perez, the political director of the United Food and Commercial Workers and Villaraigosa’s cousin, who had the backing of Villaraigosa and Durazo.
"The clearing of the field in the 46th helps begin the healing process between Nunez and Durazo, who tangled over tribal gaming compacts in the Legislature last year."
CW's John Howard looks at an initiaitve being planned for 2010
that would regulate health insurance the same way car insurance is regulated in California.
"
The same group that put together the landmark Proposition 103 insurance regulatory initiative began work on a 2010 ballot initiative that would apply Proposition 103-style rules over the alphabet soup of health care organizations such as HMOs, PPOs, PHPs, PDPs, PSOs, and many, many more.
"'We are going ahead with this,' said
Jamie Court, president of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. 'The only thing that would block this is if the single-payer (universal health care) folks want to go ahead and go to the ballot, or if a new president wants to do something more ambitious. In that case, we would back off.'"
George Skelton looks at the
package of reforms introduced by Senator Roy Ashburn. "The proposed state constitutional amendment would, in one package:
"* Repeal legislative term limits, but not until 2016. Any benefit to current legislators would be diluted and delayed far into the future.
"* Strip the Legislature of its power to draw district maps, a flagrant conflict of interest. An independent citizens commission would do the post-census redistricting once a decade.
"* Require that any campaign contribution to a legislator or the governor at the height of Capitol wheeling-dealing -- during budget bargaining and the final month of the legislative session -- be reported within 24 hours.
"* Hold back the legislators' pay if they don't pass a budget by July 1, start of the new fiscal year."
Aside from the substantive reasons legislators of both parties will block the package, Skelton writes "Democrats aren't going to allow a Republican to claim credit for any political reform if they can help it."
"About 100 angry members of California's largest state workers union
launched a sidewalk protest against The Bee on Wednesday for posting a searchable database of state employees' salaries on the newspaper's Web site," writes Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"Shouting slogans and carrying placards in front of the newspaper's building, the members of the 80,000-strong Service Employees International Union Local 1000 criticized The Bee for what they said was a violation of their right to personal privacy. Union leaders met privately with Bee executives and presented petitions with an estimated 3,000 signatures demanding that the paper take down the database, at www.sacbee.com/statepay.
"Union President
Jim Hard told the protesters that he was "disgusted" by what he described as the paper's "crass commercialism" and "callous disregard" for his members' safety."
Speaking of databases, CW's Malcolm Maclachlan reports, "Two Republican legislators have introduced bills that would
require the State Controller’s Office to put government spending information into an easily searchable online database.
"Assemblyman
Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, filed his AB1843 on Jan. 28. Senator
Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, introduced SB1494 on Feb. 21. Each calls on the state to create a Web site, accessible to the public for free, disclosing what the state is spending money on. Both legislators describe a similar motivation for their bills.
"'Sunlight is the best of disinfectants,' McClintock said. 'If the expenditures are all up on the Web where they can bee seen by anyone, I think a great deal more care is going to be put in how this money is spent.'"
Meanwhile, "California's stem cell research agency on Wednesday
raised top pay levels for its executives and lead lawyers 23 percent and then, less than an hour later, filled one of those positions at a salary of $310,000, near the top of the new range," reports the Bee's Jim Downing.
"The 29-member board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, meeting at Sacramento's Crest Theatre, approved the pay ranges unanimously after little discussion.
"The increases are significantly smaller than what the agency's staff proposed last month to a subcommittee of the governing board.
"Under the new rules, the maximum salary for the agency's president and the chair of the governing board will be $508,750, while pay for second-tier executives and the board's vice chair will top out at $332,000. The agency's top two attorneys will make up to $277,500."
"Former NBA all-star
Kevin Johnson has loaned his mayoral war chest $500,000, signaling that Sacramento could well be facing the most expensive campaign in its long history," report Terri Hardy and Dorothy Korber in the Bee.
"A Johnson campaign finance statement released Wednesday evening revealed the loan as well as about $43,000 in other debts.
"In a written statement, he said his bid for mayor was worthy of such an investment.
"'
I think it is only fair that I put some of my own funds into this campaign,' Johnson said."
Hey, if Johnson would just get a no-bid contract from the state, he would have to loan himself anything. AP reports, "The governor's office says it has
suspended a no-bid contract with a prominent public relations firm hired to allay public concerns about aerial spraying to control an invasive moth.
"Schwarzenegger press secretary
Aaron McLear announced the suspension after The Associated Press published a story today detailing the deal."
"
The $497,000 contract was awarded last November to the international public relations firm Porter Novelli after hundreds of residents complained about breathing problems and other health effects from the spraying.
And from our
Only a Matter of Time Files AP reports, "The code name for New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in court papers that link him to a prostitution ring, but now anyone can be "Client 9" with
T-shirts available online just a day after the scandal broke.
"From simply "Client 9" with a large lipstick smooch over the top to "Just Call Me CLIENT 9," designers on Web sites like www.cafepress.com and www.zazzle.com are cashing in on reports that Spitzer had hired a high-priced prostitute."
Hey,
she can't get all the glory, right?
