"Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said Thursday she plans to force a budget vote Sunday, though lawmakers have no deal to end a stalemate
that has lasted nearly seven weeks into the fiscal
year," report Kevin Yamamura and Jim Sanders in the Bee.
As consolation, you can watch the Olympics on the hallway
monitors.
"Republicans and Democrats remain divided over whether
to use new taxes, cuts or borrowing to resolve a $15.2 billion shortfall in a $101 billion general fund budget. If lawmakers convene
Sunday, it would mark their first budget floor vote
this summer, 48 days into the fiscal year.
"Lawmakers want to register a vote by this weekend to
meet a deadline set by Secretary of State
Debra Bowen for placing measures on the November ballot. At least
two components of budget negotiations require voter
approval: a long-term change in budgetary policy and a plan to borrow
against profits from an expanded California Lottery.
"Many see the deadline as negotiable, however, and believe
a Sunday vote may be the first of several floor exercises
before a final deal is struck.
"Bass, D-Los Angeles, said lawmakers plan to vote Sunday on
a modified version of the Democratic conference committee
plan, which relied on tax increases on the wealthy.
"Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata said his chamber would hold a vote "probably Sunday," though he grew more tentative about those plans late
Thursday."
Dan Walters looks at another state fiscal problem, the Unemployment
Insurance Fund, created by the near doubling of benefits in 2001.
"Although revenue from the payroll tax on employers
is projected to hit $5.2 billion this year, EDD expects that $6.5 billion in benefits will be paid out, and that will
continue in 2009. The EDD report says "the UI Fund could become insolvent if no action is
taken" and the difference between solvency and insolvency
clearly is the benefit boost enacted in 2001.
"Nobody is getting rich collecting unemployment checks,
to be certain, but the politicians who control UI benefits
and taxes have a responsibility to be prudent about
both. California is already levying a maximum payroll
tax, so the state's only alternative may be to borrow again from the
feds – thus emulating what the state's been doing to keep its deficit-ridden budget afloat.
"But that's not a penalty-free strategy either.
"Continuing to borrow could result, under federal law,
in the state's employers losing tax credits for federal unemployment
insurance taxes, effectively increasing their UI tax
burden. And the state general fund would have to pay
interest on the loan.
"Simply put, it's another fiscal mess created by political expediency
that ignores long-term economic reality."
"A federal judge in Sacramento on Thursday ordered that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his chief
of staff and another top aide must answer questions
under oath in depositions by lawyers for inmates, in advance
of a trial on state prison overcrowding," write Michael Rothfeld in the Times.
"U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Moulds rejected the state's argument that top officials are immune from depositions
based on previous court decisions saying that in some
cases high-ranking government officials cannot be interviewed
about their decision-making processes.
"Moulds said that immunity is not absolute and cited
other instances in which top officials had been forced
to testify. He said that because Schwarzenegger and
his two aides had personally been involved in dealing
with prison overcrowding, inmates' lawyers "are entitled to inquire about these matters directly
of the governor, his deputy cabinet secretary and his
chief of staff."
"Moulds ordered that Schwarzenegger be deposed Sept.
3 for a maximum of four hours. He ruled that Chief of
Staff Susan Kennedy could be deposed Sept. 2 and Deputy Cabinet Secretary Robert Gore on Sept. 4 for a maximum of six hours each."
"Same-sex marriage, parental notification of abortion – California's November ballot is studded with weighty issues, but
none is ruffling feathers like Proposition 2, which would effectively ban farms from raising hens
in cages.
"The United Egg Producers predicts the measure would
triple the cost of eggs, drive the industry out of
the state and deprive consumers of fresh, safe California
eggs.
"'Californians are already reeling from skyrocketing
gas and food prices,' said Julie Buckner, a spokeswoman for the No on Proposition
2 campaign. 'The last thing they need is to go to the supermarket
and pay higher prices for a dozen eggs.'
"Supporters, including the Humane Society of the United
States, say it would add only about a penny to the
cost of an egg – and end the practice of cramming hens into cages so
small they can't even turn around."
The LAT's Jeff Gottleib reports that Congresswoman Laura Richardson's Sacramento house has been declared a nuisance .
"First Rep. Laura Richardson was having problems making
house payments, defaulting six times over eight years.
"Then after a bank foreclosed on her Sacramento house
and sold it at auction in May, the Long Beach Democrat
made such a stink that Washington Mutual, in an unusual
move, grabbed it back and returned it to her.
"This week, in the latest chapter in the housing saga,
the Code Enforcement Department in Sacramento declared
her home a "public nuisance."
"The city has threatened to fine her as much as $5,000 a month if she doesn't fix it up.
"Neighbors in the upper-middle-class neighborhood complain that the sprinklers are
never turned on and the grass and plants are dead or
dying. The gate is broken, and windows are covered
with brown paper."
The fight is on between California cities to lure the manufacturer of a fuel-efficient sportscar that has received big tax breaks from the Schwarzenegger
administration.
"Among the cities on the list are San Jose, Vacaville and South San Francisco."
But, Sacramento will always be home to Tesla...
"The potential economic
impact of such a factory hasn't been calculated yet, said Paul Krutko,
San Jose's chief development officer. But just building a
600,000-square-foot factory would result in 600 construction jobs and
about $40 million in wages, he said. Once it went into operation,
perhaps as soon as 2010 or 2011, the plant probably would employ 800 to
1,000 workers who would assemble 20,000 cars a year.
"On Tuesday, the city council will vote on a recommendation
to authorize
the city manager to negotiate with Tesla. Krutko said
informal
conversations have been ongoing since Tesla and Gov.
Arnold
Schwarzenegger announced in June that the company would
build its first
factory in the Bay Area, not New Mexico, as previously
had been
planned. The state will provide various incentives,
including waiving
the sales tax on $100 million worth of equipment, to keep the automaker
in California."
And finally, that is Sir Happy Feet to you, peasant.
AP reports, "Nils Olav already has medals for good conduct and long
service. He made
honorary colonel-in-chief of the elite Norwegian King's Guard in 2005.
And on Friday he was knighted. Not bad for a 3-foot tall penguin.
"The knighthood ceremony began Friday morning with speeches
and a
fanfare before Nils arrived, under escort with the
King's Guard Color
Detachment. Nils then reviewed the troops lined up
outside the penguin
enclosure at the zoo, waddling down the row of uniformed
soldiers,
occasionally stopping to crane his neck and peer inquisitively
at their
crisp uniforms before being guided forward by his handler.
"Nils was then knighted by British Maj. Gen. Euan Loudon
on behalf of
Norway's King Harald V. Loudon dropped the king's sword on both sides
of Nils's black-and-white frame, and the penguin's colonel-in-chief
badge, tied to his flipper, was swapped for one symbolizing
his
knighthood."
