"Progress in budget negotiations remains as fleeting
as ever, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass told a group of reporters
in her Capitol office on Monday," writes Shane Goldmacher on the Bee's Capitol Alert.
"'There's no huge deal that we're getting ready to pop up in the next few days,' Bass said.
"As a result, the Los Angeles Democrat is missing her
party's national convention in Denver, where she 'would love to be.'
"Instead, she is here in Sacramento negotiating the
budget, though not in meetings with her fellow legislative
leaders and the governor.
"'We have not had a meeting of the Big 4 or the Big 5 in about a week,' Bass said.
"Bass has been meeting with Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines.
"'He is very clear that they (Republicans) will not vote for taxes. And I am very clear that
we (Democrats) cannot balance the budget through cuts alone. And
so we have to find a way to fill the $15 billion gap,' she said, responding to a question about whether they
were considering a budget that relied on borrowing.
"The governor has said he won't sign a budget balanced with borrowing. And Senate
President Pro Tem Don Perata said weeks ago, 'I'll have Thanksgiving dinner on the first floor (of the Capitol) with the governor before I'll borrow.'"
No taxes, no cuts, no borrowing.
Perhaps it's time to pull out the budgetary pixie dust so we can
all go on vacation.
Bass also changed plans for a three-day break from floor session coinciding with the Democratic
Convention.
The Senate plans to meet daily.
"State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, was living in the moment Monday – while dreading it was about to end.
"He stood before the California delegation, delivering
a thundering speech for the party to unify behind presumptive
nominee Barack Obama. "We are one! We are one! We are one!" he shouted.
"Then Florez rushed off to catch a plane, because things
are far from unified back in the Capitol in California.
"Despite admonitions from outgoing Senate leader Don
Perata that all Democrats must stay home to work through
the state budget stalemate, Florez and fellow state
Sen. Alex Padilla and Assembly members John Laird, Lori Saldaña and Mike Davis made it to Denver for the state delegation's opening breakfast.
"Florez was returning in time for this week's floor sessions but wasn't happy about it.
"'I wish deeply in my heart I could stay and personally
witness the most historic convention in my lifetime,' he said."
Well, instead, we can live vicariously through CW's Anthony York, who is blogging the convention.
"Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday vowed to compete in California this fall despite trailing
by double digits in recent polls, telling donors at a Sacramento fundraiser
he will not 'take your money and leave,'" writes the Bee's Kevin Yamamura.
"The Arizona senator gave a wide-ranging speech at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento in
which he said the United States is "winning in Iraq," while the nation needs to wean itself from foreign
oil by pursuing clean energy and offshore drilling.
"Despite his assurances, McCain did not specify how
he would mount a competitive effort in California,
a state no Republican presidential candidate has won
since George H.W. Bush in 1988. McCain trailed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama by 24 percentage points in a July Field Poll.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at the fundraiser
but did not speak. McCain said the Republican governor
was right to chide previous national candidates for
holding fundraisers in California while spending the
money in battleground states.
"'I also want to look you in the eye – and I appreciate your generosity – but I also want to tell you we will compete in the
state of California,' McCain told donors. 'We will compete and win in the state of California.
We will not take your money and leave.'"
Dan Walters writes that, after having been on the defense
against the Democrat-led Legislature for several years, business interests might benefit from the budget showdown.
"Schwarzenegger has gone on offense for business by
making several of their long-stalled goals part of an "economic stimulus" package that he wants enacted as part of any deal
on the state budget. They include more public-private partnerships on infrastructure, which public
worker unions oppose, and allowing workers to spend
more than eight hours on the job without receiving
overtime pay, which all unions oppose.
"Tellingly, the Chamber of Commerce immediately endorsed
Schwarzenegger's latest proposal to bridge the budget deficit, including
a 1-cent increase in the sales tax on most taxable goods
and some changes in tax treatment of business losses,
and left little doubt that the "economic stimulus" component was the selling point. Chamber President
Allan Zaremberg said the latter provisions would be "big wins for employers and workers."
"All in all, it's entirely possible that, for better or worse, this
could be a year in which business scores in its annual
faceoff with liberal groups."
"The Assembly yesterday passed landmark land-use legislation with multiple goals: curb greenhouse gas emissions, spark public transit,
limit sprawl and encourage affordable housing," reports the AP.
"Under Senate Bill 375, the state would direct transportation funds to cities
and counties that adopt general plans that comply with
those goals.
"Also, home builders that build within those parameters
could receive relief from preparing costly, comprehensive
environmental reviews and offered additional protections
from litigation.
"Opponents said the measure would usurp local control
and cost jobs.
"The bipartisan 48-22 vote sent the legislation to the Senate, where it's expected to pass."
"For the first time in the dozen years of turmoil since
state voters legalized medical marijuana, California's top law enforcement official stepped into the fray Monday with new guidelines designed
in part to quell the ongoing friction between the state
and federal authorities," writes Eric Bailey in the Times.
"Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown issued an 11-page directive intended to help legitimate patients
avoid arrest while giving police the tools to distinguish
legal medical marijuana operations from illegal cultivators
and criminal middlemen.
"He suggested his new "road map" would serve as a shield against the federal government,
which has waged war against the state's pot rules by conducting raids and mounting court
challenges.
"'Hopefully the feds will back off in instances where
people are really following these guidelines,' Brown said Monday in a telephone interview.
"The guidelines affirm the legality of many of the state's medical marijuana dispensaries, but only those operated
as collectives or cooperatives and not in business
for profit."
"A bill that would allow a proposed half-cent sales tax for Los Angeles County transportation
projects to be on the Nov. 4 ballot was expected to come before the state Senate
today," reports the Daily Breeze.
"Assembly Bill 2321, which would exempt the proposed levy from the state's sales tax cap, needs the approval of the Senate and
the Assembly by the end of the week, when the legislative
session ends, said Rebecca Marcus, spokeswoman for Assemblyman Mike Feuer, who co-authored the bill.
"It will then require the approval of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
though the governor has said he would not sign any
bills until the Legislature approves a new state budget.
"Without the bill, the ballot measure would push the
county's already high sales tax above the legal limit.
"The new tax would generate a projected $40 billion for transportation projects over 30 years."
"Nearly 40 years after a disastrous oil spill off the Santa Barbara
coast galvanized the nation and gave birth to the modern
environmental movement, the county Board of Supervisors
is poised to vote today in support of offshore drilling, " reports Maria L. La Ganga in the Times.
"Proponents of the measure argue that America cannot
turn away from a homegrown energy source at a time
when the country is dangerously dependent on foreign
oil and technology has made offshore oil drilling safer
than ever.
"Opponents, however, deride today's scheduled vote asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
to change state policy and "allow expanded oil exploration and extraction in the
Santa Barbara County region" as an exercise in polls, politics and posturing.
"The vote is largely symbolic -- the supervisors have no power to approve new offshore
drilling, and Schwarzenegger has already come out against
it. But it underscores both the issue's volatility and this coastal county's changing profile."
"California home sales surged last month even while prices plunged a record amount, as buyers snapped up bargains among
the state's hundreds of thousands of foreclosed and distressed
properties, according to an industry trade group," writes the Chron's James Temple.
"The number of existing, single-family houses that traded hands in July leaped an estimated
43.4 percent from a year ago, the California Association
of Realtors reported. The median price, however, dropped
40.3 percent to $350,760, the biggest decline since the Realtors began tracking
the market.
"In the Bay Area, sales increased 6.7 percent, and the median sank 21.2 percent to $663,190.
"'We are seeing a robust response to improved affordability,' the Realtors' Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young said. 'But obviously the $64,000 question is when will we be at the bottom? I don't think we'll see that this year.'"
Finally, from our Grammar Tips files:
"Collins Dictionaries of Britain said its researchers
have estimated that the most commonly misspelled word
in the English language is "supersede."
"The company said the word is misspelled one out of
every 10 times it is used because many other words with phonetically
similar endings -- such as intercede and precede -- are spelled with the letter "c" instead of "s," The Daily Telegraph reported.
"The researchers said they arrived at their conclusions
by using a software program that went through thousands
of documents available on the Internet, including published
books, blogs and news articles."
Since many of you have nothing to do today unless you
are assigned to the Assembly's water bond hearing, you can start cleaning up the
2,140 occurrences of "supercede" on .ca.gov websites.
