"The California Legislature closed the curtain on its session last weekend after acting on more than 1,000 bills," report Nancy Vogel and Patrick McGreevy in the Times.
"But lawmakers' greatest unfinished task -- passing a state budget -- marked a tumultuous session in which two of four top
legislative leaders were replaced.
"Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata called 2008 "a bad year" and said that any legislative accomplishments would
be forgotten in light of the ongoing budget stalemate.
"'We could have discovered a cure for drought,' the Oakland Democrat said, 'and this is what will be remembered: That we couldn't pull a budget in on time.'"
We at the Roundup have indeed found a cure for the
drought -- rain! But as Perata suggested, it's bound to be overshadowed.
One of the bills passed was a measure to expand toll roads across the state. "The
California state legislature on Friday gave final approval
to a measure
designed to expand the use of tolling throughout the
state. Introduced
on behalf of State Treasurer Bill Lockyer (D), Assembly Bill 3021
creates the California Transportation Financing Authority
as a
taxpayer-funded entity empowered to issue toll road bonds and
authorize
local authorities to convert existing high occupancy
vehicle lanes on
four freeways into toll projects without further legislative
approval.
The bill, which passed the state Senate 23-10 and the Assembly 49-29,
will become law with the expected signature of Governor
Arnold
Schwarzenegger."
If we ever get that far...
"The Legislature has broken its dubious record for approving the budget
late, a result of failing to break an impasse in negotiations
that reached 62 days Sunday," reports the Chron's Matthew Yi.
"The Assembly and Senate wrapped up their legislative
sessions Sunday after debating and voting on more than
100 bills, but none of them was related to solving the
state's $17.2 billion budget gap. The gap includes $2 billion in reserves.
"But while the bills have been approved, they and many
others now hang in limbo, since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
has vowed not to sign any legislation into law until
legislators approve a budget.
"Schwarzenegger will have until the end of September
to sign or veto any bills sent to his desk. If he doesn't act, the bills would automatically become law after
Sept. 30. But Schwarzenegger has said that without a budget,
he will veto the bills before they automatically become
law."
Wouldn't that just be incentive for Republicans to hold out
until the end of the month?
"The previous record for a late budget was set in 2002 under the watch of then-Gov. Gray Davis, when the Legislature approved the
spending plan on Aug. 31."
And, we all remember how well that turned out.
"The California Senate met in an unusual Labor Day session, but made no progress on a budget deal. Sen. President
Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, banged the gavel at 4:04 p.m. Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, immediately called his caucus into a 40-minute private meeting. Democrats and Republicans then
debated for about an hour about who is to blame for
California's record-setting legislative budget impasse. The Assembly did
not meet and is not scheduled to do so until Wednesday."
Meanwhile, from our Unwanted Advice Files:
"Former Gov. Pete Wilson said Monday that he opposes a temporary sales tax increase proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and dismissed
comparisons between his own tax-infused 1991 budget and the current one.
"Wilson said he opposes the tax increase because he
believes the state engaged in too much deficit spending
under his successor, Gov. Gray Davis, and has not cut
programs enough since then. The former two-term Republican governor addressed reporters after
speaking in place of Schwarzenegger at a breakfast
for California delegates to the Republican National
Convention.
"'One of the starting points for them might be to go
back to what the spending was at the end of '98 and look at how it spiked way past growth in population
and inflation,' he said. 'And then start to make some cuts.'
"Schwarzenegger has proposed a 1-cent hike in the state sales tax for three years to
help resolve the state's $15.2 billion budget shortfall in a $101 billion spending plan. The proposal also would decrease
the sales tax below the current rate after three years.
"'If you're going to do any tax, that's the right one, but I just disagree,' Wilson said. 'No. 1, we're already a high-tax state. I mean, that's the problem.'"
Meanwhile, in Manteca, they're already looking ahead to the next governor's race.
"The budget impasse is especially squeezing programs dependent
on Medi-Cal, the state-federal health care program for the needy.
"When there is no state budget, payments stop flowing
to homes that care for the developmentally disabled,
and community clinics like the Women's Health Specialists in Sacramento.
"The clinic is one of eight in Northern California run
by Women's Health Specialists, established 35 years ago with women as a focus but which now treats
men as well.
"Eileen Schnitger, the clinics' development director, said they depend on Medi-Cal for about 90 percent of their revenue.
"Because of the budget impasse, the nonprofit has had
to take out a $400,000 emergency loan.
"'So far, we haven't had to turn away anyone,' Schnitger said. 'But the longer we go without a budget, the longer that
becomes a very real possibility.'"
"Faced with the growing possibility that California
lawmakers will raid redevelopment agencies to balance
the state's $15.2 billion budget deficit, San Jose officials are warning that they may abandon plans to expand downtown
[San Jose]'s McEnery Convention Center," report Joshua Molina and Mike Zapler
in the Merc News.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed taking $228 million statewide from California's redevelopment agencies. San Jose would lose $10 million annually for three years under the governor's proposal.
"In addition to scrapping the long-planned convention center expansion, officials fear
that other projects could be jeopardized, including
jobs and homes in North San Jose and dozens of smaller
neighborhood projects.
"Schwarzenegger told the Mercury News that San Jose's agency is "doing a great job over there," but like other redevelopment agencies in California,
it is sitting on a lot of cash.
"'In tough times we all have to go and make tough decisions
like that and we all have to chip in,' Schwarzenegger said. But 'there's a huge amount of money that's lying there that's not being used.'
"The governor's proposal would tap $228 million statewide per year over three years — or 5 percent of the total budget — of redevelopment agencies. That money would be shifted
to schools and community colleges in each county, relieving
the state of those payments."
Dan Walters argues for the shift from redevelopment agencies. "Any increases in property taxes from redevelopment
projects are retained by the agencies rather than shared
with counties, schools and other local government entities.
"The rub is that the state constitution requires that
any losses of property taxes to schools must be backfilled
from the state general fund, an indirect state subsidy
for redevelopment estimated at $2 billion a year. It's simply irrational that state funds should underwrite
auto malls, big-box retailers and other projects that local officials
favor.
"Were the Legislature to adopt Schwarzenegger's proposal and shift $228 million a year in redevelopment property taxes to
schools, therefore, it would be no more than a small
down payment on repayment of that massive, unjustifiable
raid on the state treasury."
"It's no secret that the typical workweek for Silicon Valley's programmers and engineers is a lot longer than 40 hours. Now, the battle over whether those high-tech workers should be treated as salaried professionals
or hourly employees entitled to overtime pay has moved from the courtroom to the state Capitol," writes Mike Zapler in the Merc News.
"Hit with class-action lawsuits claiming it has improperly withheld
overtime from some workers, the high-tech industry is lobbying for a measure to clear up
a state law that exempts tech companies from paying
OT to highly skilled employees.
"The industry has found a receptive ear in Schwarzenegger,
who wants to clarify the overtime exemption as part
of an economic stimulus package that would be included
in the state budget. The governor and lawmakers are
still negotiating a spending plan two months into the
fiscal year. Several Democrats also have signaled they
are open to the change, but the fact that it is caught
up in thorny budget negotiations could be problematic.
"The powerful California Labor Federation is fighting
the proposal, calling it a handout to the tech industry
that could open the door to overtime exemptions for
other classes of workers.
"'Big tech companies that have been sued for cheating
workers out of overtime pay are trying to make matters
worse by taking away workers' rights to that pay,' the federation wrote in a flier it passed out in the
halls of the Capitol last week. 'Eliminating overtime amounts to a major pay cut for
families already struggling to make ends meet.'"
The Bee's Aurelio Rojas sits down with Greg Schmidt, the Secretary of the Senate, and asks why the end of session is always so busy.
Schmidt: "I call it the term-paper syndrome. It's human nature to kind of procrastinate, and then you
have to do all-nighters. Some of the reasons are built into the schedule,
which don't make a lot of sense anymore. You can't really start the budget process until the May revision
because that's when you find out what kind of money came in on April
15. So regardless of whether the schedule calls for the
budget to be introduced in January and finished in
June, what you're really saying is, start in May and finish June 15. And that's not going to happen. At some point we have to rethink
the schedule."
Rojas:
"You've been through three decades of budget stalemates.
What about this year stands out?"
Schmidt: "At some point you run out of a bag of tricks. There's less room to roll things over and defer things. Partly
it's because we're in a (deficit) hole, but also there's been some tightening up by the courts and by statute
about what can be moved around. So there's less opportunity to patch something together, which
has brought us to the point where we need to raise
taxes because we can't cut that amount of money out of the budget. I think
people don't understand how little discretion there is in the
budget. That and they don't understand why the budget has grown so much. … Part of it is driven by the formulas that are written
in by initiative. A good chunk of it is in the increasing
(prison) spending we have to do. We have to figure that out
at some point."
And finally, from our Can't Blame a Guy For Tryin' Files, a man has been charged with bribery after trying to get out of a DUI by offering a police office
... sandwiches.
"Booth was pulled over for driving with his headlights
off at the
intersection of Gilbert and Kirkwood streets. After
a Breathalyzer
test, he was arrested for drunken driving.
"Booth was riding with
a police officer in a squad car following the arrest
when he offered
him 'free Jimmy John's sandwiches if he was allowed to go home,' the
report states.
"The officer declined the offer, to which Booth allegedly
responded, 'C'mon...Nobody's going to know.'"
Clearly.
