"State lawmakers began moving toward a deal this week to close California's deficit with the help of steeper car fees that would cost
many drivers hundreds of dollars annually, according
to people involved in budget talks.
"Under the plan, GOP lawmakers -- most of whom have signed anti-tax pledges -- would vote to triple the vehicle license fee that owners
pay when they register their cars every year in exchange
for a ballot measure that would impose rigid limits
on future state spending. Motorists' annual license fees would rise from 0.65% of the value of their vehicles to 2%. For a car or truck valued at $25,000, the increase would be $336.
"The higher fees would generate $6 billion annually, helping to fill a budget gap that
is projected to reach nearly $28 billion over the next year and a half.
"The proposal is being championed by incoming state
Senate leader
Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). Democrats and advocates for the poor have opposed
strict state spending limits, saying they would cripple
government services.
"
Prospects for the plan, however, immediately began
to dim after details were published on the Los Angeles
Times website. Angry phone calls from constituents,
advocacy groups and talk radio hosts prompted lawmakers
to publicly distance themselves from the proposal."
Ah, the power of the press...
"Capitol sources who requested anonymity because of
the confidential nature of budget discussions said
it is now unclear whether the proposal would be presented
to rank-and-file lawmakers Monday or Tuesday, as was initially
planned. Passage would require two-thirds of the Legislature to vote for the measure."
Meanwhile, "Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, one of five lawmakers
leading a special session to deal with California's budget crisis, has been out of state this week to participate in a
conference on mental health, her spokesman said Thursday," reports Matthew Yi, who won't be receiving any Christmas cards from legislators
this year.
"Bass, who plans to return to Sacramento today, is the
highest-ranking of more than a dozen lawmakers who have been
out of state during some part of the session that Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger called this month.
"On Wednesday, The Chronicle reported that the other
absent lawmakers include the chairwoman of the Senate
Budget Committee and several members of the Assembly
Budget Committee, who have been traveling in India,
China and Hawaii on fact-finding trips, conferences or vacations."
Dan Walters points out that the governor's budget cuts to K-12 amount to a take-back of $1.8 billion they fought hard to get from Gray Davis.
"The governor's deficit-reducing proposal is about a 50-50 split
between spending cuts and new taxes, including a $1.8 billion permanent
cut in base funding of K-12 schools – in essence, the same $1.8 billion
that Davis gave them in 2000. And, of course, the CTA has mounted an ad
campaign against it."
It's only fair, right?
We do a takeback from K-12 and a takeback of our car tax cut. Time to party like
it's 1999...
In other education news, "University of California regents took a symbolic step Thursday in an effort to avoid
or reduce the 9.4% increase in undergraduate student fees that university officials have said they anticipate
next year," reports Larry Gordon in the Times.
"The UC system's budget request to the state Legislature for the 2009-10 school year originally projected a $662 fee increase, which would have hiked in-state undergraduate fees to an average of $8,670, including some campus charges but not including room
and board. The original budget proposal also suggested
that some graduate and professional school fees would
increase by larger amounts.
"But under a change approved Thursday, the regents will
now ask Sacramento for extra funds, estimated at $110 million, to avoid fee increases, a tactical switch
that many experts think will be futile amid the state's mounting deficits. UC was already seeking a 17% increase for next year above the $3 billion in state general-fund revenue it received this year."
"Facing a projected revenue shortfall of $24 billion over the next two years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
has proposed a nearly $230 million hit to public transit, with the Bay Area bracing for a loss of almost $83 million," reports the Chron's Rachel Gordon.
"The governor also has called for pulling the state
out of the transit-funding business altogether starting next year.
"The prospect has agency bosses and transit advocates
lobbying state lawmakers to buck the plan and keep
transit funding intact.
"'The state's vital interest in spurring economic growth is best
served by more robust transit systems, not by crippling
local transit operations and terminating state support
altogether,' stated a letter sent to California's legislative leaders Wednesday and signed by transit
chiefs across the state, including the San Francisco
Municipal Transportation Agency's Nathaniel Ford and BART's Dorothy Dugger."
The Chron's Tom Abate reports:
"As the state releases its latest unemployment report
today, the fund that pays jobless benefits will soon run out
of cash, and while federal loans will keep the checks coming,
state lawmakers are debating a plan to restore the
program to solvency."
"When the state Legislature meets Sunday to consider
an emergency budget revision, among the proposals before
them will be a program from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
to revive the fund requiring employers to pay between
$56 and $417 more per employee, per year starting in 2010.
"Schwarzenegger has also proposed cutting weekly jobless
benefits by between $1 and $44 per week for workers who had earned $15.15 to $24.95 per hour. That would also take effect in 2010.
"The fate of the plan is anyone's guess, but Schwarzenegger's office says that if the package is not adopted in
the special session, he will resubmit a funding plan
when the new Legislature takes office. Meanwhile, the
state will ask for a federal loan on Dec. 1 to prevent any interruption of benefit checks while
the issue is being debated."
"The recently ousted executive director of the state
panel on unemployment benefit appeals incurred "unnecessary and wasteful" travel expenses, including excessively costly hotels and rental cars
that went largely unused, the state auditor said in
a report Thursday," reports Patrick McGreevy in the Times.
"The report by state Auditor Elaine Howle also noted concerns about widespread nepotism in the
agency, saying its employees identified 94 colleagues -- about 15% of its workforce -- who were related to another employee.
"The state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board fired
Jay Arcellana, executive director and chief administrative law judge,
in July, saying he had failed to rein in nepotism and
wasteful spending.
"'This basically confirms many of the issues and concerns
raised by board members over the last year,' said acting Chairman Fred Aguiar, regarding the audit
requested by the board."
"A voter-approved law prohibiting sex offenders from living
within 2,000 feet of a school or a park amounts to additional punishment for the offenders' original crimes, a state appeals court has ruled in a case that could
affect thousands of parolees," reports Bob Egelko in the Chron.
"The ruling Wednesday by the Fourth District Court of
Appeal in Santa Ana was the first by a California court
to find that the residency restrictions in Proposition
83, a November 2006 initiative, are not just public safety measures but
also would punish ex-offenders by forcing them out of their homes.
"Prop. 83, called Jessica's Law by its sponsors, imposes "traditional banishment under another name," the court said.
"The ruling leaves the law in effect but could limit
its application. The U.S. Constitution forbids laws
that retroactively impose criminal penalties or increase
punishment for past offenses."
In other Legal Beagle news, "Attorneys who prevail in lawsuits brought in the public
interest are entitled to compensation for their work, the California Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous
decision Thursday," writes the LAT's Carol Williams.
"Both liberal and conservative lawyers had urged the
state high court to award fees to three law firms whose
attorneys spent years trying to get the state Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation to require private
employers of prison labor to pay wages comparable to
non-inmate workers' wages."
"State voters will probably get a chance to extend taxpayer funding
of stem cell research beyond the $3 billion they have already committed, the head of the
state stem cell institute told the Little Hoover Commission
yesterday," writes Terri Somers for the U-T.
"If voters like what the stem cell institute has accomplished
after its first 10 years, they could pass a sequel to Proposition 71, the initiative that created the institute, said Robert Klein, its chairman.
"Klein continued to show unflinching confidence in the
stem cell initiative, even though it was subject to
yet another inquiry because of questions about its
structure and governance.
"The Little Hoover Commission's inquiry was requested by Sens. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and George Runner, R-Antelope Valley, who want the watchdog agency's guidance on how the institute might be improved."
"Business and environmental groups argued Thursday over whether California's plan to fight global warming will be a boon or a
burden for the economy and low-income communities," writes Jim Downing in the Bee.
"More than 200 people from around the state signed up to testify
at the final public hearing on the Air Resources Board's proposal for cutting climate-warming emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as required under a 2006 state law.
"The strategy, first released in June, would get most
of those cuts by mandating large improvements in energy
efficiency as well as rapid expansion of the state's renewable power capacity. It also calls for a market
for buying and selling the right to produce greenhouse
gases – a so-called cap and trade system.
"The air board is scheduled to approve a final version
of the framework at its meeting Dec. 11-12 in Sacramento. State regulators will spend the next
two years filling in the details, with most policies
taking effect in 2012 or later."
And finally, from our Tired of Begging Files, AP reports, "A dog left inside a running van put the vehicle in
drive, causing it to crash into a Long Island coffee house. Suffolk County police said no one was injured in the incident, which damaged
the glass window and some patio furniture at Cool Beanz coffee shop in St. James.
"Police
said a 60-year-old Port Jefferson resident left the van running while
he went into the shop. His dog, Bentley, somehow knocked
the controls."
