"A new two-year session of the California Legislature will be gaveled in today, with lawmakers facing one of the worst budget crises
in state history and a sinking economy that will limit
their ability to enact new programs," reports the LAT's Patrick McGreevy.
"Brimming with fresh energy and new ideas, 11 new senators and 28 new Assembly members will take their oaths of office
only to face the grim task of having to plug a hole
in the state budget that is predicted to reach $28 billion within about 18 months.
"'It's going to be a very frustrating session for the new
members,' said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics
at USC. 'They will be coming to Sacramento with grand ideas
about what to change in government, but there is no
money.'
"Lawmakers' failure to solve the state's fiscal problems during a November special session
means that it will be job No. 1 next year, said incoming Senate President Pro Tem
Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), who will assume the leadership post today."
Capitol Weekly has profiles of the members of this year's freshman class.
"This year's crop of legislative newbies - 11 Republicans and 17 Democrats in all - comes from a wide range of backgrounds.
We have one sitting state Senator, one former Assemblyman
and one former Senate Republican Leader. We have real
estate brokers and business people, teachers and city
council members. There is the Godfather of Asian politics,
and a mother of five from San Ramon."
The Bee's Steve Wiegand profiles Steinberg, who takes the reins today after a ninety-nine year wait. "There are some mild criticisms: He refuses to move on unless everyone is on board.
He's too tight with unions. He's not as wary as he should be when facing people with
hidden agendas. He's a bit sensitive about his bald spot.
"But if there is a recurring reservation about Steinberg's ability to do his new job, it's that he's too nice a guy – a policy wonk more comfortable with crafting legislation
than making backroom bargains.
"'A good part of being president pro tem is essentially
being a parent, dealing with egos and ambitions,' said Deborah Ortiz, who preceded him in the Assembly and Senate seats
he's held."
Unfortunately, Darrell's used to only two children at home. And none of them
are seeking higher office...
"'So he'll have to sharpen his parenting boundary skills. … That will be a challenge because he truly wants everyone
to get along and everyone to like him. That's not a bad thing, but he's going to have to accept that not every decision is
going to be loved.'"
The Fresno Bee's E.J. Schultz frames the new session.
"Perhaps at no other time in California history has
a rookie class of legislators come in during such perilous,
and uncertain, economic times. The state has a budget
shortfall of $28 billion for the next 19 months and could run out of cash this winter if nothing
is done.
"The problems are mounting just two months after lawmakers
passed the 2008-09 budget plan. A last-minute effort to narrow the budget gap failed last
week. Republicans resisted tax hikes sought by Democrats,
as the last meeting of the two-year session ended amid partisan bickering.
"'This is the first time that I can remember where the
budget has fallen apart this quickly,' said Tony Quinn, a political analyst and former legislative
aide. 'You had a new class come in, and the lame ducks have
just left, unable to fix the problem.'
"The freshman class includes 28 Assembly members and 11 senators, though some new lawmakers have served before
and are just switching houses."
On Saturday, the Bee's Kevin Yamamura lists five incoming Assemblymembers to watch:
Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), Bill Monning (D-Carmel), Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego), John Perez (D-Los Angeles) and Connie Conway (R-Tulare).
The Chron's Rachel Gordon profiles incoming Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.
"The son of a taxi dispatcher and a cafeteria worker,
Ammiano, who will turn 67 in two weeks, never strayed far from his working-class upbringing in New Jersey when setting his law-making priorities.
"He has talked of the effects of his family having no
health insurance: his father dying from a stroke in a hospital charity
ward and his mother, with no money for dental care,
getting fired from her job because her bosses didn't like her bad teeth.
"'Tom was the closest we could get to a blue-collar legislator in San Francisco over the last decade,' said Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council."
And they say goodbye to Carole Migden.
"In an interview at her San Francisco office last week,
Migden said
she was hopeful about the appointment. 'I'm feeling good and I'm
excited about the future,' she said. 'It's really a bittersweet time.'
"She also has been mentioned as a possible future candidate for her
old job as a San Francisco supervisor, which she held from 1991 to 1996
until winning a special election for Willie Brown's Assembly seat when
he became mayor of San Francisco.
"Migden said she is flattered that people are talking
about her
running for public office. 'I'd rather have that than 'Let's throw the
bum out forever,' ' she said."
"More than 200 legislative staff members have received pay increases during this year of multibillion-dollar deficits, program cuts and the longest budget standoff in state
history," reports Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"The Legislature did not award across-the-board pay hikes, but 179 Assembly and at least 35 Senate aides quietly received raises, a comparison
of first- and fourth-quarter rosters shows.
"Pay jumped for an additional 105 legislative staffers because they received promotions
in which their job titles changed.
"The vast majority of Capitol employees, about 85 percent, received neither a promotion nor a pay hike
this year.
"But Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association,
said it's "pretty tough to justify" salary hikes to even a small percentage of staffers
during a fiscal crisis.
"'If they're the captains of the ship, it's a ship without a rudder,' Coupal said."
The U-T's John Marelius begins the countdown to the end of the Schwarzenegger
era.
"Schwarzenegger's colorful tenure after the historic recall election
of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis has had its successes: overhauling the worker's compensation system, wresting the power to redraw
legislative district boundaries from the Legislature
and enacting regulations to curb greenhouse gases that
contribute to global warming.
"But his inability to slay the fiscal dragon raises
questions about what kind of legacy Schwarzenegger
will leave when his term is up in two years or whether
he will even stick around that long.
"'The lingering question would be this: Did Arnold conquer Sacramento or did Sacramento conquer
Arnold?' said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. 'In terms of style and political approach, he has done
things that other governors have not. On the other
hand, if you look at where the state is vis-à-vis 2003, there's an argument that we've gone full circle.'"
Dan Walters writes that the governor's proposal for categorical funding flexibility has divided the usually strongly unified education
coalition.
"Schwarzenegger doesn't propose to do away with categoricals, but his budget
crisis proposal includes "dramatic flexibility" that would remove almost all restrictions on redirecting
their money to other purposes as an offset to a $2.2 billion reduction in K-12 aid.
"Local school boards and administrators, who have long
struggled with categorical aid restrictions, would
probably take that deal in a nanosecond, and that threatens
solidarity in the education coalition, which has adopted
a just-say-no position on school aid cuts. Some statewide groups
now face something of a revolt in their ranks, and
that dissonance discomfits Democrats who pretty much
parrot the education coalition position.
"It may not come to anything, but in any event, a major
overhaul of categorical aids is long overdue."
The Bee's Jim Sanders takes a parting shot at Nicole Parra.
"Assemblywoman Nicole Parra may have found the perfect
antidote to life in the Assembly doghouse – travel to political bashes in Maui, Las Vegas, Chicago
and New Orleans, courtesy of political donors.
"The Hanford Democrat was banished months ago to an
Assembly office outside the Capitol for failure to
support her party's budget plan, but when Parra is termed out Monday,
she'll have plenty of high-tab memories to keep her smiling.
"Campaign disclosure statements show that Parra, a lame-duck lawmaker who did not seek election to another
office, largely emptied her campaign coffers this year
– in part by spending thousands of dollars on travel,
meals, parties and conferences – including:
"• A $1,367 bash at Ceja Vineyards at which Parra said she picked
up the tab for four other lawmakers – and rented a car "so no one would have to drive drunk" – as a farewell and thank you to former Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles.
"• A $5,083 party at Sacramento's Cabana Lounge for 100 supporters.
"• A more intimate, $1,967 thank-you for 14 guests at Sacramento's Hyatt Hotel; and a $226 tab for dinner with two guests at Ella in Sacramento."
Nicole--reassure us--the invite was lost in the mail, right?
"The state's day of reckoning for its years of prison overcrowding
is expected to come this week in a federal courtroom in San Francisco," writes the AP's Don Thompson.
"A special three-judge panel reconvenes tomorrow and is prepared to
decide whether crowding has become so bad that inmates
cannot receive proper care. If they do, a case rooted
in several court challenges dating back more than two
decades will move to a second phase.
"In that phase, the judicial panel will decide if lowering
the inmate population is the only way to fix the problems.
"That could result in an order to release tens of thousands
of inmates before their terms are finished, a move
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and GOP lawmakers said would
endanger public safety.
"'The time has come: The extreme, pervasive and long-lasting overcrowding in California prisons must be
addressed,' attorney Michael Bien, representing inmates, told the judges during the
opening of the trial."
And a special Roundup Happy Birthday to our dear friend,
and Roundup muse, Bloody Mary, who turns 75 today.
"Fernand Petiot, concocted the cocktail in Paris in
the 1920s. But it
wasn't perfected until he came to New York's St. Regis Hotel in the
1930s. "That'ss when he added Tabasco," she said.
We at the Roundup just want to say, we couldn't do this without you...
