"It looks like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's wish for a solution to the state's huge budget deficit won't come true before Christmas," reports the Chron's Matthew Yi.
"Democratic legislative leaders, following an hourlong
meeting with the governor on Tuesday afternoon, said
they plan to continue talking through the week with
hopes of meeting again on Friday.
"'We're making progress,' said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County)."
The Bee's Kevin Yamamura reports:
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is demanding further concessions
from Democratic leaders in the latest round of state
budget talks. It's come down to three key issues that pit business interests
against labor unions and environmentalists: rollback of environmental review for construction
projects, greater use of private investment and contractors,
and deeper spending cuts, including those affecting
the state work force.
"Democrats say the governor is holding the state budget
hostage for the sake of measures that have a relatively
small economic impact and provide no immediate budget
relief.
"'It's like a child telling Santa, 'If you don't bring every single item on my list, then stay out
of my chimney,' ' Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said last week.
"Schwarzenegger says that if he is to approve new taxes
– something just two years ago he said he would never
do – then he must also relax regulations and make deeper
cuts in state spending.
"The Republican governor last week rejected an $18 billion Democratic plan that would have partially
solved the state's anticipated $40 billion shortfall through June 2010.
"Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Bass, D-Los Angeles, met twice with Schwarzenegger on Tuesday
and said they plan to continue negotiating through
Friday by phone and videoconference. The governor left the state for Christmas vacation
late Tuesday."
It's unclear whether he will be challenging Barack Obama to a politico shirt-off.
The AP's Judy Lin writes:
"After meeting with the Democratic leaders, Schwarzenegger
headed to a park near the Sacramento River for a news
conference to denounce the halt in public works projects.
He was asked whether he would sign a budget plan that
contained tax increases but was passed only by a simple-majority vote.
"'I prefer having my Republican friends at the table,
and I prefer to get a two-thirds vote. But we do need revenue increases,' he said. 'To save California, I'm forced to negotiate just with the Democrats. This
is the situation I am forced in because of lack of
participation by the Republicans.'
"Schwarzenegger said he would let others debate the
plan's legality, ultimately deciding 'what is a fee and what is a tax?'"
Shane Goldmacher posts a couple of reader-submitted Capitol-themed holiday carols on Capitol Alert.
Meanwhile, "[t]his week, many nonprofits and local agencies are coming to grips with a decision Dec. 17 by an obscure state financing agency, the Pooled Money Investment Board," reports Matt Weiser in the Bee.
"The board was forced to preserve cash flow for basic
government
operations. It did so by freezing payment for some
2,000 projects
funded by more than a half dozen voter- approved bond measures.
"The funding stream will probably be restored for many
projects once
the governor and Legislature make a deal to resolve
California's $40
billion budget deficit. But some may not be able to
wait, and there's
lots of fretting over how much the delay will hurt
in the meantime.
"On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger highlighted
a different project
to keep pressure on the Legislature to solve the budget
crisis. Before
a phalanx of TV cameras, he stood beside a levee in
Sacramento's
Natomas basin. Upgrading 42 miles of Natomas levees is 'one of the most
critical flood protection projects in the state,' he said, and warned
political posturing over the budget could threaten
public safety."
Dan Walters writes that the inability to pull together
a budget deal can be attributed to the lack of trust among leaders.
"Today, however, we have an amateur governor who plays
by the rules of
Hollywood, where handshakes and verbal agreements mean
nothing and no
one trusts anyone until an infinitely detailed contract
is signed and
notarized – and often not even then. And we have a semiamateur
pack of
legislators, thanks to term limits and gerrymandered
districts, whose
first allegiance is to the outside groups that got
them their seats."
Thanks, Scrooge.
"The trust factor has deteriorated to almost nothing.
Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger made a verbal deal with the California
Teachers
Association on school finance five years ago and later
reneged. Last
week, he publicly castigated Democrats, saying they
agreed to place in
their budget package some changes in personnel and
contract procedures,
then altered the wording significantly when the bills
were written
because of union pressure.
"'We negotiated, and we negotiated,' Schwarzenegger complained, 'and I
think that the special interest groups were just more
powerful again
and convinced them to turn the clock backwards and
that's exactly what
they did.'
"A while back, The Bee invited a group of professional
mediators to
discuss the budget stalemate and how it might be resolved.
They
uniformly said that establishing an atmosphere of mutual
trust is
critical. It's evident that just the opposite prevails in the Capitol,
where mistrust reigns supreme."
"Attorney General Jerry Brown's legal challenge to California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage marks the first time that the state's top lawyer has refused to defend a newly enacted
ballot measure since 1964 - another epic discrimination case that eventually reached
the U.S. Supreme Court," writes the Chron's Bob Egelko.
"In November 1964, an overwhelming 65 percent majority of the state's voters approved Proposition 14, a constitutional amendment that overturned a fair-housing law and allowed racial discrimination in property
sales and rentals.
"Attorney General Thomas Lynch - newly appointed to succeed Stanley Mosk, a Prop. 14 opponent who had just been named to the state Supreme
Court - concluded the initiative violated U.S. constitutional
standards and left private lawyers representing sponsors
as its sole defenders in court.
"The state Supreme Court - minus Mosk, who removed himself from the case - overturned Prop. 14 in 1966, and the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit in 1967. Lynch filed written arguments urging the nation's high court to rule the measure unconstitutional.
"Brown personally opposed Proposition 8, the initiative restoring the ban on gay and lesbian
marriages that the state Supreme Court had struck down
in May, but said the day after the Nov. 4 election that he planned to defend it in court."
The LAT's Victoria Kim and Jack Leonard look at the reasoning behind Brown's opposition to Proposition 8 in court.
"In initially pledging to defend the initiative after
its passage, Brown said it was a properly approved
amendment to the Constitution.
"In an interview Tuesday, he said he changed course
after attorneys in his office examined all its legal
implications.
"Brown said he was particularly struck by the idea that
a ban on same-sex marriage conflicted with the Constitution's language protecting liberty, noting that the state
Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the language
encompasses the right for same-sex couples to marry.
"'The more I reflected on the argument, the stronger
I thought it was,' he said. 'What is a guarantee worth if you can strip it away
by calling it an amendment?'
"In his filing, Brown said the central issue before
the court was a conflict between the rights of voters
to amend the state's Constitution and rights of same-sex couples to marry.
"In a novel theory, Brown argued that fundamental rights
could be amended only if the state had a compelling
interest to do so. In banning same-sex marriage, he argued, the state did not have a compelling
interest.
"The argument allowed Brown to oppose Proposition 8 while taking a position at odds with that of other
opponents of the measure."
Meanwhile, before 2009 draws to a close ending the Year of Alaska, "A giant snowman named Snowzilla has mysteriously appeared again this year — despite the city's cease-and-desist order.
"Someone again built the giant snowman in Billy Powers' front yard in an east Anchorage neighborhood. Snowzilla
reappeared before dawn Tuesday.
"Powers is not taking credit. When questioned Tuesday
afternoon, he insisted Snowzilla just somehow happened,
again.
"For the last three years, Snowzilla — to the delight of some and the chagrin of others — has been a very large feature in Powers' yard. In 2005, Snowzilla rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and
two eyes made out of beer bottles.
"This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He's wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.
"'Have you seen him?' Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home,
the sound of excited children in the background. 'He's handsome.'
"Snowzilla has consistently risen outside Powers' modest home. His children — he is the father of seven — collected snow from neighbors' yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla
got a bit bigger.
"Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars
and visitors who came to see him.
"City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public
nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice
on Powers' door."
