In case you're just waking up from the holiday, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration Wednesday rushed out its latest plan to cut state spending, raise
taxes and borrow heavily to stop California's budget deficit from climbing to $41.6 billion by mid-2010.
"Mike Genest, the governor's finance director, said the state's financial troubles were so urgent that the administration
wanted to release its budget plan for the next fiscal
year -- due Jan. 10 -- as early as possible in hopes feuding lawmakers would
move quickly to avoid what Schwarzenegger has called
a 'financial Armageddon.'"
They'll get right on that, Mike.
"'The governor believes in acting immediately,' Genest told reporters at a news conference in the
Capitol -- a gathering that did not include the governor, who
was in Sun Valley, Idaho, with his family on vacation."
Guess that California tourism ad Arnold and Maria shot didn't have much of an effect on them.
The Chron's Capitol team reports:
"The governor's new budget plan is based on previous strategies that have failed to
win traction in the Legislature. Republican lawmakers quickly
said they would not support it, and Democrats indicated
it would be of little help in resolving the stalemated
negotiations their leaders have been holding with Schwarzenegger
for weeks."
"Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he thinks the governor's early budget release was a political move to pressure
the Democratic legislative leaders. The administration
doesn't need to "impress upon us the urgency of the situation," he said. "It's not necessary. We feel the urgency of the situation."
"On Wednesday, legislative leaders said they appreciated
the governor's latest attempts to solve the state's fiscal crisis, but no one said they would support
his package of solutions.
"'I appreciate the governor acknowledging today the necessity
of the cuts and revenues the Legislature approved,' said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County). 'I hope the governor's first act of the new year will be to sign the responsible
package we are putting before him.'
"Republicans remained adamant about their opposition
to tax increases.
"'We believe this will devastate an economy already in
turmoil and will hurt people who are struggling to
make ends meet,' Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis (Fresno County) said in a written statement.
"Some legislators questioned how serious Schwarzenegger
is about his new proposal, especially given that the
governor didn't take a break from his Sun Valley, Idaho, skiing vacation
to answer questions about what he has repeatedly said
is the most important problem facing the state."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest budget proposal would reduce by tens of thousands the number of criminals
behind bars and under community supervision," reports Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"Parole would be eliminated for all nonserious, nonviolent
and non-sex offenders. The proposal would cut the parole population
by about 65,000 by June 30, 2010, or more than half of the Christmas Eve count of 123,144.
"At the same time, the corrections plan calls for increasing
good-time credits for inmates who obey the rules and complete
rehabilitation programs. Combined with the new parole
policies that would result in fewer violators forced
back into custody, the proposal would reduce the prison
population by 15,000 by June 30, 2010. It stood at 171,542 on Dec. 24.
"Department of Finance Director Mike Genest said the state's worsening budget scenario again forced the administration
to look at prison and parole population cuts as front-burner proposals to save money.
"'I don't think there are very many proposals in this whole
budget that are easy for us, or for anybody,' Genest said in an interview. 'They're all difficult. That one's difficult, but we think we've structured it in such a way as to protect public
safety.'"
Steve Wiegand looks at the return of elements of the California Performance Review.
"The 2009 version is part of the labyrinthine $40 billion state budget-fixing proposal the administration released Wednesday.
"Included in the voluminous scheme are 17 proposals to combine, cut or realign various boards,
commissions and programs. . ."
Dan Walters is skeptical that the many budget process reforms on
the table will be enacted.
"All of these proposals, and those being floated by
Schwarzenegger and others, contain the kernels of much-needed budget reforms. Like the situation with the
budget deficit itself, there's no shortage of potentially effective steps – but there has been and still is an immense shortage
of political will to actually do something that makes
it work.
"Changing the budget process, therefore, may be impossible
until Californians tire of political impotence and
demand a broader overhaul of our entire political structure."
Meanwhile, from our Exit Strategy files:
"As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demands that lawmakers
allow private interests into California's huge market for public works projects, a company with close personal and financial ties to
the governor's economic advisor is positioned to benefit," write Michael Rothfeld and Jordan Rau in the Times.
"The advisor, David Crane, has spent years promoting private-sector involvement in public construction projects
-- one of a few issues holding up a deal between Schwarzenegger
and legislative Democrats to ease the state's worsening fiscal crisis.
"Babcock & Brown, the financial services firm where Crane worked
for a quarter of a century, hired a Sacramento lobbyist
last year to influence the governor's office on so-called public-private partnerships, records show. Since joining the
governor's team in 2004, Crane has received hundreds of thousands of dollars
of income from deals he made while at Babcock, a firm
founded in San Francisco and based in Australia, according
to financial disclosure reports.
"Those deals included projects in areas such as telecommunications,
in which he served as a financial advisor; personal investments in real estate from Babcock's public-private partnership projects in England; and partnerships he formed with other Babcock executives
to invest in oil wells and an Italian restaurant chain.
"In an interview, Crane said the income he earns from
deals completed years ago has nothing to do with Babcock
today or the firm's potential to generate business from his support of
public-private partnerships. He said he sold his ownership
stake, which was less than 10%, when he left in 2003."
Finally, from our Ahhh...Florida file:
"Authorities said a Sarasota man about to be pulled
over by police tried to lure officers away by making a fake 911 call. Officers said they were following a 28-year-old man's car Monday to make a traffic stop when they got a
911 call for an armed robbery happening several blocks
away.
"The man's plan seemed to work at first when the officers cut
off their chase to answer the call. But then other
officers in the area followed him into a parking lot
and saw a gun in his car.
"Officer's determined that the man was a felon and not allowed
to possess a firearm. After the man was arrested, officers
said they discovered that the bogus 911 call came from his cell phone.
"He was being held on $11,490 bail for multiple charges."
