"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be hard-pressed to find good news for his State of the State
address on Thursday as he continues his search for a budget
compromise with state lawmakers before California runs
out of cash in a few weeks," reports the AP's Judy Lin.
"The Republican governor will focus his annual speech
on the state's dismal revenue outlook amid a deepening national
recession. He also is likely to press for a combination
of spending cuts and tax increases, as he has done
for months.
"On Monday, he was meeting with legislative leaders
from both parties after vetoing an $18 billion Democratic budget proposal last week.
"'We are starting again. As the governor said, we are
turning the page on negotiations this week with all
four legislative leaders at the table,' Schwarzenegger spokesman
Aaron McLear said."
His non-lawmaker audience at the speech won't be receptive to all of his message.
"All six of California's elected statewide Democrats are refusing to implement Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to furlough state workers for two unpaid days each month," writes the Bee's Shane Goldmacher.
"Calling Schwarzenegger's executive order "unfair," in the words of Secretary of State Debra Bowen, and "a hardship on the backs of our employees," as Treasurer Bill Lockyer said, the Democrats have exempted their own departments.
"Last Friday, Schwarzenegger ordered all nonessential
state departments to shutter their doors on the first
and third Fridays every month through June 2010, saving the state an estimated $1.3 billion over the next 18 months.
"But Schwarzenegger's executive order cannot be mandated on the offices
of California's statewide elected officials. The governor had urged
they furlough employees anyway.
"The six Democrats who said no are Bowen, Lockyer, state
Controller John Chiang, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, Attorney General Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi.
"'It's their decision,' said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear."
The LAT's Michael Rothfeld writes that the clock is running out on the Arnold Schwarzenegger Legacy
Project.
"The first California governor elected in a recall election
will leave office in two years, giving Schwarzenegger
a limited window to determine which narrative becomes
his legacy. Will he be remembered as a leader who leveraged
his star power to promote visionary ideas? Or as the
action-movie hero who unseated a sitting governor with a vow
to make government function again, but was unable to
deliver a happy ending?
"Although Schwarzenegger and others say his good intentions
have been foiled by extremist state lawmakers, an unstable
tax structure, a broken budget system and a global
recession, none of that may matter when history is
written, some analysts believe."
In fact, we're pretty sure Gray Davis said the same thing...
"'So far, he hasn't solved the problem that he was elected to solve,' said Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at UC San Diego. 'In crisis you have opportunity to be great, if you
can pull it off somehow. If you can't, it's hard to be perceived as a success.'"
However, while the governor has taken his lumps in
what's left of the California press, he still continues to inspire fawning coverage on the
national scene. A chat between Susan Kennedy and Newt Gingrich has
become a potential kernal of a 2010 national GOP campaign message in the hands of CNN's Mark Preston.
"With the Republican Party searching for a unifying
theme, could
political reform and smaller government be the GOP
rallying cry in
2010? Lacking a natural national leader right now, will
Schwarzenegger
and/or Gingrich fill that role?"
We don't even know where to begin with that one...
The LAT's Gale Holland reports:
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing major cuts in Cal Grants, the state's main financial aid programfor college students. The
most significant change would involve abandoning the
state's commitment to cover any rise in tuition for grant
recipients, and it comes as officials at both the University
of California and California State University are gearing
up for 10% fee increases in response to the yawning state budget
gap.
"The Legislature in 2000 guaranteed middle- and low-income students who meet certain financial and academic
benchmarks nearly full offsets of their fees, which
have escalated sharply in recent years.
"Judy Heiman, an analyst with the state legislative analyst's office, said "decoupling" the fees and the grant funding might not cut too deeply
the first year, but could quickly add up if fees continue
to jump as they have in the last decade. "It will be 4-5% this year, then maybe 10% or even 20-30%," she said. "It could get to the point even students with full grants
can't afford to pay fees."
"The governor's $87.5 million in proposed reductions -- about 10% of the total $880-million Cal Grant budget -- also would eliminate an aid program that helps returning
adult students and would slash the grant money available
to state students attending private colleges and universities.
Cal Grants and a fee waiver program are the state's primary financial aid vehicles. Other aid is provided
by the federal government, colleges and universities."
"As Los Angeles County grapples with dramatic increases
in people seeking government benefits, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting county welfare benefits to 30,000 families with 72,000 children , county officials said Monday," reports Troy Anderson in the Daily News.
"The proposal is part of a larger package of $319 million in county government cuts for the remainder
of this fiscal year and 2009-10.
"The governor sent the proposal to state lawmakers Friday.
"'It's a very severe cut,' Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said.
"'This could have a very severe impact on everything
from our justice programs to probation, public health,
health services and our social (welfare) programs.'
"For Los Angeles County, the proposal calls for cutting
$80 million in welfare grants, $74 million in mental health services, $19 million in juvenile probation and camp funding, $14 million in cash assistance for immigrants and $71 million from the in-home care program."
The LAT's Patrick McGreevy reports on the closure of the white collar criminals
restitution centers, which were run by a non-profit organization.
"Among the graduates of the state's two restitution centers, both in Los Angeles, is
former Compton Mayor Omar Bradley, who provided job training for the disabled in Carson
while serving time for using his city-issued credit card for personal expenses.
"But on Thanksgiving Eve, state officials shut down
the program and sent the 74 enrolled offenders to prisons, not even giving them
time to tell their employers. Corrections department
officials, ordered to cut their budget by $800 million this year, said California could no longer
afford the program.
"The decision perplexed prison-reform advocates, who called it a bureaucratic blunder
born of government inefficiency.
"'It's pretty stupid,' said Robert Pratt, executive director of Volunteers of America's Los Angeles branch, which ran the two centers. 'These are people who were working and paying for their
upkeep and paying back victims. It is counterproductive
to put them back in prison, where the taxpayer has
to foot the whole bill.'
"The news came to the nonprofit Nov. 20 in a terse notice that the corrections department
had 'determined at this time that only contracts for services
and functions of state government deemed critical and
exempt will be utilized. Your contract is not exempt,
therefore performance under contract . . . is hereby
immediately suspended.'"
And, by the way, it didn't help that CCPOA has about as much respect for your
existence as the Mid-East players.
"Scott Kernan, undersecretary for operations at the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, pointed
out that the centers had about three dozen empty beds,
and said the state could not afford to carry a program
not operating at full capacity."
"Sold to voters a decade ago as a way to help poor children
develop, California's First 5 programs have also been criticized over the years for mismanagement," reports Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
"Now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers
have set their sights on billions of dollars generated
by the initiative championed by filmmaker Rob Reiner.
"Proposition 10 raised cigarette taxes by 50 cents a pack to pay for programs that would help put
the state's neediest children on track to a better life, from
prenatal care through preschool.
"But with the state facing a $40 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months, GOP officials maintain the state and county
commissions that run the programs are sitting on – and often misspending – sorely needed tax revenues. It's time, they say, to allow voters to reconsider and
shift the money to the state's general fund.
"First 5 officials deny they are swimming in money while the
state drowns in debt. Most of their money, they say,
has been committed to long-term projects."
And as a sign that our collective incompetence is reaching
new heights, the budget standoff even made The Onion. Here's hoping we all get the Official State Cocktail Napkins.
Dan Walters writes that, with Bob Monagan's passing, an era of moderate Valley Republicans has also passed.
"So what happened to the Valley Republicans? The professionalization
of the Legislature, followed by the imposition of term
limits and creation of gerrymandered legislative districts
made the Capitol a more ideologically polarized institution
with little tolerance for pragmatists and centrists
in either party."
What about Nicole Parra?
Did she count?
"Ironically, as that was occurring, the San Joaquin
Valley became a Republican stronghold, although there's some evidence of a recent Democratic rebound. There
are a lot of Republicans serving in the Legislature
from the Valley these days, but few, if any, would
qualify as Valley Republicans in the older sense of
the phrase, including the Legislature's two GOP leaders, Sen. Dave Cogdill of Modesto and Assemblyman Mike Villines of Clovis.
"That was then, this is now, and Monagan's death is one sign of that era's passing."
While times may be tough for Californians and state
employees, prosperous employment continues for ex-legislators.
Today's golden parachute appointment goes to Mike Machado.
"Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has named recently termed-out Sen. Mike Machado, pictured at right, to a seat on the board of directors of the State Compensation
Insurance Fund. The Linden Democrat will earn $50,000 per year plus travel expenses. State Fund, a semi-public agency, provides workers compensation insurance
to California employers."
Californians going to the tax-deductible rager in D.C. known as the Obama Inaugural
have started a facebook group.
AP's Mike Blood opines on the death of the California dream. "In part because of the boom in population in other
Western states, California could lose a congressional
seat for the first time in its history."
Which got us to thinking... Who do you think most deserves
to have their Congressional congressional district
eliminated and why? E- mail us your thoughts. The winning entries, anonymous if requested, will
be published in this space
later this week.
