Undecided

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass says her caucus is undecided on the spending limit measure on the May 19 ballot. 

"After a long, closed-door meeting Tuesday, Assembly Democrats remain divided over the budget-balancing ballot measure at the heart of the May 19 special election, Proposition 1A, which would impose a cap and raise taxes," reports Capitol Weekly's John Howard.

"'Our caucus had a very long discussion on this,' Assembly Speaker Karen Bass told Capitol Weekly. 'There are a number of members who are supportive of 1A, there are several members who are opposed to 1A, and there are many others who are trying to decide. We are working through this and we will have another caucus next week,' she said Tuesday evening.

"When the spending cap came up for a vote on the Assembly floor, only three Democrats voted against the measure. Those three Democrats --Warren Furutani, D-Long Beach, Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, and Tony Mendoza, D-Los Angeles, later had their committee chairmanships stripped by Bass. The measure passed off the Assembly floor 74-6."

Bass also offered a glimpse at the state's economic future. “I’m hearing that we are going to have a $4 billion dollar (revenue) hole, so if the ballot measures don’t pass, then it becomes a $9 billion or $10 billion hole.”

"California appears likely to fall short on the federal stimulus money it needs to avoid the full brunt of tax hikes and spending cuts that lawmakers approved last month to settle a contentious 100-day budget stalemate," report Eric Bailey and Patrick McGreevy in the Times.

"Legislators had hoped to ease those new taxes and budgetary cuts with funds from the U.S. rescue package, but a fresh analysis of California's flagging fiscal situation suggests the state needs about $2 billion more than Washington is providing.

"About $8 billion of the needed $10 billion in federal revenue for budget relief will be available through 2010, according to a report that Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor presented to lawmakers Tuesday.

"If he's right, the state will probably be unable to avert the $1.8-billion personal income tax boost and $1 billion in slashed spending that were part of the budget package Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law in February.

"Taylor's 48-page report comes one week before a meeting of Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Schwarzenegger's finance director, Mike Genest, who are empowered by the Legislature to decide by April 1 whether enough federal money is available to scale back the taxes and cuts. Schwarzenegger's finance experts have concluded so far that the available federal funds are insufficient."

The Chron's Matthew Yi reports: "But the legislative analyst also warned that the state's fiscal picture continues to be grim. The budget approved last month by the Legislature and signed by Schwarzenegger included tax increases and deep spending cuts to close a $41 billion shortfall, Taylor said, but that may not be enough.

"'If you look at all of the economic data ... since when you passed the budget act, it's been pretty much all negative,' he told lawmakers. 'You should be prepared to see (the state's revenues go down).'"

"Just weeks after the Legislature passed a budget imposing billions in higher taxes, a state lawmaker Tuesday proposed a $1.50-a-pack cigarette tax hike in a bid to prop up the state's finances and curb smoking," writes Mike Zapler for the Merc News.

"Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, is hoping for success where countless others have failed. Recent California history is littered with similar tobacco tax plans defeated in the Legislature and at the ballot box. The state's last cigarette tax increase came in 1998, when voters narrowly approved a measure that raised the rate by 50 cents a pack.

"'I'm not saying it's going to be easy,' Padilla said at a news conference, where he was joined by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, a key supporter, and anti-smoking advocates including the American Cancer Society and American Lung Association. Still, Padilla added, the recently approved budget 'shows where there's a will, there's a way.'

"Padilla estimates the new tax would generate about $1.4 billion annually, 85 percent of which would go into the general fund that pays for state operations and services. The rest would be devoted to anti-smoking programs and lung cancer research."

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised Tuesday that his administration will fix problems at the Employment Development Department so jobless Californians don't hear expensive recorded messages when they call to apply for unemployment insurance," reports the Bee's Andrew McIntosh.

"It is already enough of a tragedy when you lose your job,' Schwarzenegger told reporters on the lawn outside the Capitol. 'The last thing you need is a recording when you call and you don't get the services provided.'

"The Bee has reported that millions of failed calls to the state's unemployment insurance call centers are costing California taxpayers millions of dollars.

"The Employment Development Department pays 5 cents to Verizon each time a caller dials its toll-free numbers to file or get help with an unemployment insurance claim and EDD staff can't handle the call.

"Instead of getting a busy signal, callers get a prerecorded message telling them that the department's phones are getting more calls than staff members can answer. The message urges callers to file their claims through the department's Web site.

"EDD paid Verizon $1.1 million in February for playing the custom phone message 20.4 million times, instead of a busy signal, to jobless callers who can't get through on the department's toll free lines."

"Residents of the not-so-Golden State have reached their deepest level of pessimism over the California economy in more than three decades," writes Peter Hecht in the Bee.

"According to a new Field Poll, 96 percent of registered voters now believe the state's economy is in bad times – the highest negative reading in the poll's 31 years of surveying attitudes on the economy.

"'How bad is it?' said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. 'It's nearly unanimous. When you ask people about the future, they're glum, and they're either saying the economy is going to stay the same or it is going to get worse.'" 

Dan Walters writes that a Supreme Court case decided this week, together with Proposition 11's changes to the redistricting process, may lead to a decline in the ranks of black legislators in Sacramento.

"That case (Bartlett v. Strickland) was decided this week and, as expected, Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Californian, was the swing vote, declaring the law "does not require state officials to draw election district lines to allow a racial minority that would make up less than 50 percent of the voting-age population in the redrawn district to join with crossover voters to elect the minority's candidate of choice."

"It means, in effect, that the "communities of interest" mandate of Proposition 11 would take precedence over drawing districts likely to favor black candidates in California when their voting-age populations are less than 50 percent. And that, in turn, could mean that the shrinking ranks of African American politicians could be shriveling some more."

The AP reports:  "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has scheduled a primary election for May 19 to fill the congressional seat left vacant when former Rep. Hilda Solis was confirmed as U.S. labor secretary.

"The primary will coincide with the special statewide election in which voters will consider six ballot measures related to the state budget.

"The winner of each party primary will face off in a July 14 special general election to fill the remainder of Solis' two-year term in the 32nd Congressional District."

Speaking of elections, in case you were wondering, Maria Shriver is not running for anything in 2010. "The Democrat said she is too much of a free spirit to be tied to a desk job,"reports the AP's Garance Burke.

"During a stop in Fresno on Tuesday to promote a tax program for low-income Californians, Shriver said she is focused for now on her latest projects, a best-selling book and an HBO special about Alzheimer's disease. She did not expressly rule out a campaign for public office in the future, however."

"In the face of a significant budget shortfall, the University of California plans to increase tuition at its 10 campuses by nearly 10 percent by July, in time for the summer session," writes Jim Doyle in the Chron.

"The tuition hike is planned for the summer sessions only, but UC officials have signaled that a permanent increase, beginning in the fall, will be necessary to help cover the state's decision to slash $115.5 million from UC over two years.

"A planned 9.3 percent increase for the summer, if extended to the 2009-10 academic year, would raise basic tuition for undergraduate students from $7,126 a year to about $7,789. In addition, various student services fees are expected to rise.

"The proposed increases were divulged Tuesday, the same day UC Berkeley officials announced plans to lay off an undetermined number of employees, significantly decrease the hiring of new faculty members and provide an opportunity for employees to reduce their work hours in return for reduced salaries. Campus officials also have instituted a hiring freeze for new nonfaculty positions."

"California's Office of Problem Gambling, responding to Sacramento Bee coverage of the lack of services for Asian problem gamblers, Wednesday announced plans to create treatment programs," writes Stephen Magagnini in the Bee.

"'First, we're going to have to figure out where we're going to get bilingual treatment providers' who can speak some of the key Asian languages, said Terri Sue Canale, director of the state OPG, who will outline the plans at the group's board meeting Thursday.

"And in late April, several Sacramento Southeast Asian groups will hold a town meeting to address problem gambling, said Neng Vang of Sacramento Area Congregations Together. The group will seek legislation to regulate casino advertising.

"'We're trying to change the public perception, that casinos are not like movie theaters – you do get hooked on it, and there are social problems that come with it,' said Vang, whose mother died in a bus wreck on the way to the Colusa Casino in October."

And finally, "Employees of a Pennsylvania pet store expecting a shipment of tropical fish and salt water got a man's dead body instead . Mark Arabia owns the Pets Plus store in northeast Philadelphia, where the mix-up was discovered Tuesday. He says he learned the body was that of a 65-year-old San Diego-area man who died of early onset Alzheimer's disease."

And that explains why the man forgot he was actually a tropical fish...