"Assembly Speaker
Karen Bass granted a 5 percent pay increase on April 1
to dozens of rank-and-file members of the Assembly staff, but she says
the
Assembly is still on track to reduce its overall operating
budget. The increases come as the state grapples with
an unprecedented budget shortage and state employees
have been forced to take unpaid furloughs.
"The speaker said the raises were overdue.
“'These are people who haven’t had a raise in a couple of years,' Bass told Capitol Weekly.
She said she was sensitive to the appearance of authorizing
the pay increases in a time of austerity, but said,
'I have a real concern about retaining staff. I’ve lost staff, especially to the Third House (lobbyists).'
"In all, more than $550,000 in additional annual salary was granted to
136 employees of the Assembly -- a number that includes 80 Democratic
and 56 Republican staff. Bass said her senior staff
was excluded from the most recent round of pay hikes.
"The state Senate has had a freeze on pay increases
since Jan. 14. A Jan. 16 memo from Senate secretary Greg Schmidt
states, 'All salaries of Senate employees are frozen until further
notice, and no supplementary compensation in any form
will be approved.'
"Waldie said no such freeze was ever in effect in the
Assembly, and that new pay increases are granted “all the time.”
We were wondering how the Speaker was going to get
out of that pledge to support Prop 1A...
The LAT's Patrick McGreevy reports, "Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) said she awarded about
$350,000 in merit increases averaging 5% to about 80 legislative
employees serving members of her party .
"Minority leader Michael Villines (R-Clovis) distributed $201,000 in raises averaging 5.5% to 56 staffers working for Republicans, according to Jon Waldie, the Assembly chief administrative officer."
Let the muttering begin...
"Aiming to stake his claim to the tech-savvy young voters who helped elect President Obama,
San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom, 41, today
took to the new media to formally announce he's running for governor - by directly addressing hundreds of thousands of supporters
simultaneously via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter."
The announcement precedes that of frontrunner Jerry
Brown, who is expected to announce via cave drawings.
"'We can't afford to keep returning to the same old tired ideas
and expect a different result,' the Democrat told supporters in his three-minute YouTube announcement, part of the unprecedented
"virtual fly-around" campaign announcement done entirely in the new media.
"The gubernatorial candidate's announcement video, which premiered on his Web page,
GavinNewsom.com, utilizes three languages - English, Spanish and Mandarin - as well as images of solar technology, schools and
health care facilities. It argued that Newsom - now in his second term as the city's mayor - has created jobs, helped San Francisco establish a
rainy day reserve and budgetary "sound fiscal policy," and has tackled the challenge of providing universal
health care to the uninsured.
"In his announcement, Newsom says his record on issues
like environmental and green technology issues, health
care and government spending 'isn't conservative or progressive. It's just plain smart for everyone.'"
While one candidate jumps in the race, another is expected
to exit today.
John Garamendi is today expected to announce a congressional
bid
for Ellen Tauscher's seat.
Speaking of potential Congressional openings, Jane Harman is fighting back against accusations that she used her position to
intervene on behalf of two lobbyists in exchange for
a donor's support for Harman to be named head of the House
Intelligence Committee.
The LAT's Josh Meyer reports FBI "wiretaps recorded Harman offering to intervene in the
case in return
for support of her effort to be named head of the intelligence
panel.
"According to the news reports, that support would come
from California
entertainment mogul Haim Saban, who allegedly would threaten to
withhold campaign donations from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless
Harman was named chairwoman.
"Harman was not named chairwoman, and Pelosi said Tuesday
that Saban never pressed her on that front.
"When asked what was behind the allegations Tuesday,
Saban replied: "No idea."
"Harman insisted in an interview that she had done
nothing inappropriate on behalf of the two men or AIPAC."
CW's John Howard reports,
"A move is under way in the Capitol to block local districts
across California from levying a fee on out-of-town, at-fault drivers
to cover the locals' costs of cleaning up car crashes. The legislative
discussion emerges even as a dozen locals already have
imposed the charge and others are considering whether
to do it.
At issue is what opponents - led by insurers - call the "accident tax,"
a fee typically ranging from $500 to $2,000 that is levied on motorists
who cause accidents - but only if they are from outside the area. Four
out
of five fees are in the $500 range, according to one billing company.
The LAT's Seema Mehta gives the Proposition 1B overview.
"A proposition on the May special election ballot would
provide $9.3 billion for California schools if voters also agree
to extend recent tax increases for up to two additional
years.
"The ballot measures are among several that were hatched
when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders
brokered a state budget deal in February to close a
$42-billion gap.
"Proposition 1B would send $9.3 billion to the state's school districts and community colleges in increments,
starting in the 2011-12 fiscal year, to make up for earlier cutbacks in state
funding. But even if it is approved by voters, it would
go into effect only if Proposition 1A also passed. That measure would create a state spending
cap and a "rainy-day fund" for lean years, and would extend tax increases included
in the state's 2009 budget for up to two years beyond their current expiration
in 2011.
"Little organized opposition has emerged to Proposition
1B, the school funding measure. But Proposition 1A has created strange political bedfellows united in
their dislike for the measure. These include labor
groups that fear a cap would constrain future state
spending, such as the powerful Service Employees International
Union, and taxpayer groups that are against $16 billion in tax hikes."
"At its essence, Proposition 1B on the May 19 ballot represents an out-of-court settlement of a multibillion-dollar legal dispute," writes James Sweeney in the U-T.
"To make sure the formidable teachers association did
not oppose Proposition 1A – which would create a new state spending limit and
a larger reserve fund while also extending a series
of tax increases – Republicans insisted on linking the two measures.
"The revenue stream to pay the $9.3 billion would be established by Proposition 1A. Education officials say schools desperately need
the money to recover from recent budget reductions
and are willing to go to court to get it back.
"'K-12 schools took over 50 percent of the cuts in the state budget this year,' said Becky Zoglman, associate executive director of
the teachers association. 'Proposition 1B is one way to get some of that money back.'"
Dan Weintraub trashes the measure.
"That is exactly the kind of ballot-box budgeting that brought
California to the brink of insolvency. At the very
time when we should
be reassessing our priorities and keeping every option
open, this
proposal asks voters to close off options and lock
in spending by
formula."
Dan Walters reads a new study by Stanford critical of the high school exit
exam.
"The study found no evidence that exit exams had elevated
overall academic achievement. It did determine that
female, African American and Latino students underperform
on the mathematics portion of the test, while all nonwhite
students do relatively poorly on the English language
portion.
"'The exit exam has reduced graduation rates among girls
and students of color in the lowest- performing quartile by nearly 20 percentage points,' says a synopsis of study findings.
"One aspect of the Stanford study's findings is what researchers call the "stereotype threat," defined as the extra stress on female and nonwhite
students to do well on tests, fearing that failure
would confirm negative stereotypes.
"California's education crisis will not be solved by quick fixes
such as exit exams, no matter how superficially appealing
they may be. The earlier Stanford studies showed the
way – policies based on sound research into what really
works in the classroom and what doesn't, backed up by enough money to provide the varied
curricula that an infinitely diverse student population
requires."
"Hoping Californians can save water like they did energy,
the state on Tuesday launched a conservation campaign to nudge all residents
to take simple steps to help each other through the
drought," writes the Bee's Matt Weiser.
"Dubbed "Save Our Water," the program is modeled after the highly successful
"Flex Your Power" campaign that helped California in the energy crisis
of 2001.
"It includes a new Web site at www.saveourh2o.org, billboards and media advertising.
"It even features a celebrity spokesman: former Giants manager Dusty Baker, a native Californian
and outdoorsman."
And finally, the LAT's Michael Rothfeld reports: "In a webcast interview Tuesday, the governor said he
may return to the big screen next month in the film
"Terminator Salvation."
"Warner Bros. is exploring whether it can insert images
of Schwarzenegger from the original "Terminator" movie into the new film starring Christian Bale, directed
by McG and slated for release May 21.
"Schwarzenegger told blogger Bill Bradley, who asked some questions of his own and others submitted
via Twitter, that he had met with the director and
agreed to be in the movie as long as he didn't have to perform."
Funny, some say he took the job of governor with the
same understanding...
