The governor went Hans and Franz on the budget deficit Monday, saying it would be
pumped up to $21.3 billion if voters reject the measures on the May 19 ballot And then he sat down to collect his thoughts.
The OC Register's Brian Joseph reports, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
sent the four legislative leaders a letter this evening
stating that if
the measures on the May 19 ballot fail, the state will face a deficit
of $21.3 billion," the OC Register's Brian Joseph reports.
“We now face the leanest of times,” Schwarzenegger wrote in his letter to Senate Leader
Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento; Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles; Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta; and Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee
of San Luis Obispo.
“California, for the first time since 1938, faces
a decline in personal income.
The budget, as adopted by the
Legislature in late February, closed an unprecedented
budget shortfall
of $41.6 billion and provided for a reserve of $2.1 billion as of June
30, 2010.
That budget arose from revenue estimates based on data
through November 2008.
“Since that time, the severe economic downturn that
California, like
the rest of the nation, has been facing has worsened
substantially.
These changes in the state’s economic and revenue pictures have caused
a significant new budget problem to emerge."
Doesn't exactly sound like Rilke, does it?
Joe Mathews reports that the governor will unveil two budget proposals on Thursday, "would show the state spending plan in the event that
all six
measures pass; the other would show precisely what cuts he will propose
if all the measures fail.
"He said he was doing this “so that people have a clear
understanding” of the situation. Schwarzenegger made this announcement
after a meeting with local government officials from
around Southern
California at the Culver City Senior Center."
Details of the plan will not be released until May
28, but the two summaries will be released this week
in order to have a little compare and contrast time
before voters go to the polls.
The Chron's John Widermuth asks the question we've been asking ourselves: Where's DiFi?
"After two weeks of hemming and hawing, Sen. Barbara
Boxer came out
today in favor of Propositions 1A and 1B on the May 19 ballot, saying
that "these two measures will help get California back on
track, while
protecting our investment in education."
But while Boxer said at the state Democratic Convention
last month
that she was working with San Francisco's own Dianne Feinstein to come
up with a joint endorsement, the senior senator was
nowhere to be found
this afternoon."
And the first No on 1A commercial was released Monday, courtesy of SEIU and the CFT. Look! They found their
own teachers to put on the air! (Well, sort of...)
Speaking of SEIU, the LAT's Halper and Nicholas report, "The Obama administration said Monday that it has made no decision about
whether to rescind $6.8 billion in stimulus money allotted to
California in a dispute over the legality of a wage
cut for home
healthcare workers who belong to a politically powerful
union.
The announcement is at odds with what state officials
said they had
explicitly been told. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration said
they were notified by senior Obama staff on May 3 that California's
plan to cut wages for unionized home healthcare workers
violated the
law that authorized the stimulus package."
Jim Sanders reports the Assembly is bracing for new cuts of their own. "Assembly Speaker Karen Bass announced 10 percent cuts to office
budgets that each Assembly member uses to pay for staff
and operating
costs.
"Lawmakers must decide for themselves how best to implement
the cut, which amounts to $29,000 annually for each of the Assembly's
80 districts."
So, um, those pay raises are out of the question?
And the ever-profitable textbook wars were back in the Capitol Monday. The LAT's Patrick McGreevy reports, "California teenagers may be spared having to lug back-breaking loads of
textbooks to school under a proposal that would make
it easier for
campuses to use electronic instructional material.
"Allowing high
schools greater freedom to spend state money on software
to put
textbooks on laptops and other electronic devices was
backed by the Los
Angeles Unified School District and approved Monday
by the state Senate."
And by whoever makes the software, no doubt.
The CoCo Times' Steve Harmon reports, "An Assembly
committee on Monday approved a bill, SCR4, to name a stretch of
Interstate 680 between the Benicia Bridge and Highway 24 in Walnut
Creek the Daniel E. Boatwright Highway.
"But don't expect
Boatwright to drive down that stretch of highway any
time soon. He's
never seen any of the landmarks named for him. "It would be the
height of egotism to do that," said Boatwright, 79, who is now the
general counsel for Sacramento Advocates, a lobbying
firm run by his
former chief of staff, Barry Brokaw."
And finally, AP reports, "The Simpsons" -- America's most-loved dysfunctional family -- got their own postal stamps on Thursday , becoming the first television series to be featured as the sole subject of a U.S. stamp
set while still in primetime production."
Some really took the news to heart.
But hey, if they're giving out stamps based on dysfunction, we're really looking forward to the California government
stamp...
