Let's dance!

Jun 22, 2009

George Skelton breaks down the programming for the Legislature this week . 

 

"Call it the Dance of Death, the Kabuki or the Summer Follies -- the performance they're about to give in California's Capitol is a necessary ritual. But it shouldn't be taken very seriously by the outside world.

"Both houses of the Legislature intend to debate the Democrats' deficit-reduction proposal this week. They're the majority party, but their budget plan has no chance of passing intact. It's doomed by nearly $2.2 billion in additional tax increases, mostly on oil companies and smokers but also on motorists."

 

Mike Zapler highlights what we like to call the Guns 'n Roses aspect of the budget -- you know, the part where you have to use your illusion ? Too much of a reach? In any event...

 

"The menu of options to close California's massive deficit is short and seemingly clear: Cut spending, raise taxes or borrow. But faced with a money crunch the likes of which the Golden State has never seen, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators have pulled a less obvious tool out of the box. Call it budget magic."

 

Oooohh, we love magic! Tell us more!

 

"Need an extra $2.3 billion? Easy — just make people pay more of next year's taxes this year, by increasing paycheck withholdings and estimated tax payments.

 

"How about selling a chunk of a state insurance fund? That's good for a cool $1 billion on paper, even if experts say it's highly uncertain the sale would fetch that much, if it can be executed at all.

 

"Expenses still too high? Here's a really creative one: Push back state employees' monthly paychecks in June 2010 by a single day — from June 30 to July 1 — and thus onto the next fiscal year's books. Just like that, $1.2 billion "saved."

 

Those are just some of the maneuvers — or, to use a less charitable term, gimmicks — that the governor and lawmakers have suggested to help fill a $24 billion shortfall through June 2010. The proposals add up to about $10 billion, depending on what one defines as a gimmick.

 

If you're still interested, Dan Smith does a quick compare and contrast of the govenror's plan and the conference committee proposal.

 

The Merc's Ken McLaughlin looks at Tom Campbell's gubernatorial asperations. 

 

"He was once Silicon Valley's Golden Boy — David Packard's hand-picked political star, a tenured Stanford law professor at age 34, a valley congressman by 36. In the decade he served in Congress, he earned the "maverick" label before John McCain made it cool.

But for all of Tom Campbell's brains, integrity and fancy degrees, does he have any chance of becoming California's next governor?

 

"Many political scientists say it's clearly an uphill battle for Campbell, who's running against two Silicon Valley billionaires — former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner — in next June's Republican primary. But, most political experts are quick to say, history also says the 56-year-old Campbell could win — particularly since the GOP primary is shaping up to be a three-way, all-Silicon-Valley contest between candidates of similar political views."

 

While the LAT's Phil Willon looks at Antonio Villaraigosa's gubernatorial hopes. " Days from the start of his second term, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has earned tepid job approval ratings from city voters, and a plurality opposes his entrance into the upcoming race for governor, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.

"Los Angeles' brooding electorate, battered by job losses and home foreclosures that rise above national and state trends, feels strongly that the city is on the wrong track. And almost half believes the city needs to move in a direction different from that charted by Villaraigosa, rebuking the policies of a mayor they reelected a little more than three months ago.

 

"For Villaraigosa, who casts himself as a unifying political force in the mold of five-term Mayor Tom Bradley, the survey also indicated some fraying in the broad ethnic coalition that carried him into office in 2005. Almost three-fourths of Latino voters gave the mayor high marks, as did almost two out of three African Americans, but a narrow plurality of white voters gave him negative grades. "

 

Hmm, Villariagosa's approval rating is 55 percent -- not that diferent from President Obama's approval rating . So why is the narrative so different?

 

Meanwhile, the LAT's Michael Finnegan lands the first blow in the attorney general's race, looking at the record of San Francisco DA Kamala Harris.

 

Finnegan looks at the case of an undocumented immigrant who was part of a job training program run by the city. "The program, Back on Track, is a centerpiece of Harris' campaign for state attorney general. Until questioned by The Times about the Izaguirre case, Harris, a Democrat, had never publicly acknowledged that the program included illegal immigrants. In interviews last week, she and her office offered inconsistent explanations.

"The city has a history of shielding some illegal immigrant criminals from deportation. The assault on Kiefer occurred just a month after a triple homicide in San Francisco that put Mayor Gavin Newsom on the spot over the city's repeated release of Edwin Ramos, the illegal immigrant accused of the slayings."

 

The Chron's Jennifer Dlouhy looks at some early knocks against pending federal greenhouse gas legislation . 

 

"By storing waste from the dairy's 5,000 cows in a covered 7-acre lagoon and removing methane from it using sophisticated equipment, Joseph Farms is generating power that keeps refrigerators, lights and pumps running at its cheese plant.

 

"Across the nation, dairy operations such as Joseph Farms, as well as landowners growing trees on previously empty land and vegetable farmers who plant seeds over old crops without tilling their fields, could win big under climate-change legislation advancing on Capitol Hill.

 

"The measure, which might be considered by the House this week, would force businesses to meet steadily tightening limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. To meet the new caps, companies could cut their emissions or buy allowances from the federal government or other businesses to spew more of the pollutants.

 

"But the legislation also would allow companies to "offset" as much as 2 billion tons of their emissions each year by investing in pollution-reducing projects."

 

 

So, remember how Democrats and the governor opted to sell off part of the state's workers comp fund to close the budget gap? Well, as it turns out, " A 2-year-old criminal investigation into possible conflicts of interest and misuse of government property at the state-run company that is California's largest workers' compensation insurer moved into high gear Friday," Marc Lifsher reports.

 

As many as eight other search warrants had been served to people in Northern and Southern California, according to a state official who said she was briefed on the probe but was not authorized to release the information. In addition to Kent Dagg of Redding, other search-warrant recipients were likely to include former board member Frank DelRe of Long Beach, former fund President James Tudor and Vice President Renee Koren, the person said.

 

Jennifer Vargen, a spokeswoman for the insurer, generally known as State Fund, said the century-old company had been cooperating with the Highway Patrol and investigators since May 2007. She said she knew little about the probe other than that "multiple" search warrants were involved

 

Meanwhile, in case you hadn't heard, the governor's shabbat celebration got off to a rocky start. 

 

AP reports,"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plane was diverted Friday to the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley because of smoke in the cockpit."

 

Hey, at least it wasn't this