Capitol Weekly reports the standoff between Democrats
and Gov. Scwharzenegger got a little expensive this
morning. "The state Senate rejected three bills that
would have lessened the state's immediate cash crush by billions of dollars in a
surreal
late-night session in which a packed Senate chamber quietly
counted down the minutes to the new fiscal year, as
Senate leader Darrell Steinberg's efforts to cajole Republicans came up empty.
"Republicans in the Senate, at the behest of Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, did not vote for the bills because
Democrats and Republicans could not come to an agreement
of a comprehensive $24 billion budget solution that the governor has repeatedly
said he must have before signing any partial budget
fixes.
"The bill's failure means that Controller John Chiang will begin
issuing promisary notes to certain state vendors so
that the state has enough cash on hand to meet debt
service obligations and make education payments that
are constitutionally required."
If you didn't stay up for the festivities, you can read the saga
of the final moments of the last fiscal year, blow-by-blow, on Capitol Weekly's Twitter feed.
The LAT's budget team reports, "The state Senate, in late session, voted several times
as midnight
approached in a last-ditch effort to approve $3.3 billion in cuts to
education and other programs and stave off, at least
temporarily, the
IOUs that California Controller John Chiang is set to begin issuing
Thursday in lieu of some payments.
"Democrats had been hoping to use the funds to help
defray the state's
projected $24-billion deficit. But the money was allocated for the
fiscal year that ended Tuesday, and after that it was
too late to make
the cuts.
"We have that duty to make sure that no one starves," state Sen. Jenny
Oropeza (D-Long Beach) said as she pleaded with GOP senators for their
votes.
"But Republican senators blocked the plan, which the
Assembly
approved last week. Schwarzenegger had vowed to veto
the legislation
because it did not meet his demand that any agreement
close the state's
entire deficit, an argument echoed by the Republicans
in the Senate."
Dan Walters says he's seen this movie before.
"The Capitol's
budget game has evolved into a predictable pattern
of political moves,
one of which is a late-blooming demand for something not directly tied
to the budget as a price for its enactment.
"Demanders, usually the governor or minority legislators,
justify
their genteel extortion on the grounds that without
the leverage
provided by the budget, the majority party would simply
ignore them.
"That's why, for instance, the February budget deal included
some hefty corporate tax breaks and a constitutional
amendment demanded by Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado to create an open primary election system in California.
"The most recent political confrontation over the budget,
which was still playing itself out late Tuesday, includes
an 11th-hour
demand by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that Democrats
agree to an overhaul of the state's pension system and health benefits for retired state
workers."
The Register's
Brian Joseph says there may be hope to avoid IOUs . "Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, noted after the Senate’s unsuccessful session that State Controller John Chiang said he wouldn’t begin issuing IOUs until Thursday. Steinberg says
he thinks that gives the Senate one more day to try.
The Wall St. Journal's Stu Wu pens what's known in the trade as a beat sweetener, scribbling a little valentine to Susan Kennedy.
"Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his effort
to end the
partisan bickering that is pushing California to the
brink of
insolvency, is deploying Susan Kennedy, his cigar-smoking,
paintball-playing Democratic chief of staff, to get the job done."
Because we all know that nobody heals partisan wounds
like Susan Kennedy...
"The 48-year-old Ms. Kennedy has built a reputation as a pragmatic
leader equally inclined to work with -- and lambaste -- lawmakers from
both parties. Such a regard would have been unthinkable five years
ago,
when Republicans viewed her as a stereotypical Democrat
-- a former
director of the state party and top aide to Gov. Gray
Davis who lives
in famously liberal Marin County with her partner."
We won't share what the night birds in the Capitol were saying
as they scrolled through the Susan Kennedy slide show late last night.
Oh, and if you want some more bad news, the state just
lost another court case that says they're on the hook to reimburse transit agencies for millions of dollars borrowed during the last
budget mess.
Well, it's not bad news if you're in transit, we suppose.
The LAT's Shane Goldmacher reports, "A
state appeals court ruled Tuesday that California officials
have
illegally siphoned away billions of dollars from mass
transit in the
last two years to balance the budget.
"The decision by a panel of judges in the Third District
Court of
Appeal in Sacramento would put the state on the hook
for $2.5 billion
in transfers made in the last two years, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman
for the Department of Finance.
"Nearly $1 billion more in such transfers is included in the
2009-10 budget under consideration in the Legislature."
Steve Harmon takes a moment to profile the Legislature's two Republican leaders."One is a dairy farmer's
son who once sold bull semen to pay for college. The
other is a music
professor's son who once researched earthquakes for Exxon.
The
farmer's son, Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, is a darling of
the right wing of the Republican Party. Assemblyman
Sam Blakeslee,
R-San Luis Obispo, the music teacher's son, is a favorite among
environmentalists.
"They bring widely varying resumes to their
posts as leaders of their respective Republican caucuses,
but on taxes
and their approach to solving the state's economic crisis, there is
little that separates the two.
"They both fiercely oppose taxes
and insist that the free market should lead the way
out of the state's
$24.3 billion deficit. That shouldn't be surprising, given how they
came to lead their caucuses."
One passed the stopgap budget bills out of his house,
while the other did the governor's bidding and plunged the state deeper into the budget
morass...
Meanwhile, the feds are ready to take over our state parks , the Merc's Paul Rogers reports.
"The federal government is threatening to take possession of several of California's most prominent state parks — including Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the top
of Mount Diablo and four miles of beaches at Fort Ord Dunes near Monterey — if Sacramento lawmakers close them to balance the
budget.
"That's the message from the National Park Service, which also has told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
that California will be blocked from receiving future
money from the
Land and Water Conservation Fund, the leading federal
source of funding
for parks, if it closes state parks now.
"The
warnings came in a letter dated June 8 and obtained Tuesday by the
Mercury News from Jon Jarvis, the Pacific regional director of the National Park Service, to Schwarzenegger."
Warning? Heck, unless we're missing something it sounds like a great way out
for lawmakers. Send in the feds!
And finally, "As legislators battled over the state budget
Tuesday, an independent commission voted to slash lawmakers' per-diem
payments, car allowances and medical and other fringe
benefits by 18
percent," the Bee's Susan Ferriss reports.
"The vote in Sacramento by the California Citizens Compensation
Commissionfollows the board's vote last May to cut legislator and constitutional
state officer salaries by 18 percent as of December 2010.
"The
salary cuts could save an estimated $2.9 million a year. The non-salary
cuts, which the commission wants to impose starting
Dec. 1 of this
year, would save an estimated $7.8 million over the next six years."
