After three months of negotiating, the governor's plan
to put a tax-and-cut budget before voters is stymied in the Legislature.
Absent a deal, the bottom line for ruling Democrats
is whether they will push ahead for a special election through a simple-majority vote -- a maneuver fraught with legal peril.
From AP's Lien Hoang: "The most immediate question for the session beginning
Tuesday remains whether the governor and majority Democrats
can get Republican
support for an election this summer so voters can decide
whether to renew
higher sales, personal income and vehicle taxes."
"Senate President Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg, D-Sacramento,
said he could schedule a vote soon to force GOP lawmakers
to make a decision
but would not give up on a deal as long as the Democratic
governor wants to
keep negotiating."
"If bipartisan support for the special election fails,
Democrats have floated the idea of trying to get it
on the ballot by a simple
majority vote. Should that succeed, the vote almost
certainly would be disputed
in court because legislation related to taxes and ballot
measures require a
two-thirds majority."
If the Democrats haven't reached finality on a June
special election, school superintendents across the
state have: They want that election in hopes of convincing the
public to ante up.
From the Bee's David Siders: "The superintendents told reporters Monday at the
Capitol that they
have urged Republican lawmakers to accept Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed
tax election, a big part of his budget plan."
"If the measure fails, Fresno Unified School District
Superintendent Michael Hanson said,
"We will spend the '11-'12 school year decimating, devastating and tearing
down programs … across this entire state."
GOP senators have
demanded pension, regulatory and other changes in their budget negotiations with
Brown.
The drought hath ended. You knew that, right? In fact,
the drought doesn't officially end until the gubernatorial
executive order that declared the drought is rescinded.
And that's exactly what Gov. Brown says he's going
to do.
From Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury News: "Despite a torrential spring, California officially
remains in a state of "drought emergency." An emergency
proclamation
signed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February
2009, as well as a
similar executive order from 2008, is still the law of the land."
"On Monday, following questions from the Mercury News,
the
administration of Gov. Jerry Brown said that Brown
plans to rescind the
designation on Wednesday, officially ending the drought
as the latest Sierra
snowpack readings are announced."
"It didn't rain much in January, and rainfall and
river flows weren't at 100 percent in a few places of the state," said
state Natural Resources Secretary John Laird. "We wanted
to make sure the
drought was done."
By the way, this is a good time to check out our earlier story by Greg Lucas on the never-ending drought.
Meanwhile, Republican state Sen. Tom Harman's role
as a member of the "GOP Five" may help the Orange County
lawmaker in his likely bid for a seat on the state Board of Equalization.
From the OC Register's Martin Wisckol: "As evidence of his 2012
candidacy, here’s
the invitation to Harman’s
Board of Equalization fundraiser on April 21 at Nello Cucina in South Coast
Plaza. It’s $200 a head, no dinner."
"Harman and four other senators
have broken ranks with the rest of the Republicans
in the Legislature, saying
they will consider helping Brown qualify the ballot
measures if the governor
makes some compromises."
"The original GOP 5 request for compromises
leaped from three – a spending cap, pension reform and an easing of business
regulations – to 53 on Friday evening. That caused Brown some frustration
and appeared to be a step backward for the governor’s efforts."
In the Bay Area, BART is the story that keeps on giving,
and that's especially true now with the departure of
General Manager Dorothy Dugger. She'll leave and she'll likely take a lot of dough with her, note the Chronicle's Matier & Ross.
"If it's not seven figures, it could be doggone
close," said Lynette Sweet, one of nine BART directors who will
have to vote on the package. BART and Dugger have both armed up with outside attorneys
to do the final negotiations."
"Dugger, who has an open-ended contract that pays her
$354,000 a year, was basically fired by a 5-4 vote of BART directors last
month. Sweet was among those voting to keep her.
The vote, which was taken in closed session and without
proper notice, was quickly voided - but the die was cast."
"At this point, the only question appears to be a
politically sticky one: Should the payments be spread out over time, or does
Dugger walk with all the money at once - showing the public just how much their
elected directors are costing them?"
Leaving the world of Capitol politics for just a moment,
we enter the realm of 'birthright citizenship' decreed
by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The image of illegal
immigrants having "anchor babies" in the U.S. is a
popular one. But how about wealthy Chinese coming to the U.S. on
tourist visas to have their babies here?
"For months, officials say, the house was home to
“maternity tourists,” in this case, women from China who had paid tens of
thousands of dollars to deliver their babies in the
United States, making the
infants automatic American citizens. Officials shut
down the home, sending the
10 mothers who had been living there with their babies
to nearby motels."
“These were not women living in squalor — it was a well
taken care of place and clean, but there were a lot
of women and babies,” said
Clayton Anderson, a city inspector who shut down the
house on March 9. “I have
never seen anything like this before. We really couldn’t determine the exact
number of people living there.”
When these kids are teen-agers, they'll be back. Driving.
