For Gov. Jerry Brown, the conundrum hasn't changed: Voters say they want the right to weigh in on the state budget, but they are divided over whether they should approve new taxes to balance the books. The PPIC poll hath spoken.
From the Chronicle's Wyatt Buchanan: "Opposition to the taxes could increase pressure on the
governor to forgo his election plan and pass the package with only support of
the Legislature, as Democratic leaders at the Capitol and public employee
unions have said they preferred."
"According to the poll, 62 percent of likely voters said
they want a special election, up 6 percentage points from April and 11
percentage points from March. However, 46 percent of likely voters said they
supported the taxes while 48 percent said they opposed them."
"But Brown, who called the poll "a little hard to
interpret," told reporters Wednesday that having voters weigh in on taxes
was a central pledge of his campaign that he intends to keep."
"When you have a log jam, it's very important to get
an outside arbiter, and I can't think of a better arbiter than the people
themselves," Brown said."
Former state Treasurer Matt Fong, the scion of a California political family and an unusuccessful candidate against Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate in 1998, has died of skin cancer.
From Anthony York in the LA Times: "His mother, March Fong Eu, a Democrat, was elected to the
state Assembly in 1966 and served as California's secretary of state from 1975
to 1994. She was later appointed U.S. ambassador to Micronesia by President Clinton."
"Fong was born in Alameda on Nov. 20, 1953, and was reared
in Oakland by his adopted parents, Eu and Chester Fong."
"He was first exposed to politics working on his
mother's campaigns. "When I was growing up, I remember every day after
junior high for a couple of years, we rang doorbells," he said in a 1998
interview. "We walked almost every street in Oakland. We gave out those
ugly potholders, and those bottle caps that never fit on any bottle."
"He decided to register as a Republican in 1986, despite his family's Democratic
Party ties. "The toughest part of the transition was telling my
mother," he said. "She thought I was joking."
The release date looms for the new political maps, and the devil will be in the details. Paul MItchell in Capitol Weekly tells the tale.
"Releasing drafts and having people believe they are
actually drafts will be a real PR challenge. If the governor came on live
TV and gave a “first draft” of his Budget press conference a day early, how
much could he really change that speech 24 hours later?"
"Once it is out there, the commission maps will take on a life of their own, and
it will be hard for the commission to pull them back and justify changes.
This is particularly true because in redistricting, once you change one line
you have to change multiple lines. The governor could “find” new
money to soften a budget problem, but until the commission can find new people,
every shift of 10,000 requires a shift of 10,000 somewhere else on the map."
"Republican Consultant Matt Rexroad told the commission he could throw a
football 40 yards, just like Payton Manning, but he couldn’t do it with 15
angry linemen running at him. The defensive line in redistricting is the
VRA, and MALDEF just made this juggernaut larger by presenting the commission with
maps that showed 17 majority-minority Assembly districts, an increase from nine
in the current lines. Any plan put out by the commission that splits the
difference could be a setup for a lawsuit."
Meanwhile, rival parties are hoping to exert pressure on the redistricting commission to get favorable maps. Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan tells the tale.
"The disputes have led to some strange political
bedfellows as well, with a prominent Democratic political consultant who
opposed the Commission defending it against Republican attacks, and the liberal
elections activist who got voters to approve the Commission defending the
California Chamber of Commerce against his accusations."
"Steve Maviglio is the principle of Forza Communications and a spokesman for
labor groups. He claims copies of emails he obtained through a California
Public Records Act request show improper communication between Commission staff
and the Chamber. In particular, he points to an email where Chamber Vice
President Rob Lapsley offered to “help get you the funding needed to hire two
firms” to help draw the lines."
"Maviglio said this violates the Bagley-Keene open meetings act and the
Commission's charter, which states; “Commission members and staff may not
communicate with or receive communications about redistricting matters from
anyone outside of a public hearing.”
If you haven't already, meet Fi$Cal, the new $1.6 billion program to overhaul, upgrade, improve and make uniform the state's computer systems for budgeting and accounting.
From Greg Lucas in Capitol Weekly: "Despite being home to the Silicon Valley, for 25 years
the state has struggled to successfully automate itself. The state has been
subject to federal non-compliance penalties, expensive cost overruns and, more
than once, failures severe enough to scrap projects after spending millions of
dollars."
"In 1994, for example, after spending $44 million, the state scuttled a
Department of Motor Vehicles computer system after trying to get it to work for
seven years."
"California began the Statewide Automated Welfare System in 1995. At the time,
the Legislative Analyst said it was “the most expensive application of
information technology ever undertaken by the state” with a projected cost of
$800 million over 12 years. It was completed during the fiscal year that began
July 1, 2006 at a cost of $1.6 billion."
And from our "You Are What You Eat" file comes the Orange County tale of a group of teen-agers who went to a Denny's for the all-you-can eat special.
"Keep that anecdote in mind for the
following story: Denny's currently offers an all-you-can-eat pancake special
for $5. Over the weekend, seven teenage boys went to a Foothill Ranch Denny's
and ordered the promotion. And then they began to eat. And eat. And eat. And
eat. For 24 hours straight. Nothing but pancakes."
"This
amazing story comes courtesy of Greg Hardesty, fine reporter for the Orange County Register and someone who did his own incredible
feat this weekend: ran 24 hours straight as part of a fundraiser for the Wounded Warriors Project,
which helps our wounded military personnel when they return home."
"While I was finishing my 24-hour
run yesterday, my son and six friends were starting a 24-hour all-you-can-eat
pancake stay at Denny's in Foothill Ranch," Hardesty wrote on his Facebook
page. "They ate 301, averaging more than 14,000 calories per person ---
all for $5 each. They are establishing a new category for the Guinness Book of
World Records. I think my family has a weird gene."
I think I'm going to puke...
