Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says its time to take a look at overhauling Proposition 13 -- and at the same time took on Jerry Brown for not leading the charge against the measure, sending a signal that Villaraigosa is contemplating running for governor in 2014. Gentlemen, start your engines.
From the Bee's Kevin Yamamura: "Villaraigosa called for taxing commercial property at higher levels, while lowering taxes on homes. The Democrat said lawmakers, school districts and local governments should be able to raise taxes on a majority vote, rather than the two-thirds supermajority required by Proposition 13."
"Gov. (Jerry) Brown, I say, we need to have the courage to test the voltage in some of these so-called 'third-rail' issues, beginning with Prop. 13," he said. "We need to strengthen Prop. 13 and get back to the original idea of protecting homeowners."
"Villaraigosa delivered a 25-minute speech titled "Making California First Again" with all the oratorical flourishes of a campaign speech. The onetime Assembly speaker blamed tea party activists for blocking revenues and portrayed the state budget as a patch job that resulted in higher fees and school cuts."
For his part, Gov. Brown is bruised and battered the budget battle, and faces the remainder of 2011 as a caretake more than as an originator of new ideas, reports the L.A. Times' Michael Mishak.
"With this year's legislative session set to end next month, the governor sees his role not as chief innovator but as fiscal caretaker, wary of the wave of bills lawmakers will send to his desk and the additional spending they will undoubtedly represent. State tax revenue plummeted more than $500 million below expectations last month, and Californians are facing the specter of deeper cuts in education and social programs."
"Brown said he is focused on implementing his plan to shift more state responsibilities to the local level."
"We're allocating the less here instead of handing out the more," Brown said in an interview. "There's a lot of work to be done not in just promoting new things but managing what's already on the table."
The simmering battle over online poker has intensified as the Legislature begins its final three weeks of this year's legislative session.
From the LA Times' Patrick McGreevy: "A group of casino operators has taken to radio and television with ads urging state lawmakers to legalize Internet poker in California, prompting opponents to step up pressure for legislators to table the proposal for the year."
"The ads by the California Online Poker Assn. say legalizing web-based poker could help the state avoid deep budget cuts. The spots started airing in the Sacramento area this week. Legislators are less than a month away from the deadline to act on bills this year."
“Online poker will provide California with $250 million dollars immediately and billions more in the future,’’ said Ryan Hightower, a spokesman for the association."
In San Francisco, federal investigators are looking into the "Run, Ed, Run" group that raised money to push for the reelection of Mayor Ed Lee. The review began after a retired lawmaker and judge, Quentin Kopp, made the formal request.
From the Bay Citizen's Gary Shih: "Tony Winnicker, a spokesman for Lee’s official campaign, said he had no knowledge of the investigation, adding that "Run, Ed, Run" was “completely independent from our campaign, and we have followed all ethics regulations to the letter of the law.”
"The campaigns for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Supervisor David Chiu and state Sen. Leland Yee — three of the leading candidates who called for an investigation into "Run, Ed, Run" — also said Monday they had no knowledge of an investigation."
"Interim District Attorney George Gascón, who is also running for re-election and has been facing calls to recuse himself from any potential investigations into Lee’s campaign, said the U.S. Attorney's office has not contacted him about any probes related to the mayoral race."
And from our "Mouse that Roared" file comes a Swedish surprise -- the airplane that was stopped because a mouse on board eluded the crew. Yet another reason to take a freighter.
"Shortly before the scheduled 10.30am take off of the Chicago-bound Airbus 330, a security guard spotted the mischievous mouse scurrying across the floor of the aircraft.
“Unfortunately the mouse has not been found and caught, despite an extensive search onboard and numerous mouse traps placed inside the aircraft,” SAS press officer Malin Selander told The Local on Tuesday afternoon."
“Due to safety concerns SAS has decided to ground the aircraft until the mouse has been caught.”
"Airport officials may resort to using smoke to force the mouse out of the plane, for fear that it will get into the electronics and gnaw them apart, a witness told the Aftonbladet newspaper."
