Today Gov. Jerry Brown releases his revised budget for the Legislature to mull over as negotiations continue to shake out.
Chris Megerian reports in the Los Angeles Times: “During last year's budget talks, the governor was able to blunt his fellow Democrats' push for new spending by convincing them there wouldn't be enough money available.”
“But revenue has outpaced Brown's original projections by billions of dollars, and Assembly Budget Chair Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) said lawmakers will be more resistant to his calculations this year.”
"He tried that once," she said. "It will be harder to justify."
The fight over the Republican gubernatorial nomination tells of the ideological divide within the GOP.
Ben Adler reports for Capitol Public Radio: “Many establishment Republicans are scared about Donnelly advancing in June. He’s compared illegal immigration to war and was the only Assembly member to vote against a bill banning the state from selling the Confederate flag. And then there’s the controversy over his campaign accusing Kashkari of “submitting to Sharia law.””
“Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff fears Donnelly could cost his party seats in the legislature – in a year the GOP hopes to eliminate Democrats’ supermajorities.”
More than a decade after the defeat of Proposition 16, utilities may have found a new way to stave off the competition.
John Howard reports in Capitol Weekly: “Currently, communities can set up CCAs and residents who don’t wish to participate can “opt-out” of the program. The new bill, AB 2145 by Assemblyman Steve Bradford, D-Gardena, prohibits the creation of CCAs unless the residents “opt-in.”
“Bradford said his bill makes sure that “communities can know how well the community choice aggregator will meet these goals” and provides “consumer choice and transparency for future community choice aggregator customers.”
Political ads paid for by the plastic bag manufacturers could prove damaging to Sen. Alex Padilla’s secretary of state campaign.
Laurel Rosenhall reports in the Sacramento Bee: “Their new ad blasts Padilla for putting “powerful special interests before working families,” describing his bill as a giveaway to the grocery stores that will get to keep the 10 cents consumers would have to pay per bag if they don’t bring their own.”
“The ad targets Padilla as he is campaigning in a hotly contested race for Secretary of State. It calls the bill “Padilla’s dirty deal,” says grocers have paid millions in campaign contributions to state legislators and that Padilla is “paying them back” with the bill to ban plastic bags.”
A small number of voters may think Sen. Kevin De Leon has opted to run in their local Assembly race thanks to misprinted mailers.
Patrick McGreevy reports in the Los Angeles Times: “The corrected version was mailed to nearly 70,000 voters district-wide. Unfortunately, our mail house determined that a very small number of the earlier version was inadvertently sent out by the post office. We believe that less than 1% were wrong,” Jacobson said. “The vendor has apologized to the senator for the mix-up."
