While the governor plans to sign the budget today in the Capitol rotunda, he's beginning to focus on the next battles--health care and redistricting reform.
"With his agenda undermined by the prolonged budget battle, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
has shifted to hardball negotiating in a last-ditch effort to secure a pair of key policy victories in the three weeks remaining on the legislative calendar," reports Evan Halper in the Times.
"The governor has made clear publicly that he is determined not to have his policy proposals co-opted by the Democrats who control the Legislature -- and who have signaled that the only way Schwarzenegger will accomplish anything is if he does it on their terms.
"With a flurry of announcements and media briefings in recent days,
he has redoubled efforts to push through his own plan to bring healthcare to more Californians, saying bluntly that he will not sign off on a Democrat alternative that includes substantially higher levies on employers.
"
He also has moved to the top of his priority list a long-simmering proposal to reshape state elections to replace partisans at the Capitol with more moderates like him. Administration officials said Thursday that if lawmakers failed to move on that plan, which would require them to give up the power to draw their own voting districts, Schwarzenegger could sabotage a likely February ballot measure that would benefit their political careers."
But, it won't be easy.
"'
The governor is absolutely accurate when he describes himself as post-partisan,' said
Dan Schnur, a GOP political consultant who is part of a coalition that is working with the administration on a redistricting package. '
But in the state Capitol, he is a very lonely post-partisan. Virtually every member of the state Legislature was elected to represent the ideological base of their party.'"
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
gave a chilly reception Thursday to a GOP-backed plan to change the way California awards electoral votes in presidential elections – a proposal critics say could tilt the outcome in favor of Republicans," reports the AP.
"'
In principle, I don't like to change the rules in the middle of the game,' the Republican governor told reporters.
"Schwarzenegger added he wasn't versed in details of the ballot proposal and stressed he wasn't taking a definitive position. But his uneasy response is likely to make it harder for supporters to build momentum and could chill fundraising."
"In what one Republican said was an 'accounting gimmick' that would not affect services, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today
will cut more than $300 million from California's health insurance program for the poor when he issues his vetoes and signs the state's long-delayed budget," reports Judy Lin in the Bee.
"Sen.
Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, said almost $310 million --
nearly half -- of the governor's $700 million in cuts he pledged will come from an 'accounting adjustment reducing Medi-Cal reserves,' which he believes does little to change the number of people entitled to the benefit.
"Finance spokesman
H.D. Palmer said the administration had no comment on specific budget vetoes."
The governor, however,
did sniff around for that other white meat yesterday.
"The Republican governor is expected to use his line-item veto authority to cut from the $103 billion general fund spending plan to carry out a pledge he says will ensure that the state spends no more than it takes in during the fiscal year -- a zero operating deficit."
Dan Walters writes that Republicans weren't the only ones trying to use the budget to leverage policy changes. "Perhaps the oddest trailer bill saga, however, involves Senate Bill 92, drafted in Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez's office and approved by the Assembly on July 20.
"One portion appropriated $18 million to help charter schools in poor neighborhoods pay rent on facilities, a sharp cut from the $44 million that Schwarzenegger sought in his budget. Another essentially prohibited the State Board of Education from granting any more statewide school charters.
"
Núñez's aides said it was designed to curb the board's leniency on granting statewide charters, but it may have been a knee-capping assault on Los Angeles' Green Dot charter school system, which serves poor neighborhoods but has gained the enmity of school unions and has applied for a statewide charter."Whatever the bill's true purpose, it was clearly aimed at forcing Schwarzenegger, a charter school backer, to either accept the statewide ban or have charter schools serving poor children lose vital aid. But when the governor quickly made it known that he would, in fact, veto the bill, the speaker backed down and had SB 92 held at the Assembly desk."
Meanwhile, "[t]he
Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians said yesterday that it
plans to build an $800 million casino-hotel resort – the most expensive in the state – just east of its existing 2,500-slot casino and outlet mall," reports Onell Soto in the Union-Tribune.
"As envisioned, the new resort 35 miles from downtown San Diego would feature 2,500 slots, a 600-room hotel, a pool, a spa, shops, restaurants, a conference center, a multiplex movie theater, two parking structures and a new power plant.
"'It's a huge deal,' said Viejas Chairman
Bobby Barrett, noting that the plans are still in the works and the numbers may change."
"The state controller
announced plans Thursday to overhaul the widely criticized way California has seized millions of dollars in unclaimed property left in stray bank accounts and abandoned safe deposit boxes," writes Mark Lifsher in the Times.
"The program, halted by a federal judge in June, has been under attack for years from account holders and their heirs who contended that California was looting millions of dollars from their accounts to boost state coffers -- without making any real effort to first find the rightful owners.
"The judge on June 1 ordered the temporary halt, saying the state failed to provide "constitutionally adequate notice before accepting or taking title to property."
"State Controller
John Chiang said Thursday that he had thousands of notice letters sealed, addressed and ready to be mailed to the likely owners of millions of dollars' worth of corporate stocks, other securities and safe deposit boxes that have been seized over the years by the state as unclaimed property."
"More seniors
are passing the state's high school exit exam,
but failure rates among poor and minority students remain disproportionately high, and dropouts are not counted in the state's numbers, the state Department of Education said Thursday.
"As of May, the pass rate for the class of 2007 was 93.3%, a 2.1 percentage point increase over the class of 2006 for that period. The pass rate also was higher for some lower-scoring groups, including African American students, who saw a gain of 4.7 percentage points. Latino students saw a gain of 3.1 points, and economically disadvantaged students 2.6 points.
"'What a difference a year makes,' said state Supt. of Public Instruction
Jack O'Connell. 'The exit exam is now an accepted part of our accountability system. I like to call it the capstone.'"
"A
troop of vervet monkeys is giving Kenyan villagers long days and sleepless nights, destroying crops and causing a food crisis," reports the BBC.
"Earlier this month, local MP
Paul Muite urged the Kenyan Wildlife Service to help contain their aggressive behaviour.
"But Mr Muite caused laughter when
he told parliament that the monkeys had taken to harassing and mocking women in a village.
"But this is exactly what the women in the village of Nachu, just south-west of Kikuyu, are complaining about.
"They estimate there are close to 300 monkeys invading the farms at dawn. They eat the village's maize, potatoes, beans and other crops.
"And because women are primarily responsible for the farms, they have borne the brunt of the problem, as they try to guard their crops.
"
The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts."They say the monkeys are more afraid of young men than women and children, and
the bolder ones throw stones and chase the women from their farms."
