Half way there"The state Assembly on Monday
approved the first phase of a $14.4-billion plan to extend medical insurance to nearly all residents, giving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Democratic allies their first victory in a risky yearlong campaign to overhaul California's healthcare system," report Jordan Rau and Patrick McGreevy in the Times.
"The measure, negotiated by Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), would require almost everyone in California to have insurance starting in 2010. It would provide subsidies and tax credits for those who would have trouble paying their share of the premiums.
"The authors
estimate that it would bring medical coverage to 3.6 million Californians, including 800,000 children, who currently don't have it. But the plan cannot go into effect unless it passes the state Senate and voters approve a companion initiative that Schwarzenegger and Nuñez are planning to place on the November ballot to finance it.
"The measure, which passed the Assembly on a party-line 45-31 vote, was heralded as an important step not only for California but for a national Democratic effort to enact a similar plan for the entire country.
"'
California has taken a giant step forward today on something that many people thought could not be done,' Schwarzenegger said. '
With the Assembly's courageous vote . . . we are closer than ever to fixing our broken healthcare system.'"
But...where's
Don Perata?
The Chron's Tom Chorneau reports: "The Senate
is expected to consider the bill after the holidays. If it wins approval and is signed by the governor, the plan will go before voters in November.
"While the governor and Núñez celebrated the Assembly vote, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, has been skeptical about putting the proposal before voters when the state faces a budget deficit of $14 billion in the coming fiscal year.
"Perata said Monday that while he supports the health care overhaul plan, he wants more information about its fiscal impacts before he brings the bill to his members.
"He has asked the legislature's nonpartisan budget office - the legislative analyst - to investigate the impact of the proposed bill on the state's general fund.
"'
I welcome the progress being made in the Assembly to pass a workable health care reform plan, and I look forward to the Senate receiving the legislation and taking a close look at it,' Perata said."
While the deal was crafted between the Democratic speaker and Republican governor, there was no talk of bipartisanship or postpartisanship yesterday. Instead, the speaker issued a press release that proclaimed the bill a "Democratic comprehensive health care bill."
Even if the bill makes it through the Senate, key financing pieces have to be approved by voters in November to take effect.
The U-T's Bill Ainsworth
reports on the potential opposition: "In 2006, the tobacco industry spent more than $60 million to defeat a proposed cigarette tax increase.
John Singleton, a spokesman for cigarette company RJ Reynolds, said yesterday that
he expected the tobacco industry to spend a similar amount to defeat any proposed tobacco tax increase.
"Tobacco companies, Singleton said, will argue that it is unfair to require smokers, who are mostly of low and moderate incomes, to fund something that benefits all California residents."
"Further, Singleton said, the decline in the cigarette smoking means that tobacco taxes are decreasing, while health care costs are rising.
"
Blue Cross of California, the state's leading private insurer, is also likely to spend millions of dollars to oppose the ballot measure."A Blue Cross spokesman said yesterday that requiring insurers to cover all who want it regardless of pre-existing conditions will increase premiums for current policyholders."
At the Assembly Appropriations hearing yesterday, many details were unclear and language for the ballot measure was still being drafted by the Legislative Counsel. Nuñez said that the tobacco tax would be somewhere between $1.50 and $2.00 per pack.
Dan Walters writes that the rush to pass the bill while many details are outstanding was to satisfy the political egos of Nuñez and Schwarzenegger, and
warns that the bill is reminiscant of the reform bill that provoked the energy crisis.
Meanwhile, the Merc News's Steven Harmon
reports on the latest proxy war. "The battle over Proposition 93, the proposal to loosen term limits, has suddenly become a potential preview of a matchup of two Silicon Valley multimillionaire entrepreneurs with gubernatorial aspirations.
"
Steve Westly, the former state controller who lost in last year's Democratic primary for governor, said Monday he will throw his name and money behind Prop. 93, six weeks after Republican Insurance Commissioner
Steve Poizner took over the No on 93 campaign and contributed a cool $1.5 million of his own money to defeat it.
"Westly downplayed any further political ambitions - or a potential clash of Silicon Valley titans.
"'
I'll make a decision next year about whether 2010 is the right time for me, and my family, to run again,' said Westly, responding to an interview request by e-mail. 'This initiative isn't about Steve Poizner or myself, its about how we best prepare California to be successful in the future.'"
On Monday, former Governor
Pete Wilson announced his opposition to the measure.
In other election news, a last-minute mailer sent
by Mike Gipson in his unsuccessful bid against
Warren Furutani is raising eyebrows.
The Bee's Shane Goldmacher
reports: "The controversial mailing was sent by Gipson's campaign in a heated Democratic battle between Gipson, a Carson City Council member, and Warren Furutani, a Los Angeles Community College board member. Furutani won the Dec. 11 special election for a Los Angeles-area Assembly seat.
"
Packaged to look like a Christmas greeting, the card read 'from my family to yours' and promised 'a chance for a $250 Christmas Shopping Trip at Target,' courtesy of the Gipson campaign. All a voter had to do was cast a ballot and bring a voting receipt on election night to Gipson's headquarters, where they would hold a raffle to determine the 10 winners."
At least not everyone lost at the Gipson headquarters last Tuesday...
"Gifts, monetary or otherwise, are banned in federal elections, but they're allowed in state contests – so long as the giveaway doesn't depend on voting for or against a particular candidate or issue.
"California's chief elections officer, Secretary of State
Debra Bowen, said 'it appears that it is not illegal under California law, though it probably should be.'"
"Saying that his judgment was 'deficient and unprofessional,' the executive director of the state parole board
resigned his job Monday after riding in a state car after drinking with a board colleague who was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving," reports Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"
John Monday, 56, a state employee for 34 years, had been in charge of the Board of Parole Hearings since May 2006. In his resignation letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, he said he was quitting because the Nov. 27 incident has "disrupted my design for continuing to improve the performance" of the parole board.
"'My judgment on that day was deficient and unprofessional and has moreover, caused media speculation and negative innuendo,' Monday said in the letter. 'I deeply regret the embarrassment I have caused the administration and my family.'"
"
Susan Leal, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission,
was struck by a car in front of City before noon today and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, according to the spokesman for the commission.
"Leal was in the crosswalk between City Hall and Civic Center Plaza when she was hit from behind and then flew about 30 feet, said Tony Winnicker, commission spokesman. She is conscious and alert and has no evident broken bones, said Winnicker, who was with Leal at the hospital.
"At the time, Leal, a former supervisor and city treasurer, had just left City Hall, where she has been under pressure from Mayor Gavin Newsom to resign as head of the city's public utilities agency. Newsom appointed Leal to the post in 2004."
Man, when Gavin says it's time to go, guess it's really time to go...
In other Bay Area news, "Half Moon Bay
is wrestling with unpleasant options for responding to a court ruling that officials say threatens the 'very existence of our city government' - a $36.8 million judgment against the city for turning a proposed housing development site into wetlands," reports John Cote in the Chron.
"Under the worst-case scenario, officials say, Half Moon Bay would become the first Bay Area city forced to dissolve, and the coastal town's land would become an unincorporated part of San Mateo County.
"Members of the City Council say that's unlikely, and they plan to vote at a public meeting tonight to retain an appellate law firm and a financial consultant to advise them on how to tackle a court judgment that is more than three times Half Moon Bay's $10 million annual budget."
They can always call on Orange County for advice.
"County supervisors will decide today
whether to strip Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street of his authority over the county's $6 billion investment pool," reports Ronald Campbell in the Register.
"Supervisor
John Moorlach, Street's predecessor and once his foremost political defender, wants the county executive office to take charge of investments.
"Supervisors must delegate investment authority to the treasurer each year. In past years the vote was routine. But a series of controversies – including a $900,000 remodel of his office, a big bet on exotic securities and investigations by the district attorney and federal prosecutors – have undermined Street's political standing."
And our latest installment in the
Adventures of Santa Claus takes us to Brazil, where St. Nick came under fire -- literally.
"Drug traffickers in a Rio slum opened fire on a helicopter carrying a Santa to a children's party, apparently mistaking it for a police helicopter, police said on Tuesday.
"They thought it was a police operation and started shooting. Luckily, nobody was hurt," a police official said.
Santa later returned to Nova Mare by car to distribute Christmas presents."
