Today is the first day of Spring, though more importantly for many legislative staffers, today is the first workday of the Spring legislative recess. For the next week, staff will be trickling in some time close to 10 a.m., jeans will replace suits and skirts, and
cocktail hour will begin a little early.
The recess also signals a brief timeout in what has been
a hectic couple of weeks politically. But there will be plenty left to fight about when lawmakers return to Sacramento.
The Daily News writes up the controversy over the governor's pension reform effort, in an article headlined "
Arnold to kill death benefits for widows?"
The administration claims that the firefighters union is lying. Schwarzenegger spokeswoman
Margita Thompson is quoted as saying "The governor has been very clear: Death and disability payments will not be altered."
Assemblyman
Keith Richman, the author of the measure, seems to contradict Thompson, as the benefits would be left to local agencies. "It's a bogus argument," Richman said. "The constitutional amendment was written with the clear intention that death and disability benefits and other specifics of benefit design would be left to the governmental entity to enact."
Maybe Republicans can use the recess to huddle up and compare notes.
AP's Beth Fouhy uses the recess as a chance to take a snapshot of the state's political landscape. "There's little doubt that after 16 months in office, California's action hero-turned-governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger has begun to shrink to human size. But so far, that's done little to elevate Democrats, who
still seem a bit puny by comparison."
The SacBee has a breakdown of
some of the new "fees" being introduced by legislative Democrats this year. Unlike taxes, fees need only a simply majority to get legislative approval. An initiative backed by
Citizens to Save California would change the vote requirements for fees to two-thirds.
Among the new fee bills this year are a bill that would institute a new
pollution clean up fee" on cigarettes, one that would
tax new bicycles to pay for bike recycling, and the extension of a
$2 death-certificate fee to pay for a state DNA database.
This just in: Kissing is the new hugging That's the clear implication from the Bee's Kevin Yamamura this morning (
Scroll down to the last item). First, there was the
Schwarzenegger-Nuņez affair. And "on Wednesday, the state Senate Rules Committee unanimously approved former Sen.
Bruce McPherson's appointment to become secretary of state. Taking a cue from the governor, Sen.
Abel Maldonado was so delighted that he kissed McPherson on the cheek after the hearing."
We'll believe the trend is taking hold when we see
Ray Haynes kiss
Dennis Mountjoy.
La Mayor's Race. The Times' Matea Gold reports
the man that may have the most to lose in the mayoral runoff is not even on the May ballot. Los Angeles County Federation of Labor leader
Miguel "Contreras' reputation as a power broker is on the line. His federation endorsed Mayor
James K. Hahn for reelection over Councilman
Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union organizer it backed four years ago. Although the labor movement will have a friend in the mayor's office regardless, Contreras' future heft may rest on his ability to get his members to campaign against one of their own."
In other
Games People Play News, San Jose Mayor
Ron Gonzalez is
hanging out with the Oakland Athletics at spring training. He hopes to woo the team to San Jose, which would first require Major League Baseball to take away the San Francisco Giants' territorial rights to Santa Clara County.
Meanwhile, a Santa Monica businessman is soliciting investors across the country to try to
raise $7.5 million to buy land for a tribal casino near Magic Mountain. The problem? The tribe wants no part of it, and has asked him to cease and desist.
Speaking of gambling, educators at UC Riverside say they're
worried about the popularity of NCAA Tournament betting pools. "UCR officials feel small-time bets could lead to hours logged onto booming internet gaming sites or attendance at Indian casinos dotting the Inland region."
Given
the sad state of our tournament brackets, we're inclined to agree.
Bites bites back: On Friday, we linked to a Sacramento News & Review
Capitol Bites column, which quotes us as stating that our readers were "stunned into silence" on one of our recent "reader contribution" contests. Mea culpa time. We provided the wrong e-mail address.
So, go ahead and
resubmit those entries for our
"Karen Hanretty's skin is as thick as . . . " Contest. Winners get a copy of our NCAA brackets, or the monetary equivalent.
That address again is
tips@capitolbasement.com
