"Facing the longest state budget impasse in recorded
California history, Gov. Schwarzenegger will become the official target of a recall campaign Monday when the California Correctional Peace Officers Association
files paperwork to recall the incumbent governor," reports Sacramento's News10.
"CCPOA spokesman Lance Corcoran confirmed to News10 Sunday that his union intends to launch the recall
effort Monday morning.
"'It's about leadership,' Corcoran said. 'Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the worst governor in
the history of worst governors.'
"CCPOA has often sparred with the Schwarzenegger administration
over issues like prison reform and correctional officer
salaries. The union is seeking pay increases for their
officers this year but contract negotiations with the
governor's administration have stalled.
"Schwarzenegger's representative dismissed the recall threat as an
attempt to make an end run around contract negotiations.
"'It's not going to go anywhere,' said the governor's press secretary Aaron McLear. 'It not going to intimidate the governor.'
"CCPOA would need to collect about 900,000 valid petition signatures to qualify the recall for
the ballot."
Is this going to make it easier or harder for the union
to get its pay raise?
"When it comes to going around in circles, you would be hard-pressed to beat the "budget talks" in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office," write Matier and Ross.
"Democrats are adamant that the answer is more taxes
and cuts. Republicans are just as adamant that the
answer is even more cuts and borrowing.
"And Schwarzenegger can't get either side to listen to his combo plan.
"'You know, we could be here until October,' Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis (Fresno County) reportedly told the governor during one impasse.
"'Why, what is going to change by then?' the governor asked.
"'That's the point,' Villines said. 'Nothing is going to change by then.'"
George Skelton calls for scrapping the two-thirds vote requirement for the budget.
"At the very least, California should return to a pre-1962 law that allowed budgets to be passed on a majority
vote if spending didn't increase above 5%. That provision apparently had never been used because
budget growth always exceeded 5%. So the clause was clumsily deleted in a constitutional
streamlining.
"That idea is endorsed by Joel Fox, former president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.,
the Prop. 13 sponsor. "The 5% cap would serve as a spending limit," he notes.
"But I'd go all the way and require only a majority vote for
both budget and taxes. Get things moving in Sacramento.
The governor can always use his veto.
"Let the legislative majority rule and be held accountable.
We'll know whom to blame -- maybe even credit."
E.J. Schultz looks at the timing of a special election for the Fresno Bee.
"The next logical date for an election is March 3, when some cities -- including Clovis -- will hold local elections. If held, the special election
would be the fourth statewide election in 13 months, an unprecedented feat that could strain already
beleaguered local elections officials.
"'We simply don't have the resources,' said Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar. 'Plus, there is election-worker fatigue. I don't know how much more we can ask of our staff.'
"Each election requires months of planning. Ballots
must be designed and printed. Poll workers have to
be recruited. In Fresno County, election workers already
have delayed vacations to deal with this year's busy slate, Salazar said.
"The statewide cost for a special election would range
from $50 million to $100 million. The cheaper estimate assumes the election
would be coordinated with local elections.
"'Nobody likes to spend money we don't have to, but that's the place we're in now because this thing hasn't come together,' said Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill, whose district includes parts of Fresno County."
The Bee asks a bunch of would-be governors, and others, how they would solve the
current budget crisis. Here was a comment from the ghost of Christmas past,
er, we mean future. Uh, we mean Jerry Brown: "Get (legislative leaders) in the same room. … Maybe serve them a
cocktail or two. But they've got to come to grips with the significant
elements of the budget. If they're not going to have $17 billion (to
balance the budget), they have to put cuts on the board. And you have
to rub their nose in what it is that will have to be
eliminated. It's
too generic now. It's all behind the screen."
Antonio Villaraigosa, Steve Poizner, and Gray Davis
are among the others who offer their thoughts...
"Nearly
a year after a Chinese freighter collided with the
Bay Bridge, dumping
more than 50,000 gallons of bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay, Bay
Area lawmakers have succeeded in passing the most sweeping
oil spill
reforms in California since the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989," reports MediaNews's Paul Rogers.
Eleven
of the 13 oil spill bills introduced in Sacramento this year
cleared
the Legislature by the Aug. 31 deadline, according to a MediaNews
analysis.
"The package, which
has largely escaped public attention, could usher in
significant new
changes in oil tanker oversight, the ability of volunteers
to help
clean oiled beaches and the development of more efficient
cleanup
equipment."
"Arborists nearly finished clearing an embattled UC
Berkeley grove Saturday, leaving a stripped, lone redwood occupied by four protesters," reports Carolyn Jones in the Chron.
"The drone of chain saws and chippers drowned out the
howls of protesters as arborists removed 35 of 42 redwoods, laurels and other trees from the site in
preparation to build a $124 million athletic training center. The university expects
to remove the remaining trees today, with the exception
of the occupied redwood.
"Twenty-eight trees around the perimeter will remain, and a
mature redwood will be transplanted.
"UC police continued Saturday to negotiate with the
tree-sitters on ending their 21-month-old protest. The university has no immediate plans
to forcibly extract the protesters, who are marooned
on a few branches about 50 feet up.
"'With the trees gone, the protest is completely pointless,' said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. 'We believe the reality of the legal situation will
sink in and they'll come down voluntarily.'"
And finally, we report on a band of merry pranksters
knows as Clowns for Christ. Well, maybe that's not how they're known. But it should be.
"Each clown has a special duty, Havens says, from Sad
Clown and
Happy Clown, a persona he or she portrays during pantomimed
skits.
Havens was so inspired that clowns could move others
that she
wanted to bring a similar troupe to her church to use
it as part of
their outreach.
With their faces white with pancake make-up and outfitted in clothes
she pieced together from second-hand shops, Havens and her troupe of
four adults have been out in the community spreading
their ministry -
without a word. And most importantly, do it with a
simple act of
kindness."
For the record, this will do nothing to alleviate the
reoccuring clown nightmare we've been having.
