"Capitol watchers ordinarily would prepare this week
for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's annual State of the State address, but the governor is delaying matters until a week from Thursday," reports Kevin Yamamura on Capitol Alert.
"Schwarzenegger aides aren't saying exactly why the governor has decided to move
his annual address to Jan. 15, but speculation is that the governor may want to
broker a midyear budget deal before he speaks to his
fellow Californians. Perhaps it's better to have reached a partial budget solution
than to explain that things in Sacramento are completely
fouled up.
"Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg suggested
Monday that a compromise could come together within
"24 to 48 hours," though Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear
insisted that talks have not improved since mid-December.
"Schwarzenegger is planning to formally transmit his
budget plan Friday to the Legislature. His finance
staff briefed reporters last week on his proposal to
close a $40 billion state budget deficit."
Capitol Weekly's John Howard reports the governor is proposing to eliminate the Californa
Conservation Corps. "The budget reductions, described by the administration
as a $17 million "realignment," would result in the transfer of a myriad of CCC functions
to the local groups, which rely heavily on volunteers.
The locals' tasks include traditional environmental projects,
such as tree-planting and trail-cutting, but the CCC also fights fires: In June, the CCC put some 90 crews on the fire lines.
"'I totally think this is a bad idea,' said Bruce Saito, a former CCC official now with the
Los Angeles County conservation corps. 'We talk about economic stimulus packages, so we need
to bring in and employ more young people, who historically
face the toughest and most challenging obstacles.'
"Shifting functions to privately funded volunteer organizations
is consistent with the Schwarzenegger administration's focus on volunteerism and makes fiscal sense, the
administration said. But the elimination of the CCC
and a strengthened policy on volunteerism won't hurt the government's ability to handle emergencies, including fires."
Speaking of volunteerism, "Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, has resigned from three corporate
boards, clearing the way for a 2010 run for California governor," writes the Bee's Shane Goldmacher.
"The 52-year-old Republican businesswoman departed the boards of
eBay, Procter & Gamble and DreamWorks Animation SKG on Dec. 31, due to "personal reasons and time commitment," said her spokesman, Henry Gomez.
"She 'basically wanted to open her calendar to focus on other
things,' Gomez said."
Hmmm...like what, we wonder...
"Whitman, a billionaire from her decade at eBay, has
been making noise in the California political sphere
for months.
"She was a senior adviser to Republican presidential
nominee Sen. John McCain, traveled to the 2008 Republican National Convention with the California
delegation, donated money ($150,000) to the state GOP, and is locked in a dispute with
a cybersquatter over five political domain names such
as whitmanforgovernor.com and meg2010.com.
"In preparation for her potential campaign, she has
already secured a campaign strategist, Jeff Randle, a former adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and
ex-Gov. Pete Wilson."
AP takes it one step further and reports that Whitman
"plans to run for governor of California."
What's the over-under on how much money will be spent in that Poizner
vs. Whitman primary?
Meanwhile, from our Leon Panetta Forward files, Barack Obama has tapped the former Congressman to be
the country's top spy. But not everyone is pleased, reports the Chron's Matthew Stannard.
"The reported selection of Panetta, 70, who was White House chief of
staff under President Bill Clinton and previously director
of the
Office of Management and Budget, caused a flurry of
head-scratching
among former intelligence operatives and policy analysts
Monday, mainly
because Panetta has no real experience in either intelligence
or
foreign policy, the bread-and-butter of the spy agency.
"'I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta
to be the CIA
director,' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who will chair the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress. 'My
position has consistently been that I believe the agency
is best served
by having an intelligence professional in charge at
this time.'"
"Democratic legislative leaders said Monday that California's $40 billion budget deficit will require the Legislature
to sacrifice, but they declined to agree to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal that they cut their budget by 10 percent," reports Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
"The Republican governor last month ordered a 10 percent cut in state employees' salaries through furloughs and proposed the Legislature
cut its budget by the same amount.
"On Monday, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said, 'We will certainly do the responsible thing, and we
will share the pain.'
"'I don't know what form that will take yet,' Steinberg said before meeting with Assembly Speaker
Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles.
"Asked if he would agree to the 10 percent budget cut proposed by Schwarzenegger, Steinberg
said, 'I'm not committing to that because we're still discussing what we'll do.'"
And what about the governor? Maybe he'll cut his $1 salary to $0.90. Then we'll know he's serious...
In case you missed it over the holiday, Shane Goldmacher
reports: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed two former Republican Assembly members,
Bonnie Garcia and George Plescia, to posts on the state's Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board."
Maybe he got a commitment from them to vote for the
budget when they're elected to the Senate under a future gov.
The Bee's Dan Walters writes: "A convoluted and highly questionable scheme to generate billions of dollars for the state
via local redevelopment agencies is being revived as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders
race with the calendar to close an enormous budget
deficit.
"The proposal first surfaced during last summer's budget negotiations, pushed by a squad of lobbyists
– most of them ex- legislators – for the City of Industry amid indications, which city
officials denied, that it was aimed at building a new
professional football stadium.
"It was not part of the budget enacted in September.
But since then the deficit has ballooned to an estimated
$40 billion over the next 18 months, and now some Republican legislators and those
around the governor are intrigued by its potential
for easing the need for tax increases and/or spending cuts.
"Under the deal now being weighed, the state would allow
city redevelopment agencies to extend local redevelopment
projects now scheduled to expire, without having to
meet recently enacted reforms, including proving the
existence of blight. In return, the redevelopment agencies
would float bonds secured by property taxes on those
extended projects and share the borrowed money with
the state."
And before it's even enacted, Republicans are renewing their threat to challenge
the Democrats' revenue package in the courts, the Bee's Phillip Reese reports.
"Any budget agreement between Democrats
and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that skirts the state's two-thirds vote
requirement for new taxes will almost certainly be
challenged in the
courts – and there's a significant chance the state would lose, some
legal experts said Monday.
"It's
not a slam-dunk case for either side, though, law professors say,
because the Legislature is largely moving into uncharted
territory with
its plans to break the budget stalemate by effectively
replacing a tax
that is tough to increase with a fee that is much simpler
to boost.
"'The
question is, 'What is a tax?' ' said Jesse Choper, Earl Warren
Professor of Public Law at the University of California,
Berkeley."
That's from Shakespeare, right?
"State Attorney General Jerry Brown was "profoundly wrong" and "invented an entirely new theory" when he urged the California Supreme Court to invalidate
Proposition 8's same-sex marriage ban on the basis that voters can't be allowed to overturn fundamental liberties, attorneys for the measure said Monday," reports John Wildermuth in the Chron.
"Brown's reasoning would confer upon the state Supreme Court
power it has never had, attorneys Kenneth Starr and Andrew Pugno said in their response to the attorney general's December brief.
"Brown "is inviting this court to declare a constitutional
revolution," the attorneys argued in the 29-page response. 'His extra-constitutional vision is one of unprecedented judicial
hegemony, a sweeping power vested in the least-democratic branch that overrides the precious right
of the people to determine how they will be governed.'"
Meanwhile, in other Legal Beagle news:
"Rebellious congregations that part ways with their denominations
may lose their church buildings and property as a result, the California Supreme Court said Monday in a unanimous
ruling," report Maura Dolan and Duke Helfand in the Times.
"The state high court decision came in a case involving
the Episcopal Church, but lawyers said it would apply
to other denominations as well.
"Several Protestant denominations, including United
Methodists and Presbyterians, have faced upheaval over
gay rights issues. Monday's ruling, along with similar victories that the church
leadership has won in other states, is expected to
dampen enthusiasm for such separations.
"In a decision written by Justice Ming W. Chin, the court said the property of St. James Anglican
Church in Newport Beach was owned by the national church,
not the congregation. The congregation split away after
the national church consecrated a gay man, V. Gene
Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
"'When it disaffiliated from the general church, the
local church did not have the right to take the church
property with it,' Chin wrote for the court."
And who knew that the Legislature has cleared the way for the death
of public access television? The LAT's Reed Johnson, that's who.
"For decades, public access programming on cable television
has provided
a virtually free forum for community activists and
aspiring
entertainers, for preening star wannabes as well as
serious-minded
political watchdogs.
But in Los Angeles and across California
that forum began crumbling last week, a development
that advocates say
will strip ordinary citizens of a valuable 1st Amendment platform.
A
provision of a law passed by the Legislature in 2006, which took effect
Thursday, allows cable television providers the option
of dropping
their long-standing obligation of providing free studios, equipment
and
training to the public. In return, providers must pay
a substantial
annual fee and continue to provide a minimal number
of public education
and government channels."
That makes us feel kinda funny, like when we used to climb the rope in gym class.
