I just got off of the telephone with Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman. Ackerman told me that the State Senate tonight unanimously passed a one billion dollar general fund appropriation (that would likely be drawn over several years) for levee repairs, and then ADJOURNED FOR THE NIGHT. This is significant because tonight is the last night for a bond measure to pass the legislature to make the June Ballot. Apparently there were some negative dynamics taking place between the two Democrat Leaders — Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.
In the meantime, on the Assembly side, while the Senate was passing their appropriation, the Assembly did pass two sizable bond measures, one on levee repairs and the other on education facilities. Even though they were still in session when the Senate passed the billion dollars for levee repairs, Speaker Nunez chose not to take it up.
Given the critical need for levee repairs, there will now be a lot of pressure on Nunez to call the Assembly into session and pass that appropriation.
UPDATE: I just got off of the phone with Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. In our conversation, he expressed the obvious – that the inability of the Democrat leadership to come together and work with Republicans in the 11th hour is a demonstration of why they should not be the majority party. The bottom line is that the reason that there are no infrastructure bond measures on this coming June ballot is that the Democrats were ultimately unwilling to put up a fiscally responsible proposal.