Last night the California State Assembly passed a budget and sent it over to the Senate for their approval or rejection. The budget came out of the lower house with the support of all Democrats present, and slightly over the minimum number of Republican votes to get to the two-thirds required.
Let me start this commentary by reminding FR readers that like almost all of you, I am a far-away spectator to what goes on under the Capitol dome — I am in Southern California myself. Not being 
a denizen of the State Capitol, one tends to have a better perspective, I think, of the big picture. So from here, I can tell you that the passage of this budget out of the Assembly is nothing that should excite taxpayers, and certainly it is not good news for Republican Party leaders, donors and activists. The budget that was passed this morning was not support by over two-thirds of GOP legislators for a reason — it is a vastly inferior budget to one that would have been passed if there was a Republican majority in the Assembly.
Let’s make no bones about it, this document, by and large, continues to reflect the budget priorities set by decades of dominance of liberal interest groups in Sacramento, and the fact that in starting off the budget process, Governor Schwarzenegger was not aggressive in trying to prune the thickly overgrown tree that has become our bloated state budget. (Someone characterized the Governor’s initial budget proposal as "downing the ball on the GOP’s own 20 yard line"). In fact, I noted with some amusement at the end of a press conference yesterday afternoon on the budget that Speaker Fabian Nunez actually quipped that he was, "more conservative than the Governor when it comes to fiscal prudency," referring to the fact that Democrats came back with a proposal that spent less than that proposal by the moderate Governor. So it is very important for everyone to understand, this is a DEMOCRAT budget, plain and simple.
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July 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Time for a new Republican Assembly Leader its obvious the current leader is a sell out!
July 21st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Villines is a hypocrite! He represents the AD 29 in Fresno County. He criticized former Assemblyman Mike Briggs for doing the same thing. Villines isn’t ready for prime time.