Well, I have some bad news and some good news this morning for FlashReport readers. The bad news is that it would appear that we are getting a lot closer to a budget deal (this is bad news because it will not come with a reopening of the Assembly-passed document that, at well over a hundred billion dollars, represents a fat, bloated state bureaucracy in serious need of downsizing and privatization). The good news is that Senate Republicans continue to negotiate from a position of strength to make the proposed budget better than it is right now.
I spoke this morning with Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, who said that his caucus will meet again this morning at 10 a.m. to brief and prepare for another round of negotiations. Ackerman shared with me that the main area of discussion is still around the CEQA issue. For those who are catching up to this budget-impasse mid-game, this has to do with the fact that last year Democrats passed and the Governor signed a bill that requires a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. That said, while the law was passed that sets target goals, the implementing regulations to get there have not been put in place. But this is not keeping liberal Democrat Attorney General Jerry Brown from suing to stop development around California that he says are contrary to the legislation’s goals (never mind the absence of regs).
There was some talk centered around a potential compromise… Republicans want a full three year restriction placed on these kinds of lawsuits at all. Democrats apparently like the status quo. So one compromise floated out there is that a restriction would be placed on lawsuits against development projects with a nexus to the recent voter-approved transportation infrastructure bonds, and only for two years. While this was talked about quite a bit as a potential compromise, ultimately (and rightfully so) Senate Republicans felt that this was still too restricting. (If you are curious about how we got into this AB 32 mess and our solution on how to avoid this in the future, click here.)
Another issue that has come up in the debate (again, these are not "new" issues — but rather new to coverage of this debate — with something as complex as a budget, thousands of items are at play, and not all of them are prominently discussed in news summaries) has to do with the very complex issue of school funding equalization. I will very much oversimplify this by saying that there are inequities in the way that funds, under Proposition 98, are allocated to school districts. These inequities, on balance, favor urban districts at the expense of suburban ones. There has been a long-term understanding about remedying this, and a lot of that has taken place already. At dispute is around $100 million dollars to finish up that equalization. So this issue is on the table as well.
What will happen today? If you step back and look at the big picture of the behemoth of state government, and the size and scope of this budget proposal, the differences between the "sides" is relatively small at this point. That said, Senate Republicans are definitely in the right here. Their demands (which have already led to a commitment from the Governor to make $700 million in real, non-gimmicky line-item veto cuts to the final budget) are fair, reasonable, and frankly, too modest. Still, the impact to Californian’s from Jerry Brown’s whacked-out left-wing agenda is very real. Our population is increasing, not shrinking. And we simply cannot ground to a halt all development. Doing so will reduce the standard of living of all Californians, and at the same time increase the cost of living.
Senate Republicans — hang in there. You are doing the right thing for all Californians.
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