OK, so I guess some legislators are taking their responsibilities more seriously than others. As I have opined, I think that in return for a full-time salary, state legislators should be at work, IN THE CAPITOL, until there is a budget. I know from talking to them earlier today that State Senator Dick Ackerman and Assemblyman Van Tran are in the building. And I just got off of the phone with my own Assemblyman, Chuck DeVore, who is also in the Capitol. As a matter of fact, DeVore has blogged about whom he has seen (and mostly hasn’t seen up there). I guess he just missed Senator Tom McClintock, who was also in his office.

It would be great if all of our legislators would cut short their time in their districts, and return to the State Capitol and work on producing a new budget document that will pass muster with both chambers. … Read More

Early in the morning on Sunday, as we were finishing up amendments on the Defense Appropriations bill, I debated an earmark challenge with the Chairman of the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations, Congressman John Murtha (D-PA). The earmark allocated $2 million to Sherwin-Williams Paint Company to develop what they described as a "paint shield to protect against microbial attacks." As the sponsor of the amendment, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH) did not come down to defend her earmark. The defense was left to Congressman Murtha.

Hereis a… Read More

GOVERNOR: CALL THE LEGISLATORS BACK TO SACRAMENTO Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger should use his powers to call an immeidate, emergency session of the state legislature to deal with the fact that we have no state budget. It is pretty outrageous that we have 120 legislators that are paid a full-time wage and yet, without a deal worked out on the state’s annual spending plan, and the constitutional deadline for passing a budget now over a month behind us, our legislators are not even in the Capitol? That is outrageous. FR readers should call their Senator and Assemblymembers, and urge them to go back to Sacramento, and to each individually call for the legislature to return to session.

BILL LEONARD ON THE BUDGET I was emailing with State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, an acknowledged expert on state finances and the budget — he shared these sobering thoughts with me (and said I could pass them along to you):… Read More

GOVERNOR: CALL THE LEGISLATORS BACK TO SACRAMENTO Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger should use his powers to call an immeidate, emergency session of the state legislature to deal with the fact that we have no state budget. It is pretty outrageous that we have 120 legislators that are paid a full-time wage and yet, without a deal worked out on the state’s annual spending plan, and the constitutional deadline for passing a budget now over a month behind us, our legislators are not even in the Capitol? That is outrageous. FR readers should call their Senator and Assemblymembers, and urge them to go back to Sacramento, and to each individually call for the legislature to return to session.

BILL LEONARD ON THE BUDGET I was emailing with State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, an acknowledged expert on state finances and the budget — he shared these sobering thoughts with me (and said I could pass them along to you):… Read More

Not only have Democrats opposed GOP efforts during this current budget negotiation process to ensure that vital services are still provided for Medi-Cal recipients, but apparently Democrats have amassed quite a record of opposing Republican efforts to make sure that honest policy disagreements in a budget negotiation that (like with this year) can become protracted, do NOT put Medi-Cal recipients at risk:

“As we seek further negotiations with Legislative leaders, Senate Republicans want to make sure that hospitals and nursing homes receive the necessary funding to keep their doors open,” said Senator Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine). “Health care for those in need should not be interrupted while the Legislature works towards a balanced budget.”

Check out all of the details on the strong GOP track record to avoid this situation here.

Democrats are more interested in "using" these folks as a tool to pressure legislators to pass a big, fat budget. Critical reforms are needed for this year’s budget, and we… Read More

Just over the transom from State Senator Jeff Denham:

Over the past week, much is being said and written as to whether I should be the next vote to help pass the state budget. I would agree that it is irresponsible for our state government not to pass a balanced budget on time, but I also believe that it is reprehensible and deplorable for the Democrats to adjourn the legislature for almost a month without passing any gap funding for California’s critical programs.

As Democrat legislators continue to enjoy their vacation, Californians most vulnerable and many of our medical care providers are starting to have their lives negatively impacted. Without a state budget, hospitals, health clinics, summer programs, community colleges, and remediation programs risk being scaled down or completely eliminated.

As noted in one of our newspapers, “One of the most dramatic shortfalls was in Medi-Cal funds for 500 hospitals and… Read More

It turns out that the obscure recall effort against Republican State Senator Jeff Denham was nothing more than a political ploy from the California Democrat Party, undoubtedly still chafed that they did so poorly at trying to win that State Senate seat last November.

Shane Goldmacher is reporting the discovery of the CDP expenditures over at the SacBee Insider (sorry, no link because they charge money to read that page). Previously State Dems were not willing to own up to this effort.

To demostrate the grass-roots nature of the efforts, the spokesperson quoted in Goldmacher’s story — loony Bob Mulholland, who hails far, far away from the Central Valley, up in Chico.

’nuff said.… Read More

In our commentary yesterday, we featured some input on the state budget from State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard (you can read that here).

Mike Genest, the Governor’s Director of Finance (who has written a couple of columns for this site in the past, so he gets high marks from the FR team) penned this "rebuttal" as it were to Leonard’s comments: First, regarding Bill Leonard’s comments on the bonds, there… Read More