Freshman GOP Assemblyman Cameron Smyth just dropped us some comments on the budget, which we present below:

I have really enjoyed keeping up with the Senate debate on the budget this weekend, but I wanted to offer the perspective of a Republican Assemblymember who did oppose this year’s spending plan. As the FlashReport readers are now well aware, early Friday morning (4:15AM) the Assembly concluded several weeks of discussion and passed out our version of the state budget, which is now held up in the Senate until Wednesday. Although nine of my Assembly Republican colleagues voted in favor of the plan, I simply could not. I believe our leadership negotiated a solid deal, considering our minority status, and included many supportable provisions.

However after consulting with more senior members of the caucus and theState Senators with whom I share areas of representation, too many uncertainties… Read More

It’s 6:55am and I’m sitting on the Senate floor. We’ve been here all night long. All night. We’ve been locked in and there are sergeants at every exit making sure we can’t leave. I slept in a chair for about an hour (and btw – Dennis Hollingsworth snores :/ )

Ah – democracy at work. Normally, I’d make some clever remark about the Assembly here, but we passed all the foolishness I’ve ever seen the Assembly engage in in my 13 years in the legislature. It’s all rather quite embarrassing

To update you —- we’ve done nothing.

Yesterday, the Senate took up the irresponsible budget the Assembly passed the night before and defeated it (actually, it’s still "on call", but short of passage). No Republican supported it.

The budget before us is out of balance, based on gimmicks, ignores existing debts and future obligations. We’ve been real clear all along we couldn’t support it and that we needed to cut spending now to save the state a catastrophic problem next year.

So, after the budget bill went down the Senate Pro Tem Don… Read More

And then there were two. Radlovic, Escobar and now Stan Carroll have abandoned thier bids for the 60th AD race to replace Bob Huff. That leaves Larry Dick and Curt Hagman to slug it out. See here. See previous post on Carroll here.… Read More

Well the lockdown is over – we’re FREE!

After a fruitless effort of trying to break us into passing the irresponsible Assembly budget, the seige is over.

Finally, calmer heads have prevailed and instead of the "we’ll break ’em" tactics, Senator Perata has decided that we should negotiate like adults.

We are working toward a budget without a deficit – that’s our goal. Our budget team will be working over the weekend with the Democrats. Hopefully we will get there.

Senator Perata is a bit testy, but at least we’re free.… Read More

As the State Senate was debating the budget that was rejected by over two thirds of Assembly Republicans, Tom McClintock gave the following floor speech. As you read this, we are all in solidarity with Tom and his colleagues who have been "locked in" to the Senate chambers…

Mr. President: A year ago, this legislature adopted a budget that ran up the biggest general fund deficit in California’s history. The architects of this budget admit to adding another half billion dollars to the cumulative shortfall, and expect that this looks good in comparison. There are two problems. First, by their own… Read More

Senator George Runner’s office just sent this over:

When it comes to crafting a balanced budget, teamwork counts By Sen. George Runner While I appreciate the strong efforts by Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines and his leadership team to make this budget “as good as it could get,” I believe more experience would have helped negotiate a better deal. Assembly Republicans showed political muscle by striving to become more… Read More

Both Brandon Powers and George Runner below make reference to this issue…. Here is a memo on it from the Prince of Darkness, co-signed by Mike Villines…

FROM: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines

DATE: July 20, 2007

RE:Drafting Error in Senate Bill 98 Related to Research and Development Credit

We write both to bring to your attention an inadvertent drafting error by Legislative Counsel in Senate Bill 98, which passed off the Assembly Floor last night with strong bipartisan support, and to express our mutual understanding to address this drafting error in August.

As you know, SB 98 contains numerous provisions, all of which provide enhanced taxpayer incentives to bring new jobs and capital investment to California. One particular area of emphasis in Senate Bill 98 is the area of research and development tax credits, and in particular conforming California’s tax law to the federal Alternative Incremental Credit (AIC). SB 98 provides a full five-year conformity to this enhanced federal credit.

However, in the final draft of… Read More

BUDGET UPDATE Friday, 5:00 pm So far, ALL SENATE REPUBLICANS ARE HOLDING FIRM. The budget bill (SB 77) is two votes short of passage. The Democrats are holding the roll open indefinitely in hopes of pressuring passage and have “locked down” the Senate, meaning that it may be in session all night – Democrats seem to have a penchant for that. PLEASE KEEP THE PHONE CALLS AND E-MAILS COMING TO SENATE REPUBLICANS THEIR OFFICES SHOULD BE OPEN AS LONG AS THE BUDGET BILL IS PENDING. YOU’RE MAKING A DIFFERENCE AND NOW IS THE TIME TO POUR IT ON. Below is the speech I just gave on the Senate Floor Mr. President: A year ago, this legislature adopted a budget that ran up the biggest general fund deficit in California’s history. The architects of this budget admit to adding another half billion dollars to the cumulative shortfall, and expect that this looks good in comparison. There are two problems. First, by their own numbers, this budget sets in motion a deficit next year of between $5 ½ billion to $7 billion (depending on how you account for reserves). That means the five-year… Read More