Republican legislators in the State Capitol (at least on the Assembly side) now have copies of the actual bill language to be voted on as early as tomorrow. The GOP Caucuses should be scanning these documents (provided to legislators in printed format only, of course, by Democrats) and posting them on the web right away — like NOW.

Republicans have called for transparency in the process and now is the time to prove it. Once that information is up onm the web, that should start a 72 hour countdown. Republicans should refuse to put up any votes for any of the bills until the public has had three full days to read it, understand it, and provide input to legislators.

Just a few months ago we had a b udget deal that was cloaked in secrecy. As a result, many legislators voted for a supposed spending cap that, upon analysis from experts outside of the Capitol, turned out to be swiss cheese. Let's not do this again.

If a legislative deal is so fragile that it cannot hold up under public scrutiny, then it isn't a good deal.

Please contact your GOP legislator and them that you expect 72 hours to be able to look over those… Read More

With a top o’ the hat to Scott Lay at the Community College League, and the Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert, below is a .pdf of the Draft Report that summarizes in detail the proposed changes that are encompassed in the budget deal.

FR readers should be cautioned that this is a summary, prepared by the Democrats. As of now, the actual language of these changes has not been made public. And it would appear that the legislature seems intent on "ramming through" this deal without providing enough time for anyone outside of the Capitol to analyze the language, and provide meaningful feedback to legislators. This is NOT GOOD.… Read More

As of the time posting, seven of the bills are available here. From what we can tell, as more bills are uploaded, they will also be available at that link.

So far there are seven bills uploaded, on these subjects: Health, Development Disabilities, Property Tax Rev Allocations, Reorganization, Lottery, General Government (inc. Non-HSS COLAs), and Public Safety & Judicial.

This is a good step forward. Hopefully Republicans will not put up votes for any of this for 72 hours, giving a reasonably opportunity to have the product negotiated behind closed doors to be reviewed and vetting by the public.… Read More

When Sony Pictures released the movie, “Who Killed the Electric Car,” (http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html) the U.S. political landscape was much different, and Detroit had a lot more clout than it does today. The movie honed in on a very specific moment in time when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) eliminated the production of electric vehicles in the zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) initiative, and pinned the blame on D.C.-based lawsuits and lobbying in Sacramento as the reasons electric cars failed to achieve economically-feasible market share. I’d be the last person to underestimate the effects of Sacramento lobbying, but in truth, there have been two primary consumer concerns that have inhibited the success of the electric car: · the cost of the vehicles is higher than comparably-sized gasoline cars; and … Read More

What California needs is a release of middle management prison bureaucrats. Instead of pushing a plan of early release of tens of thousands of convicted felons from our state prison we ought to be looking for savings by cutting the fat out of CDCR.

The Governor’s prison budget savings plan would release nearly 30,000 prisoners into our communities. Senate Republicans have a safe and sane plan to achieve the same level of savings without any early release of prisoners, and it’s in writing.

See the "Corrections Budget Reductions" document below.

California has virtually the same number of prisoners in state prison than it did ten years ago, while the state population continues to increase. The number of individuals in state prison in California is roughly average per capita in the US, why the rush to release.

We should cut the fat instead of releasing dangerous felons into our neighborhoods.

Corrections Budget Reductions

Summary of conflicts between Democrat and Administration’s jointly proposed cuts to Corrections and Senate Republican… Read More

I wonder if legislative Democrats realize how good they got it in this current budget revision deal? When you consider the fact that state government has a shortfall of over a quarter of its current fiscal year general fund budget, and that raising taxes or fees were quite literally off the table, it was looking like this would be the "day of reckoning" for the big-spending liberals that have dominated state government for so many decades. After year after year of catering to the state’s massive public employee unions — and dropping a seemingly endless supply of other people’s money into one social program after another — somehow Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

Let me say from the outset that we can thank the resolve of Governor Schwarzenegger and our Republican legislator that we do not have any tax increases in current budget deal. Clearly they were listening when taxpayers rejected the massive tax increases on the May special election ballot. The Governor also gets a lot of kudos for quickly coming out of the gate after that election with a… Read More

I wonder if legislative Democrats realize how good they got it in this current budget revision deal? When you consider the fact that state government has a shortfall of over a quarter of its current fiscal year general fund budget, and that raising taxes or fees were quite literally off the table, it was looking like this would be the "day of reckoning" for the big-spending liberals that have dominated state government for so many decades. After year after year of catering to the state’s massive public employee unions — and dropping a seemingly endless supply of other people’s money into one social program after another — somehow Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

Let me say from the outset that we can thank the resolve of Governor Schwarzenegger and our Republican legislator that we do not have any tax increases in current budget deal. Clearly they were listening when taxpayers rejected the massive tax increases on the May special election ballot. The Governor also gets a lot of kudos for quickly coming out of the gate after that election with a… Read More

Orange County local elected officials will come together tomorrow to oppose the compromise budget deal. They call it a "Reckless and Irresponsible Ponzi scheme."

Already in this forum there is commentary on the League’s response.

Fleischman brings up an interesting point. Perhaps there ought to be an alternative organization that represents the interests of cities. I am thinking of a PAC, totally separate from governments yet funded via the efforts of local elected officials.

Smaller government is a great idea, but in the mean time, I trust local governments to spend my taxpayer dollars more than I trust the legislature. It is much easier to hold accountable the city council member I see in Synagogue or the water board member I run into at the super market.

I wish local elected officials had more clout in Sacramento. A fund raising vehicle that would support their interests would help.

Click below to see the full media advisory.

* * * NEWS CONFERENCE ADVISORY * * * Media Advisory: City Officials and Taxpayer Advocates Hold Press Conference Wednesday, July 22 at 2:00 p.m. to Condemn State Budget Deal… Read More