The State budget debate is supposed to be tonight, as floor sessions for both houses are scheduled for 4 PM. Our Assembly Republican caucus meets a little earlier as I expect the others from both house and parties will too. Floor session doesn’t usualy actuualy start on time so I expect the debate will be well into the night as the fine points are brought up, contemplated and hammered out. Importantly, much can go on with the budget trailer bills, of which there are several. They need close scrutiny. All in all, one way or the other, it appears we will have this done and on its way to the Governor within 24 hours. But anything can happen between houses or the respective parties to cause a hiccup in this time line.… Read More

OC/Riverside Congressman Ken Calvert lead the effort among the nineteen CA Republican Members of Congress last week to push Nancy Pelosi to allow a vote on an energy bill that includes domestic oil drilling off the Outer Continental Shelf as part of an all-of-the-above solution.

Seventeen of the nineteen CA GOP lawmakers joined Calvert and signed the letter (below).

Calvert who has shown leadership on the issue of energy independence also launched a web page www.alloftheaboveenergy.org that urges voters to sign a petition to Speaker Pelosi.

California State Legislators should pay attention to this too because the letter also highlights the prospects for the State of California to see a big windfall from the sale of this newly pumped oil off our coast. I bet there are a few Democrat legislators who would ‘sell out the environment’ for another couple billion in state revenues to play with.… Read More

I am pleased to announce that today we the FlashReport Website on California Politics is launching FRMobile, a version of this website that is optimized for use with your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Whether you are using a Blackbery, iPhone, Treo, Palm, Q or other mobile platform, you will now be able to enjoy some of the main feature of the FlashReport with ease! For the thousands (and we have heard from many, many of you) who have tried or who have struggled with trying to read the FR on a PDA these past nearly three years, we commend you for your patience, but we dedicate this new easy-to-download, easy-to-read FRMobile platform to you…

While not every aspect of the FlashReport is optimized on FR Mobile, we have placed FR’s most popular features there. When you go to the site with your PDA, you will get the FR main news page.… Read More

From reading MSM reports this morning while putting together the website, it sure sounds like there is a budget deal, although details have yet to be presented by the "Big 4" to their respective caucuses. It sounds like this deal can best be summed up as "No new taxes, mostly, and not enough cuts."

On the new taxes side of things, NOT in this plan based on what I have read are the outrageous proposals by Democrats for a massive income tax hike, or the disappointing proposal by the Governor for a massive sales tax increase. Still present, however, and quite disturbing is a de facto tax increase on California businesses (an estimated $300 million++ bit) reducing their ability to write off losses.

According to reports, it would appear that while the best interests of California would be to have more cuts in state government, such as proposed by legislative Republicans, this budget comes up with a myriad of various one-time accounting gimmicks and other "creative ideas" to close the budget gap — so there will be a game of "kick the can" to the upcoming state budget (which will… Read More

I am pleased to announce that today we the FlashReport Website on California Politics is launching FRMobile, a version of this website that is optimized for use with your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Whether you are using a Blackbery, iPhone, Treo, Palm, Q or other mobile platform, you will now be able to enjoy some of the main feature of the FlashReport with ease! For the thousands (and we have heard from many, many of you) who have tried or who have struggled with trying to read the FR on a PDA these past nearly three years, we commend you for your patience, but we dedicate this new easy-to-download, easy-to-read FRMobile platform to you…

While not every aspect of the FlashReport is optimized on FR Mobile, we have placed FR’s most popular features there. When you go to the site with your PDA, you will get the FR main news page.… Read More

Years of wasteful spending finally caught up with the Sacramento Library Director—. So, what does she do? She hires a high profile public relations firm with $11,000 taxpayer dollars in order to put a positive spin on a very scandalous situation. According to the Sacramento Bee, August 14, 2008, “[w]hen reporters and grand jury members began scrutinizing Sacramento Public Library last year, it became clear that [the director’s] job could be in trouble. This was underscored when, “The Bee revealed an apparent library maintenance over-billing and kickback scheme that operated under [the director’s] watch.” “The grand jury got involved, issuing…a scathing report citing [the director’s]… Read More

So I have been told that a framework of agreement on a budget has been agreed to by the four legislative leaders. There are apparently no new taxes in this agreed-upon framework. We here at the FR are anxious to see the details.… Read More

A bit of buzz resulted last week from the news that Republican members of the Assembly wore name tags in a caucus budget discussion with the Governor. It may have been off-handedly amusing to those who devised the idea, knowing full well the Governor himself would find it as such, especially after his apparent recent admission that he has little contact with GOP legislators.

Yet, the name tag idea wouldn’t have been conceived at all, had the reality of the matter not existed. It’s likely the Governor doesn’t know all of the GOP legislators by name or by face. Or, at least, not their interests and concerns.

The episode is ironic, given this Governor’s start.

Hark back to mid-November 2003, a couple of days after Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th Governor of California. A Republican legislator stopped in with a request for the chief executive’s receptionist. The lawmaker explained that when some of his Sacramento guests… Read More