The Assembly started session at 9:00 this morning, and it was obvious from the start that Republicans are not going to let the Democrats get away any longer with putting off a budget vote. As soon as Speaker Pro Tempore Sally Lieber announced, as part of the regular order of business, that there were no messages from the Governor, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer jumped up to clarify. He inquired how the governor could announce, as he did yesterday, he would veto all bills that reach his desk before the budget is passed and yet there were no “formal” messages from his office. Lieber offered some parliamentary excuse. Moments later Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee moved the orders of the day to ensure the Democrats wouldn’t skip over file item #67—a budget vote. He was assured that the legislature would move in order of the file.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore then rose to question why bills were being passed when the governor will veto them. Running the floor at the moment, Assemblywoman Lori Saldana stated the obvious when she responded, “The governor’s statement yesterday has no impact on this house.” Assemblyman Spitzer then succeeded in getting Democrats to go on record… Read More

The RNC announced the officers of the GOP Convention in Minneapolis. Among them three Californians – U.S. Congressman Kevin McCarthy serves as one of the Co-Chairmen of the Platform Committee, U.S. Congressman David Dreier will serve as Parliamentarian, and California’s Republican National Committeeman, Tim Morgan (who will be replaced by Shawn Steel at the close of the convention), who serves as RNC Treasurer, will serve as Convention Treasurer.

(h/t to the CRP)… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger has announced that until a budget has passed, he will veto all legislation placed on his desk. Brilliant! This is a great squeeze play on the left!

With legislative Republicans unified against any tax increases (whether called “temporary” or not) and the Governor stopping liberal legislation with his veto pen, maybe Democrats will start to seriously look at how to cut spending by just some of the massive growth they have presided over during the last decade.

When times are tough, government spending can and must shrink, just like belt tightening that takes place in the private sector.

Legislative Republicans have put a lot of proposals out there for shrinking government (which have been scorned, rather than embraced by Democrats). And the recommendations of the California Performance Review presented by Governor Schwarzenegger (1.0) present even more options for savings of billions of dollars.

Until legislative Democrats are willing to give the proverbial middle finger to the public employee union bosses, I look forward to seeing a lot of ink refills being ordered up for the Governor’s veto… Read More

The FlashReport gets a “shout out” in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail, read by many thousands of politicos around the country. The subject of this entry, from FR friend John Fund, is Attorney General Jerry Brown and the Protect Marriage Act…

JERRY RIGGED California Attorney General Jerry Brown is stepping outside his law enforcement role and playing politics with a November ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Backers of the measure collected some one million signatures this spring under a title approved by Mr. Brown’s office that made it clear the measure would “provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid.” Since the signatures were collected, the state Supreme Court has ruled same-sex marriage constitutional but also allowed the ballot measure to go before voters. Mr. Brown, a candidate for governor in 2010, has apparently decided to make a play for liberal Democratic primary voters by changing his own office’s description of the measure. It now reads that the ballot initiative seeks “to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to… Read More

On Wednesday, Governor Schwarzenegger said that he thinks legislators should not be paid when the budget is late. Actually, many people have expressed that sentiment. This session, Republican Senator Jeff Denham carried legislation to do just that (it was soundly defeated in committee).

I actually disagree with the Governor, Senator Denham, and others who advocate this policy. The reason is that it seems to support the notion that any budget, whether good or bad, is better than no budget.

From the perspective of protecting taxpayers, like in this budget year, I don’t want conservative legislators who may not be able to afford skipping paychecks to be forced to choose between paying their mortgage, or voting for a bad budget with a tax increase.

If a proposed budget is bad enough, better to have no budget, I say. Fortunately, our legislators are being paid, so they can keep voting against tax increases until Christmas, if need be.… Read More

Much has been written about the Governor’s radical shift in abandoning his dual pledges to “blow up the boxes” and “tear up the credit cards.”

We believed Arnold Schwarzenegger then: electing him twice and passing Propositions 57 & 58 – giving him $15 billion to fix the budget and supposedly put a lid on state over-spending.

And, when running for his first re-election, Schwarzenegger called for support from voters, saying "Help Governor Schwarzenegger protect the California dream – with no new taxes!"

But the “dream” is quickly turning into a fiscal nightmare.

People are struggling with the multiple crises of dramatically increased energy and food costs, the housing slump, and the real risk of recession. Meanwhile, the Governor is now proposing raising the sales tax and Legislative Democrats are pushing to eliminate the child… Read More

This year’s state budget is going to increase taxes. I say that neither as a good or a bad thing, merely as a statement of fact. But the only questions to be answered at this point are which taxes will be raised, by how much, and what Republican legislators will get in return for putting up the necessary votes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, wants to raise the sales tax, at least for awhile. But GOP legislative leaders have previously indicated a willingness to close tax “loopholes”. All have sworn they will only agree to these concession s in exchange for a cap on state spending and other structural budget reforms that will make it easier for the state to avoid the boom-and-bust cycles that have characterized the last two decades of California’s economic and… Read More

This year’s state budget is going to increase taxes. I say that neither as a good or a bad thing, merely as a statement of fact. But the only questions to be answered at this point are which taxes will be raised, by how much, and what Republican legislators will get in return for putting up the necessary votes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, wants to raise the sales tax, at least for awhile. But GOP legislative leaders have previously indicated a willingness to close tax “loopholes”. All have sworn they will only agree to these concession s in exchange for a cap on state spending and other structural budget reforms that will make it easier for the state to avoid the boom-and-bust cycles that have characterized the last two decades of California’s economic and… Read More