Over at his Citizens for the California Republican website, State Senator Tom McClintock has posted an column entitled A Small Victory And A Big Risk…

Four main items were taken up in the Assembly as the Senate finished up on the budget.

A bill, SB 97 was passedto provide a moratorium on lawsuits by Attorney General Brown over greenhouse gas emissions not being factored into construction. So, for a window of time, infrastructure can be built until the regs are actually sorted out on the ill-conceived AB32, and bond dollars voted for by Californians won’t be used to settle frivolous global warming lawsuits or more studies on how much CO 2 comes from projects. That moratorium is only until the end of ’09.

SB 83, the amended health trailer bill squeaked out 54 votes, not much Rep support.

Two other bills amending the Transportation trailer bill and the General Government trailer from the original Assembly versions a month ago passed with strong bipartisan support. These amendments did improve original trailers that had only checkered Republican support.… Read More

With the passage of the budget, I have been on the phone quite a bit to Capitol denizens, and have heard a reoccuring rumor that Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman is on the way out.

Let me just put that rumor to bed. I’ve spoken with plenty of Senators, and while there is no love for this state budget (it’s too big, fat and bloated for any GOPer to love), I heard a lot of praise about Ackerman from his colleagues in terms of that way he worked with his caucus on the matter. Some of this praise came from Senators who did not support Ackerman’s bid to keep his leadership role last year.

Ackerman’s term in office ends next year, and one can presume that he will step aside early in order to allow for a transition — but I wouldn’t look for something to happen immediately. Certainly not before the end of this legislative session.… Read More

As indicated from my intel below, the State Senate met and did, in fact, pass out the state budget with 27 votes — the two GOPers being Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and ersatz Republican Abel Maldonado.

First the CEQA reform I outlined below was voted on in the State Assembly, and then it came over to the State Senate where it, simultaneously to the budget, was passed on to the Governor.

Kudos to legislative Republicans for making a horrible budget slightly better. Californian’s need to elect more Republicans to the legislature if we want to see substantive structural reform of California state government.… Read More

Well, I have some bad news and some good news this morning for FlashReport readers. The bad news is that it would appear that we are getting a lot closer to a budget deal (this is bad news because it will not come with a reopening of the Assembly-passed document that, at well over a hundred billion dollars, represents a fat, bloated state bureaucracy in serious need of downsizing and privatization). The good news is that Senate Republicans continue to negotiate from a position of strength to make the proposed budget better than it is right now. I spoke this morning with Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, who said that his caucus will meet again this morning at 10 a.m. to brief and prepare for another round of negotiations. Ackerman shared with me that the main area of discussion is still around the CEQA issue. For those who are catching up to this budget-impasse mid-game, this has to do with the fact that last year Democrats passed and the Governor signed a bill that requires a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. That said, while the law was passed that sets target goals, the implementing regulations to get there have not been put in… Read More

The "Rule of 8" established by the Senate Republican Caucus says that until a majority of Senate Republicans are ready to sign off on a budget, no GOPers go up. Of course Senator Maldonado demonstrated his lack of solidarity by voting with all of the Democrats and against all of his Republican colleagues … so I guess its more of a "guideline" than a rule (h/t to Capt. Barbosa).

Well just a few minutes ago, on a breakdown that mirrored the leadership vote to retain Dick Ackerman as leader last year, Senate Republicans voted 8-7 to allow Ackerman (along with Maldonado) to go up on the budget.

The moving parts that allowed this to come about was a CEQA fix that includes not only development with a nexus to the transportation bonds but also to water bonds. I understand there may have been some tightening up of the nature of blue-line cuts being made by the Governor.

More analysis will be forthcoming … let’s see if this all translates to an actual budget on the Governor’s desk. I will close by saying that the efforts of Senate and Assembly Republicans have made some modest but important improvements to… Read More

Well, I have some bad news and some good news this morning for FlashReport readers. The bad news is that it would appear that we are getting a lot closer to a budget deal (this is bad news because it will not come with a reopening of the Assembly-passed document that, at well over a hundred billion dollars, represents a fat, bloated state bureaucracy in serious need of downsizing and privatization). The good news is that Senate Republicans continue to negotiate from a position of strength to make the proposed budget better than it is right now. I spoke this morning with Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, who said that his caucus will meet again this morning at 10 a.m. to brief and prepare for another round of negotiations. Ackerman shared with me that the main area of discussion is still around the CEQA issue. For those who are catching up to this budget-impasse mid-game, this has to do with the fact that last year Democrats passed and the Governor signed a bill that requires a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. That said, while the law was passed that sets target goals, the implementing regulations to get there have not been put in… Read More

Update: Assembly adjourns at 10PM, no action taken on floor.Senate stops discussions til tomorrow, session for both houses is at 11AM.

Big 5 met, things are moving, Senators getting closer to agreement, we’re waiting around on trailer bill biz, looks like another one of those late-nighters, with bills going both directions amongst Assembly and Senate.… Read More