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

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

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

From the time I was in t-ball, my dad always used to tell me that I needed to use two hands when catching pop ups. Sure, 99 times out of 100 it’s no big deal, and the out is made. But then there’s that other one…

It’s with that in mind that I write about the last night’s budget votes.

Throughout the night, the Assembly leaders hustled to get a budget, some budget, any budget passed. Negotiations took place. Concessions were made. Entire sections of the budget were rewritten hastily in the middle of the night, being fueled by cold pizza and colder coffee.

But last night, unfortunately, it seems someone forgot to remind our leadership to use both hands.

As part of the grand deal that was cut, the Research and Development tax credit for businesses was to be expanded, to provide conformity with the federal tax code relating to R&D. As part of the package that was agreed to, those provisions would then sunset in 5 years.

However, that isn’t exactly what made it’s way into the final product.

Instead of those provisions sunsetting in 5 years, the budget as written sunsets the entire section of the tax code relating to… 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

I have been in meetings most of the day, and returned to a plethora of emails asking for updates on the budget kabuki dance.

The Senate took up the budget as passed over in the Assembly, which failed on a 25-14 vote with all of the GOP Senators voting no except Abel Maldonado who courageously…abstained? Of course, this bloated and fat budget needs 27 votes to pass.

Senate President Don Perata has now in Soviet style “locked down” the Senate, keeping the members there to “force” some sort of bill through.

In hearing the concerns of Senate Republicans, it is clear that they should be commended, as they are insisting on a better budget for Californians.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Assembly GOP Leader did a deal, figuring it was as good as it was going to get. This is not good enough for Dick Ackerman and his GOP Senators.

Perhaps when Don Perata eventually grows up and “frees” the Senators, the Senate and Assembly GOPers can go somewhere and come to an agreement. That said, I am in favor of whomever wants to hold out for the best deal for taxpayers.

It is… Read More

Former Democratic Assemblyman Ed Chavez has filed to run for the Mount San Antonio Community College District. Ed was term limited last year and his wife lost the Democratic Primary for the 57th Assembly District to Ed Hernandez.

Los Angeles Countyhas many off year elections. You can get info here.

There are three seats up. Two are held by Republicans, long time GOP volunteer Fred Chyr and Roseanne Bader, former Assemblyman’s Chuck Bader’s wife.

Does that mean he is ruling out a race for Gloria Romero’s seat?… Read More

The news story today is the budget.

I think Mike Villines made the best he could out ofwhat he had available and has proven himself remarkably capable as a negotiator and as a leader. The budget has been bad, is bad, and will continue to be bad as long as it is built on a bad foundation of government fat that remains untrimmed.

We have delayed, perhaps,the day of financial reckoning once again. But,come it will.

However, I want to talk about water.Riverside and San Bernardino Counties are getting dry, and with over a third of our supply sent down from the Delta, we would appreciate a fix up there. A canal. We’re in the middle of a drought so rain is not the answer. Riverside County will triple in size over the next twenty five years, and we need a solution. And we’re not alone. California continues to grow. If it will help, we’ll even admit it is because of global warming. We’re getting desperate. Just fix the problem. Both the Governor andSenate Pro Tem Perata have introduced more water bonds. We need them, but we also have to figure out a cohesive manner in which to spend the… Read More