Ok, so everyone will be talking about the budget today, and we will hear lots of comments about the budget, about bloat, about special interests, and the like. The good news–it has tax cuts in it. I hear that the Democrats have all the signatures they want on the term limits initiative and want to turn it in as soon as possible. They don’t want to turn them in while the budget impasse continues. Something about bad public relations or something. The bad news, it still has a $105 billion spending plan, and keeps the structural deficits. To put this in perspective, the first budget I voted on was a $40.9 billion general fund plan. The budget when Gray Davis took office was $57 billion general fund, and when Schwarzenegger took office it was $78 billion general fund. Interestingly enough, all of the Davis increases ($21 billion) took place in his first two years in office, and then the budget collapsed. Schwarzenegger has increased the budget by $27 billion in 4 years, and it continues to grow.

The truth is, this budget was lost in January when the Governor submitted the budget.

But now for the off topic subject.

Two weeks ago,… Read More

OK, everyone ready for day two of "As State Government Grows"?

The big fat state budget (ok, it is a little less big and fat due to some negotiations) has been passed in the Assembly and transmitted over to the Senate, where it awaits action.

The big question is what will happen to it there. There has been some coverage of Senate President Don Perata grousing about provisions in the package that he doesn’t like. I don’t buy that for a minute. Can you say "posturing" — I can! Perata is an old hand at this game. He knows that passing out the existing Democrat-driven (GOP tinkered with) budget is a great deal for all of California’s special interests as it by and large maintains the status quo on how our state operates.

That said, as a shrewd negotiator will do, he HAS to be vocally critical of the plan from the left, in order to "do the dance" with Senate Republicans who have been saying the plan does not go far enough in terms of being fiscally prudent. Perata would like to choreograph this dance so that waiting at the center of the dance floor is the Assembly-passed bill.

Senate… Read More

Last night the California State Assembly passed a budget and sent it over to the Senate for their approval or rejection. The budget came out of the lower house with the support of all Democrats present, and slightly over the minimum number of Republican votes to get to the two-thirds required.

Let me start this commentary by reminding FR readers that like almost all of you, I am a far-away spectator to what goes on under the Capitol dome — I am in Southern California myself. Not being a denizen of the State Capitol, one tends to have a better perspective, I think, of the big picture. So from here, I can tell you that the passage of this budget out of the Assembly is nothing that should excite taxpayers, and certainly it is not good news for Republican Party leaders, donors and activists. The budget that was passed this morning was not support by over two-thirds of GOP legislators for a reason — it is a vastly inferior budget to one that would have been passed if there was a Republican majority in… Read More

Last night the California State Assembly passed a budget and sent it over to the Senate for their approval or rejection. The budget came out of the lower house with the support of all Democrats present, and slightly over the minimum number of Republican votes to get to the two-thirds required.

Let me start this commentary by reminding FR readers that like almost all of you, I am a far-away spectator to what goes on under the Capitol dome — I am in Southern California myself. Not being a denizen of the State Capitol, one tends to have a better perspective, I think, of the big picture. So from here, I can tell you that the passage of this budget out of the Assembly is nothing that should excite taxpayers, and certainly it is not good news for Republican Party leaders, donors and activists. The budget that was passed this morning was not support by over two-thirds of GOP legislators for a reason — it is a vastly inferior budget to one that would have been passed if there was a Republican majority in the… Read More

So in the wee hours, the DEMOCRAT budget passes, as does the controversial health trailer bill that contains the "poison pill" amongst other programs.

The budget, SB 77, required 54 votes (2/3) to pass the Assembly. One Democrat was absent which means seven GOP votes were needed for passage, and the following NINE Republicans voted for it: Adams, Aghazarian, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Emmerson, Horton, Keene, Niello, and Villines.

The Health Serves also required 54 votes, and it got 55. They were: Adams, Aghazarian, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Emmerson, Maze, Niello, and Villines went up on that.

Quick observations:

1) Due to the hard work of Mike Villines and his leadership team, this DEMOCRAT budget is better than it was before they insisted on some reforms. They should be recognized for some real impacts to take this from worse to bad. 2) Despite their best efforts, stepping back and looking at this DEMOCRAT budget, it is no where near what Republicans would have put forth if we had a majority. It is still a terrible fiscal plan for California. 3) This is demonstrated by the fact that the overwhelming majority of Republican… Read More

The Federal Election Commission announced yesterday that it would revise its regulations to account for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Wisconsin Right to Life case to exempt genuine issue ads from regulation under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law. The FEC’s move is intended to make its rules clearer "in time for the Presidential primaries and caucuses in early 2008."

An important aspect of all this is the regulation of speech, under the guise of campaign reform, that criticizes or lobbies politicians for their policy views during an election campaign, but falls short of express advocacy of the election or defeat of a candidate. In California, the FPPC maintains a broadrule that extends regulation of communications beyond those containing just explicit words of express advocacy. That rule was enjoined in a court challenge as applied to initiative campaigns, but it still exists with respect to candidate elections. The FPPC ought to consider revising its rule consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, and add an explicit rule protecting "genuine issue ads" from regulation.… Read More

The California State Assembly voted last night for the 2007-2008 State Budget, an approximately $105 Billion budget; I voted for it. The budget wasn’t pretty, but it never is. Hence the blues. The simple truth is, a compromise document of any sort will be riddled with give-aways and demands. In this instance, I believe the budget, as imperfect as any compromise budget can be, was probably one of the best deals we’ve seen in California in some time. Let me tell you why:

The Budget contains a remarkable tax credit package the likes of which Assembly Republicans haven’t seen in a decade. This package of tax credits will run for five years and will be evaluated during the fourth year to determine if they have, like Republicans have always charged, resulted in increased revenues to the State. This package will benefit California industries and promote new jobs and better wages. This is a clear win for California.

The Budget will ensure that the State’s monolithic structural deficit will be reduced next year, a feat that many didn’t think possible in light of the autopilot budget features that the State is strapped with.… Read More

Night owls, the Assembly is going through the labor-intensive process of a ton of trailer bills to the main budget bill. The budget currently has 55 votes on the big board, one more than it needs to pass. But it is still "on call" which means that votes can change. This is done because the ‘deal’ will involve achieving 54 votes on all of these trailer bills, and you wouldn’t want to close the final budget vote until you pass the trailer bills concurrently. Once the trailers have all passed, and they lock int he final budget vote, we will bring you the intel on which GOPers voted for it. **Update 12:35am. A slight drama is playing out right now. Among the plethora of trailer bills is the health trailer bill, in which is funded, among many other things, an aweful lot of public funds for abortions. Like all trailer bills, it requires 54 votes. Right now, there are only 51 votes for it. … Read More