Free Republic

Ten of the 29 directors of California's new stem cell program serve on biotech or pharmaceutical firms' boards of directors or have extensive holdings in those industries, leading critics to challenge their ability to fairly represent taxpayers in doling out $3 billion in state funds. Members of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, created by voter passage of the stem cell initiative in November, reported interests ranging from real estate to movie production in statements of economic interest filed this week. Six members, including Sacramento physician Francisco Prieto and University of California, Davis, medical school head Claire Pomeroy, had no reportable...

From time to time the Register seems to enjoy marching out editorials and opinion columns trashing public schools. In this chorus of critiques are periodical columns by talking heads such as Lloyd Billingsley, Alan Bonsteel and Lance Izumi. Recently, ex-teacher Kathleen Miller ["Here's a word for governor: Brave," The Orange Grove, Jan. 7], echoing the governor of this state, tried to blame teachers for the problem of underachieving students. Gov. Schwarzenegger's clever slogan, "This is a battle between the special interests and the children's interests," does nothing to solve California's budget mess. When the governor lumps all teachers together as...

"Redistricting" isn't a word that easily flows off the tongue, nor is it normally part of the vocabulary of the average voter. But Californians are certain to hear and read it for at least the next few months as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to reform the state government from the ground up. Redistricting is the process of changing the boundaries of the districts by which voters elect representatives to office. When it comes to the Assembly and Senate districts for the state Legislature, boundaries are drawn by the Legislature itself. In 2001, leaders of both the Democratic and...

My recent column on California's runaway housing prices provoked yelps of indignance from the special interests that have done much to make homeownership less affordable in the Golden State's major housing markets than anywhere else in the country. "Please give even any example of an 'excessive fee' on any development project," challenges one letter-writer, a no-growth environmentalist, who actually is a member of San Diego's Planning Commission. "I really hate to wish anyone bad luck, but maybe the only way the media will get it right is to experience substandard construction that the home builder refuses to repair," chides another...

SACRAMENTO — The Schwarzenegger administration has quietly moved to reopen two private prisons a year after mothballing them — and after a company that stands to profit retained consultants close to the governor and his inner circle. Administration officials attribute the reversal to an unexpected rise in the number of prisoners. Prisons Department critics point to the private prison company's lobbying. The administration has decided to reopen two facilities, one of which is a 224-bed prison in the Central Valley town of McFarland. A Florida company ran the McFarland facility for 15 years until Dec. 31, 2003, when the state...

"Amend for Arnold" was the message on the T-shirt handed to me on New Year's Day by a group of Schwarzenegger fans who were making a commercial in favor of the constitutional amendment allowing immigrants who have been citizens for 20 years to run for president. They asked me to say a few words in support, but I demurred. Why? Because the governor was still, for me, more promise than performance. He'd talked the talk about digging California out of bankruptcy but had yet to make good on any of the radical changes that are needed to achieve this -...

The Issue: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious plans to regain control of state spending and change the face of California public education by requiring merit pay for teachers. The Spin: Lefty lawmakers and pundits assailed Schwarzenegger for "myopia," gave him an "F" for critical thinking and said he had made defenseless children his main political punching bag. The Unspin: George F. Will and others have documented how so many "reactionary liberals" in Washington fight even the most incremental change in federal taxes and entitlements they have always championed. But here's a news flash: The problem is far worse in California. At...

Senate and Assembly Democrats announced plans this week for a coordinated statewide campaign to take on parts of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget, which leaders charged borrows ideas from "right-wing think tanks" and hurts middle-class families. Democratic leaders said they will present an alternate plan to the governor's $111.7 billion budget proposal, including his plans to freeze spending for schools, highways and the poor. They said they will seek to seal off tax loopholes and to win more federal money for the state instead of calling for raising taxes, but would not categorically rule out a tax hike. They also reacted...

SACRAMENTO - Armed with a new report showing big savings and backed by the Legislature's two leaders, a Democratic lawmaker announced plans Wednesday to reintroduce her bill to create a universal health care system that would cover all Californians. The study by the Lewin Group, a Virginia consulting firm, predicts the legislation would save California $343.6 billion in health care costs over the next 10 years, mainly by cutting administration and using bulk purchases of drugs and medical equipment. The study was paid for by Health Care for All - California, a nonprofit group that supports universal coverage. The bill's...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Groups representing attorneys and injured workers filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging state regulations they said would result in big cuts in benefits for employees who suffer disabling injuries on the job. "The ratings fail to replace workers' pre-injury earnings," said Mark Hayes, president of Voters Injured at Work, a new group that hopes to organize thousands of injured workers into a political force. "If these drastic reductions take effect, more Californians will lose their cars, their homes and their good credit ... (and) end up on welfare." Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Workers...

Sometimes a cartoon says things better than thousands of words. So it was the other day when Bruce Tinsley's "Mallard Fillmore" spoof predictions for 2005 contained this zinger: "All agencies will be consolidated under the new 'agency of agencies,' which will oversee and coordinate the activities of the 'bureau of bureaus' and the 'department of departments.'" All, of course, would be ruled by the "czar of czars." Ordinarily a fan of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Tinsley comic strip this time was perfectly timed to puncture a key part of Schwarzenegger's many-pronged plan for so-called reform in California government. For...

Budget: Last week, the Governor introduced his budget proposal for the fiscal year July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006. Predictably, Democrats assailed it as being harsh and draconian and laden with too many cuts. But let’s look at the facts. The Governor’s proposed budget increases spending in the General Fund by 4.2%. That is a greater spending increase than was contained in any of the last 3 budgets, the last 2 of which were Gray Davis budgets. It also is an increase about in line with the inflation and population growth for the year. He has increased education spending...

WASHINGTON - The federal commission that distributes voting funds will decide next week whether to audit California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's use of the money. The four-member U.S. Election Assistance Commission will vote on the issue at a regularly scheduled meeting Jan. 27, according to a commission press release Tuesday. It would take a 3-1 majority to proceed. The panel has two Democrats and two Republicans. The Election Assistance Commission was created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to administer more than $3 billion being distributed to states under the act to improve voting systems and replace...

California business owners saw the average annual premium for workers' compensation insurance drop between 13.9 percent and 16.6 percent in the last six months, according to records from the state Department of Insurance. These would be the first double-digit percentage rate cuts since deregulation in 1995, savings that arose out of legislative overhauls the last two sessions. "Rates are coming down. Right now, it appears medical cost inflation has been impacted by the reforms. Medical costs were one of the primary drivers pushing rates up," said Jack Hannan, a spokesman for the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California, an...

SACRAMENTO -- He says California has a "spending problem, not a revenue problem," but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a budget providing more money for health care, billions more for education and still millions more for other new and expanded programs. From $6 million for a new obesity-prevention program to $10.4 million to hire 116 additional tax collectors, the governor's 2005-06 budget proposes record state spending of nearly $112 billion while holding the overall spending increase to 4.2 percent. Administration officials defend the budget and the overall spending increase, saying the plan controls spending growth -- partly by cutting several...

Stung by several of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget initiatives, an army of advocacy groups and unions have begun to mobilize for what they warn will be an outright assault on his plans. They are some of the very groups that the Republican governor quieted early in budget talks last year through a series of behind-the-scenes deals. But this year, educators and public employee unions are outraged by his proposals that target teachers, the poor and rank-and-file state workers. With memberships reaching into the hundreds of thousands, the unions specialize in organizing, fund raising and marshaling volunteers. They say they will...

In his address last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a 401(k) style defined-contribution pension system for state workers. In a January 24 hearing on pension issues, state legislators should consider the evidence for why such a system is necessary. Lucrative disability pensions are becoming the rule rather than the exception in some counties. A disability pension is 50-percent tax free and provides half the employee's salary for life and up to 100 percent for the employee's spouse if the employee dies. In L.A. County alone, according to a January 3 Los Angeles Daily News report, about 1,200 former county...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Facing a $2 billion hit next year in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget, a coalition of the state's largest education groups plans to meet Tuesday to consider a strategy for challenging the popular governor and his much disliked spending plan. Once considered a major ally of schools, Schwarzenegger has emerged in recent weeks as perhaps its biggest enemy. The governor not only wants to shift money from schools to fill other gaps next year but has also proposed a constitutional spending cap that could hurt schools in the future. Educators said they are preparing for political war. "We're...

SACRAMENTO — Democrats who ran California are battling daily with a new Republican icon over politically remaking the state, but about half their best warriors are crippled by woes that include corruption probes. And officials this week will intensify scrutiny of one, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. Analysts said it's a dramatic turnaround from when the only statewide GOP officeholder four years ago, former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, resigned after a probe into the alleged channeling of insurance companies' money into a nonprofit group. "Potential gubernatorial and statewide Democratic candidates fear the albatrosses around their necks will sink them," said...

It's all so terrible. The governor has proposed a budget that significantly increases government spending, but not nearly as much as the various government-dependent groups would like it to increase. Listen to the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Children will go hungry. Union workers might actually have to retire with a defined- contribution plan (a promised amount of contributions) like most of us have in the private sector, rather than with the CEO-style, taxpayer-funded defined-benefit plan (a promised amount of benefits) they now have. Overall state spending will go up by only 4.2 percent, K-12 education will go up only...

Gov. Schwarzenegger is right: California will never be able to budget rationally as long as Prop. 98 remains the way it is. His proposed changes to the 1988 initiative, which requires generous annual funding for public schools, may not be workable. But he's on solid ground in making the suggestion - and sparking a debate over ways to adjust the measure. The governor has criticized "auto-pilot" spending that keeps increasing even when state revenues slump, and Prop. 98 is the 800-horsepower engine of cruise-control budgeting. Make no mistake, public education should be a top priority for California. The state for...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, criticized by Democrats for failing to win more federal money, will meet with the state's congressional delegation to discuss ways of bringing home more funds from Washington, officials said Sunday. "We were successful in getting more (federal) money than was budgeted last year, and we will work with the delegation to make sure we build upon that success," spokeswoman Margita Thompson said. No date for the meeting had been set, Thompson said. For years, California has sent far more tax money to Washington than it receives in federal programs, spending or employment -...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Odd-numbered years, particularly those that follow presidential elections, are supposed to offer a pleasant reprieve from politics. After months of being solicited for money, bombarded by ads and called at home by earnest get-out-the-vote volunteers, most Americans appreciate a break before the campaign cacophony of an even-numbered year comes back around again. But no such relief is in sight for Californians, who are all but certain to head to the polls this fall in yet another major statewide election. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in his short tenure has made the threat of a ballot fight his...

Government workers and their unions say that scrapping traditional public pensions, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed last week, would make it hard for the state to hire and keep qualified workers. It would rewrite the long-standing deal in which government workers trade better pay for more secure retirement, they say. Backers of the overhaul disagree, saying government workers now approach pay parity with the private sector. New 401(k)-style accounts will let workers change jobs without giving up retirement benefits, they say, encouraging a healthy rate of turnover. The reality is more complicated than either side depicts. Take the issue of...

San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales said Thursday that he has demanded City Manager Del Borgsdorf explain what he and others in his office knew of concerns about favoritism in a multimillion-dollar technology contract after an independent investigator this week concluded all of Borgsdorf's aides knew and the city manager himself ``more likely than not'' also had been briefed. Borgsdorf for months has denied that he or any member of his staff had been warned of serious legal problems with an $8 million contract to install Cisco Systems equipment in the new City Hall. However, an independent investigator said Tuesday that...

The South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce on Thursday joined a growing chorus of community groups and elected officials urging embattled San Jose City Councilman Terry Gregory to resign. The chamber's announcement came Silicon Valley-style, in a blog written by Jim Cunneen, the group's president and CEO, who published his views on a new political Web log site called San Jose Inside (www. sanjoseinside.com). In the blog, Cunneen also offered the chamber's help in funding a petition drive to recall Gregory if the councilman, who represents District 7, does not resign. Phaedra...

SACRAMENTO -- Under threat of a subpoena, embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley agreed Thursday to testify voluntarily before a committee investigating his handling of federal election funds. Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, the committee's chairwoman, said Shelley would be sworn in as a witness, leaving him vulnerable to possible perjury charges if he lies. Shelley is willing to testify under oath at the committee's next hearing Feb. 3, said spokeswoman Caren Daniels-Meade. "If that's what the committee wants, yes," Daniels-Meade said. Parra's Joint Legislative Audit committee is holding hearings on a stinging audit report that found Shelley mismanaged millions of...

With an opportunity to do the best thing for California education, Democrats on the California Senate Rules Committee took another route. They weaseled. Faced with confirmation of a nominee for a second term to the State Board of Education, who California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said would go down in California history as one of the best members of that board, Democrats voted him down. This was the first big test of leadership for state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. Perata failed. With his "no" vote, he prevented the nomination of Reed Hastings from going to a...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's workers' compensation costs are going down, but you wouldn't know it by looking at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposals. They include big increases in the state's own workers' comp costs. The Republican governor's budget predicts the state's cost of dealing with job-related injuries and illnesses among its employees will jump 30 percent over two fiscal years - despite much-touted changes Schwarznegger pushed through the Legislature last April. Jim Zelinski, a spokesman for the State Compensation Insurance Fund, a quasi-governmental agency that administers the state's workers' compensation program, said savings from the 2004 legislation and cost-cutting bills...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley agreed Thursday to testify Feb. 3 before the legislative committee investigating his use of federal election funds, his aides said. Shelley made the commitment Thursday morning, meeting a 10 a.m. deadline to confirm his appearance before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee's hearing next month. The committee's chair, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, said she would seek a subpoena to compel his testimony if he did not agree to come. Shelley made the commitment in a letter and telephone call to Parra, said his spokeswoman, Caren Daniels-Meade. "He looks forward to participating," she...

In a sign of California's uneven economic recovery and changing political landscape, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vow this week that higher taxes are "out of the question" barely raised a peep in a state with a $9.1 billion deficit. With the exception of state Treasurer Phil Angelides, Democrats for now have dropped earlier calls for higher taxes to fix the budget. Instead, the Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature, reacted to Schwarzenegger's budget proposal by talking about closing corporate tax loopholes and getting more federal dollars from Washington. "You don't see us saying we're going to raise taxes," said...

IT seems no one likes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal for the 2005-06 fiscal year, not even him. But it's a starting point for shaping what will hopefully be the budget that finally brings state spending in line with revenues. The good news is that it makes tough recommendations for spending cuts in an attempt to erase the $8 billion-grown-to-$9.1 billion deficit. The bad news is that the governor kept tax or revenue increases off the bargaining table. And, he once again depends on borrowing to erase part of the shortfall. All options, including revenue or tax increases, should be...

Kern's Democrat Assemblywoman Nicole Parra is playing the game "Democrats, May I?" instead of getting tough with scandal-plagued Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. Being polite is one thing. Being just plain partisan is another. Parra, who heads the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, scheduled a Monday hearing on the state auditor's findings that Democrat Shelley mismanaged federal election funds and used some of the money to further his party's political efforts. Parra asked Shelley to testify before her committee, but allowed him to send a representative if he wished. Parra explained that it is the Legislature's custom to seek a voluntary...

SACRAMENTO – The goal of the state budget plan proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week is to control what he calls "autopilot" spending, which happens because current laws cause programs to grow faster than tax revenue. But nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Liz Hill, issuing an overview of the proposed $111.7 billion budget, said yesterday that parts of the governor's plan would actually make big increases in "autopilot" spending. Among other things, the governor wants to end the Legislature's ability to suspend the Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee and take Proposition 42 gasoline sales tax revenue from transportation. Hill said the governor's...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Senate committee Wednesday rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reappointment of a state Board of Education member who became embroiled in the debate over bilingual education. The Senate Rules Committee deadlocked 2-2 over Schwarzenegger's nomination of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reed Hastings for another term on the board. He needed at least three votes from the five-member committee. Hastings, a Democratic Party campaign donor, was originally appointed to the board by Gov. Gray Davis in 2000. He was reappointed by Schwarzenegger, a Republican, last year. But Hastings ran into opposition from Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Norwalk, and bilingual education groups...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is essentially staging the first constitutional convention in 126 years with a special election to revamp the jumbled California Constitution his way. He is sidestepping political risks and safeguards in the most powerful emergency outlet Founding Fathers left for sweeping reform, analysts said Tuesday. But the path he's chosen around a convention is still opening what analysts and others called a Pandora's boxGovernor sidestepping constitutional reform tool that could backfire on the Republican governor. His critics — ranging from majority Democrats to wide-ranging special interests to conservative GOP groups — are scrambling to put their...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst warned Wednesday that while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $111.7 billion budget plan solves next year's problem, the state still faces big deficits in the future because spending remains out of balance with tax income. But Analyst Elizabeth Hill also advised against Schwarzenegger's proposed long term solution to the problem - a constitutional amendment that would trigger accross-the-board cuts when revenues fail to meet spending obligations. Hill said the measure, which Schwarzenegger wants to put before voters in a special election this year, would put even more spending "on cruise control" while undermining the Legislature's...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - As she prepared to announce her candidacy for her late husband's congressional seat, Doris Matsui was endorsed Wednesday by Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi. "Doris has advocated for the people of Sacramento for more than 25 years. She knows the 5th District inside and out, and has worked effectively on its behalf," Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said in a statement. "Doris and Bob Matsui shared a love for the people of Sacramento, and Doris will build upon Bob's outstanding work in Congress." Doris Matsui summoned reporters to her home to announce she was running in a March 8...

For Californians, this week will reveal more about their future as taxpaying citizens than at any time since voters recalled Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is the week that the Governor gives his state of the state address and, while the details of his proposed budget won't be known until next week, he must tell us now if he intends to follow through on some of his most important campaign promises. The stark truth is, from a fiscal perspective, he has little choice but to turn the ship of state sharply starboard. To port is the rocky shore...

A UC Irvine grad hopes to put the dream of owning a home more within reach by cutting property taxes. Freshman Assemblywoman Audra Strickland proposes to give first-time homebuyers a 14-fold increase in the homeowners exemption. Other government officials say the idea may be too complicated and too costly to pass into law. Strickland, 30, who graduated from UC Irvine in 1996 with a political science degree, acknowledges that her bill still needs tinkering. But she believes the problems can be ironed out. "With the prices of houses skyrocketing, this was a way ... more people can own a home,"...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday he was open to loosening the voter-approved term limits on state lawmakers, saying the mandatory short tenure is depriving the Legislature of experience and knowledge. "We never really create someone that is an expert in anything in Sacramento," he said, "because before you become an expert you are out." Some political analysts have suggested that lawmakers might look more favorably on Schwarzenegger's proposal to strip the Legislature's authority to redraw congressional and legislative district boundaries if he would seek a change in the 1990 initiative that limits lawmakers to six years in the Assembly and...

If you are like most Americans, your household income will grow by about 3 percent this year. You would like more, of course, but you will get by just fine. Why, then, can't the California Legislature scrape by on a much larger increase of 4.2 percent in general fund revenues? Why are Democratic majorities in the Senate and Assembly, joined by a chorus of special interests, demanding a variety of tax increases to avert the hardship they foresee in a budget that will grow by only 4.2 percent? Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger's proposed 2005-06 budget provides a reality check for lawmakers...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Leaders of the Legislature's Democratic majority said Tuesday they are setting aside a long-standing call for tax increases to close the state's $8.6 billion deficit next year and instead will concentrate on closing tax loopholes and chasing more federal support. Calling the new budget plan from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a Republican document, Democrats criticized the administration's plans to close the gap using billions in borrowing and taking heavily from schools and public health programs. But lacking their own budget plan and wary about a politically charged special election looming on the horizon, Democrats also said they are...

Budget analysis: Plan relies heavily on borrowing Once again, the governor wants to tap several sources - for $6 billion. Just as he has from the day he announced he was running to clean up Sacramento, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared again Monday that he would end the practice of state government borrowing to pay its bills. "We must live within our means," the Republican governor said while presenting his budget plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. "This is something I promised during my campaign ... we will only spend the money that the state takes in." Well,...

As a persistent surveyor of California education policies and attendant inclination of the state's legislature and teacher's union to emphasize self-esteem, revisionist indoctrination and sexual orientation into the classroom at the expense of basic academics, it was with low expectations that I read an eruption of stories on our "failing schools" delivered by the politically routine press on January 4. The writers were reacting to a just-issued Rand report titled: California's K-12 Schools: How Are They Doing? One story stated the report's intent: "The nonpartisan Rand Corporation examined every measurable aspect of California schools, from student achievement to teacher qualifications...

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Kevin Shelley bent rules, missed deadlines and failed to do proper paperwork as he spent millions of dollars in federal election money, state Auditor Elaine Howle told a legislative committee conducting its first hearing Monday to investigate the embattled state elections official. Howle meticulously told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that Shelley's management failures, which also included the questionable use of federal money, added up to "disregard for proper controls and poor oversight" of money given California to modernize its voting systems. But a representative of Shelley's office testified under oath that much of the...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to balance the next state budget depends heavily on spending cuts in health and welfare programs and higher health care costs for 550,000 low-income Californians. The Republican governor Monday proposed cutting spending by $1.2 billion for health and welfare to help eliminate a $9 billion deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1. His plan includes a 6.5 percent cut in welfare grants, elimination of automatic annual cost-of-living increases in welfare benefits, a benefit freeze for the elderly poor and disabled, and a $1,000 annual limit on dental care for low-income adults in...

SACRAMENTO - Education spending would rise by $2.9 billion under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spending plan for the 2005-06 fiscal year, which covers a growing student population and a cost-of-living adjustment, but little more. Education spending is the largest share of the state's general fund, with Schwarzenegger proposing a $36.5 billion budget next year - an increase of $2.4 billion in state money over last year's budget. The increase works out to a $362 per pupil increase in state funds, for a total of $10,084 per student, including all state and federal sources. But while the budget calls for more money,...

SOMEONE ought to tell Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides that January 2005 is way too early to start actively campaigning for governor in 2006. He ought to stick to fund-raising for now. His television ad blitz last week in major California markets, days before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech, was premature by any standard. Even Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, expressed reservations about Angelides' attacks. Perata and legislative Democrats have said they want to work with Schwarzenegger on issues facing the state, especially education and health care. But Perata, who had not yet seen the...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Whether by necessity or design, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan due out Monday will propose cuts in spending next year that will touch all corners of state government - even public schools. Bound by promises not to raise taxes and more recently not to paper over debts with accounting maneuvers, the Republican governor appears to have little choice but to cut vigorously in closing the $8 billion shortfall. And interest groups from schools to health care to transportation are nervously awaiting what they expect to be plans for them to receive far less money than they had...