Free Republic

Smiley Allen Martin was freed in February after serving time [ half his 10-year sentence] for punching a girlfriend, dragging her from her home by her hair and whipping her with a belt, according to court and prison records. Those count as nonviolent offenses under California law...

With 60 days to election day, Rep. Devin Nunes (R–Tulare) still hasn’t uttered the name of his opponent on television. Instead, his barrage of television advertising – eclipsing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign spending – has turned to another set of issues on the Nov. 3 ballot: a ballot initiative. Two new ads hitting Valley airwaves on Thursday from Nunes are highlighting the hangover effect of a pair of California decriminalization measures – 2014’s Proposition 47 and 2016’s Proposition 57. Prop. 47 notoriously reclassified a bevy of felonies – deemed to be “nonviolent offenses” – as misdemeanors, allowing...

Prop. 57, approved by voters in 2016, promised to reduce the state's overcrowded prisons by expanding parole eligibility for nonviolent criminals, and by encouraging inmates to take part in rehabilitation, therapy, and vocational programs. The cases include those of Alfredo "Freddy" Casillas, who took part in the murder of a rival gang member in Burbank, and Luis Steven Flores, who went to prison for assault with a deadly weapon with a semi-automatic firearm, and served time for battery on a peace officer, as well as battery on another inmate. They, along with other prisoners with violent histories, became eligible for...

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner on Friday said California must consider early parole for thousands of sex offenders, the Associated Press reported. About the Lawsuit Janice Bellucci, a Sacramento attorney and president of Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, was the one who filed the lawsuit on behalf of sex offenders. According to Bellucci, the rules the CDCR were putting in place directly conflicted "with the ballot measure's language and voter's intent in approving Proposition 57." From the Associated Press: Bellucci argued the measure requires earlier parole consideration for any sex crime not on the state's narrow...

The Golden State had a recall almost five years ago. California had a huge budget deficit at the time and soon-to-be-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was promising to “cut up the credit card.” By the March 2004 primary, Schwarzenegger, by then governor, was promoting the passage of ballot Propositions 57 and 58. Prop. 57 was a $15 billion deficit bond designed to refinance the short-term debt California incurred under Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (with a few billion left over for future needs, the last $3 billion of which was borrowed a few months ago). Prop. 58 was a supposed spending cap of...

Fourth in a series of 10 columns ... (snip) As he took office, the state faced a huge repayment of short-term budget deficit loans in June 2004 that it didn't have the money to make. The proposed solution was stretching out repayment through a $15 billion debt refinancing bond - much like a family's taking out a new home mortgage to cover crushing credit card bills - but it would require voter approval at the March 2004 primary election, so time was short, and Republicans were demanding a tough state spending limit. Initially, Schwarzenegger backed the strict limit, but Democrats...

Early last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recruited Democrats for a bipartisan campaign for twin ballot measures he called vital to restoring the state's fiscal health. In a Sacramento Bee commentary he co-wrote in February 2004 with Democratic state Controller Steve Westly, he said Propositions 57 and 58 would "make sure we would never face another deficit crisis." "Under Proposition 58, California would have to live within its means," Schwarzenegger said. This year, as California again faces a multibillion-dollar deficit, the governor has proposed asking voters to approve another new measure - one titled the "Live Within Our Means Act." He...

<p>By conventional analysis, the stunning and overwhelming passage of Propositions 57 and 58 has placed California on the road to fiscal recovery.</p> <p>The unprecedented $15 billion bond gives the Legislature and the administration the time they need to put the state's finances in order. The stern spending limits in Prop. 58 will give the governor added tools to restrain state spending. The big margin of victory greatly enhances the governor's political clout with the Legislature to win tough reforms. As those reforms take effect and the economy responds, state revenue will grow quickly to absorb the $1.5 billion in annual debt repayments that Prop. 57 will require.</p>

<p>By now, political analysts of every stripe have read the entrails of the March 2 primary election and have divined meaningful information about the "will of the people" as they "spoke" on Election Day. I'm never sure how much any given election actually means, given how little most people know about what or for whom they are voting, but some broad conclusions are valid, nevertheless.</p>

SACRAMENTO – While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared that voter approval of his fiscal ballot propositions means "California is back on track," Wall Street analysts yesterday said it's a mixed blessing that may allow lawmakers to go back to their bad habits. Standard & Poor's, a major credit-rating agency, said the $15 billion bond measure passed Tuesday provides enough additional money to allow lawmakers to postpone painful decisions about spending cuts and tax increases needed to bring the state budget back into balance. Meanwhile, the state's financial picture may become more complicated by a lawsuit to be filed today by 38...

LOS ANGELES – In the first positive news for California's battered credit ratings in three years, two bond rating agencies issued slight improvements Wednesday to the state's credit status. The minor boosts came a day after voters approved a $15 billion bond measure championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pay off $14 billion in short-term debt. State officials called Tuesday's bond the largest in U.S. municipal bond history. State Controller Steve Westley called the improvements "a sign that Wall Street is pleased to see California beginning to head back in the right direction financially." Standard and Poors, which last July...

Now that Californians have passed Governor Schwarzenegger's economic recovery plan, what does it mean to taxpayers? Treasurer Phil Angelides, a critic of the $15 billion budget bond, told reporters that the measure will cost every family $1600 -- between cash out-of-pocket and money pulled from programs or raised through higher taxes. The interest on the $15 billion loan could cost anywhere from $4 billion to $6.5 billion. Critics argue that's the equivalent of 400 elementary schools, but the landslide victory gives Schwarzenegger some clout. "He needed the strength of this big victory to show to the legislature and say, 'Look,...

<p>It took a blitz of big money, bipartisan politics and Hollywood star power, but in the end Arnold Schwarzenegger's come-from-behind win on the state budget bailout has made him the biggest force California politics has seen in years.</p> <p>He got elected largely on the strength of his personality -- now, Arnold has shown that he can translate his personality into effective governing.</p>

<p>California Treasurer Phil Angelides promised to work quickly to sell a record $15 billion deficit bond passed Tuesday, giving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a crucial victory in his bid to turn around the world's sixth-largest economy.</p> <p>A companion measure that would require a balanced budget and a state reserve fund to guard against future deficits also easily passed. Both measures had to be approved for either to take effect.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Californians overwhelmingly approved a plan Tuesday to borrow a record $15 billion to bail out the state budget, handing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a crucial victory Tuesday in his bid to turn around the world's sixth-largest economy.</p>

A few months ago, they were on different sides in the bitter recall campaign. But on Sunday, two days before another election, California's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's top Republican, stood together in San Jose -- unified. This time, the two parties' leaders share the same concern. Both are urging voters to back a pair of measures -- a $15 billion bond to balance the state budget and a balanced-budget requirement -- they say are critical to the state's fiscal health. ``The main message of today is looking up here and understanding what you...

Universally, polls indicate Arnold Schwarzenegger is highly popular across the political spectrum, and that the state’s voters are largely grateful that the new governor appears to be fostering a more cooperative political environment while restoring some semblance of fiscal sanity in Sacramento. But along the way he made the calculated decision to ignore one of the major commitments he made during the recall campaign: an open audit of the state’s finances. While the marginalized newspapers made little mention of it, voters who are against any and all new taxes and continued lack of financial responsibility in state government remember Arnold’s,...

<p>The following is a summary of the Register's positions on the state and local measures on the March 2 ballot.</p> <p>Proposition 55: No. It would float $12.3 billion in bonds to upgrade and build new classrooms for K-12 schools, the community colleges and the Cal State and UC systems. It's more debt, costing about $823 million a year to pay off over 30 years, for a state that can't balance its budget now.</p>

<p>Given the latest polls, there's a fair chance that, come Tuesday, California voters will approve Proposition 57, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion deficit bond, and reject Proposition 55, the $12.3 billion school construction and repair bond that appears on the same ballot.</p>

<p>Contrary to the contentions made in the Register's Feb. 17 editorial ["Proposition package fails the test"], Propositions 57 and 58 are essential to the stability of California's state finances. Over the past four years, the state budget has been woefully mismanaged. We are now at a crossroad. The choices are daunting. To pay for the $13.1 billion debt the last two budgets have left us, we will either approve the Prop. 57 bond or the Legislature will increase taxes on businesses and individuals.</p>