Posted on 06/29/2004 8:39:00 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Still pushing to get a budget agreement as soon as possible, negotiators from both the administration and legislative leaders went behind closed doors to work on remaining issues - including money for schools and universities, public health programs and local government.
Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Monday appointments to a new state commission that will promote his much-anticipated reorganization of the state government.
In January, Schwarzenegger promised to "blow up" the bureaucracy to eliminate inefficiency and waste. Since then, a team of about 300 state employees and consultants have been working on the reorganization plan.
Although the plan is done and is expected to offer more than 1,000 ideas to reform state government, it won't be released until the Legislature approves the budget, said Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger's communication director.
Schwarzenegger is expected to advocate consolidating dozens of departments and eliminating hundreds - if not thousands - of jobs. A major target, officials have said, are the more than 300 state commissions and their 2,500 appointees.
Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review Commission will be headed by Willam Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable, a business lobby for corporations; and Joanne Kozberg, partner in California Strategies, a public affairs consulting firm.
Other members include Sen. Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, former minority leader; Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, speaker pro tem; Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona; and James E. Canales, president and chief executive officer of the James Irvine Foundation.
The panel will conduct at least four hearings throughout the state in August and then pass the testimony to the governor. The commission will not make any recommendations.
"California really does have a 19th century structure of government trying to operate in the 21st century," said Hauck, who also chaired an effort revise the California Constitution in the mid-1990s. "That isn't going to work."
After the commission's hearings are over, Schwarzenegger will read the public comments and decide which, if any, are worth including in his plan, Stutzman said. Some provisions could be done through executive order, while other parts would require legislative approval.
Stutzman said negotiations with legislative leaders on the budget continue but he could not say which of the remaining issues would be tackled next.
Democratic aides said Monday a main point is devising an alternative to the agreement that city and county officials made with the governor last month that would save the state $2.6 billion over the next two years. In exchange for accepting the cuts, local officials got Schwarzenegger's promise to support a constitutional amendment that would permanently protect local money in the future.
That deal, Democratic legislative leaders said, would make permanent a flawed financial arrangement that keeps cities and counties too dependent on sales taxes that lead to poor land use planning.
Democrats also want more money to lift an enrollment cap at state universities, to protect wages of home health care workers and provide a cost of living adjustment to welfare recipients.
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On the Net:
http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov-homepage.jsp
Gov.'s Home Page
http://cpr.ca.gov/about/.cpr
California Performance Review
The good thing about Arnie is that he doesn't have any political ambitions beyond the governorship and he is an outsider, IMO. I think this gives him great freedom to shake things up a bit without worrying about his own political future. No poll watching, no special interest bowing. Because I he attempts to do what he feels is right and fails, he can always go back to his previous job. Much unlike the career politician who, if fails, is banished into irrelevent obscurity.
That's right. He can't run for President and that frees him to do a good job here. Californians expect the Governor to take care of things at home instead of looking with an eye to the White House.
The sell out continues. Not one job cut. Amazing. All ca politicians should be jailed.
Did you really expect different in a State in which the Legislature is controlled by Democrats to vote for job cuts? You must be kidding.
"I will open up the windows and doors of government.
It is time to let the sun shine in. . . .
No more decisions in the dark."Arnold Schwarzenegger (shortly BEFORE he was elected)
.
hush now..
We must be "unified" as the ship slips further beneath the red-crested waves. ;-]
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