CA: Assembly leader (Nunez) says Schwarzenegger carries "corporate" agenda

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 2/3/05 | Tom Chorneau - AP

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Calling Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger out of touch with voters, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said Thursday that the Legislature's Democratic majority would consider the governor's proposals to restructure government when ready but were not worried about facing him in a special election.

Nunez, D-Los Angeles, criticized Schwarzenegger's plans to bring four sweeping constitutional amendments to voters later this year as "cowboy politics" that seeks to bypass negotiations over the issues with lawmakers.

"This is a governor that is strictly a pro-big business governor," said Nunez. "This is not a people's agenda; this is a corporate agenda."

Schwarzenegger's constitutional amendments would impose across-the-board spending cuts when revenues failed to match spending; give authority for drawing legislative districts to retired judges; turn the state's pension system into something more like a 401(k) plan; and set base teacher pay on merit rather than tenure.

So far, the Legislature has not taken up the governor's proposals but Nunez said they would in the coming weeks.

Nunez spoke after Assembly Democrats spent two days in Orange County to adopt their legislative priorities for the new session. Those priorities are basically the same ones the Democrats have repeated before: public education, health care and transportation programs.

Margita Thompson, spokeswoman for the governor, said Californians continue to support Schwarzenegger and his proposals.

"The people know that the governor is following the mandate of the recall and is advocating for the people's agenda," she said. "The average California understands that you cannot spend more than you make and they understand that the governor is trying to instill that same discipline on the state."

Nunez said Democrats' main focus will remain on the adoption of an on-time budget that protects programs important to many Democrats.

Schwarzenegger's proposed $111.7 billion spending plan relies on more than $4 billion in borrowing to help an estimated shortfall of $8.6 billion. The plan also leans heavily on schools by taking $2 billion from what educators claim they are owed under a voter-approved funding guarantee and shifting another $500 million in annual costs for teacher pensions.

Schwarzenegger takes another $1.6 billion from money set aside for transportation projects.

Democrats, Nunez said, want to protect both education and highway money and insisted the budget can be balanced without raising taxes. To close the deficit, the speaker said he wants to close some corporate loopholes and force the federal government to provide more support to California.

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On the Net

http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov-homepage.jsp

Gov.'s home page

http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/defaulttext.asp

California Assembly

[peyton randolph]

Corporate agenda? Gasp. Next thing you know they'll accuse him of being his predecessor.

[goldstategop]

"Business Is Bad For California." I suggest its Fabian Nunez and his party that is out of touch with mainstream Californians. They want to raise taxes, allow lawyers to add additional costs to everything we buy and they want bureaucrats to micromanage every details of our lives. Arnold's fault is he thinks we already pay enough, we should make California more friendly to people who create jobs and that we ought to decide what's best for us and our children. Yeah, its Californians' fault we're not marching faster down to the road to socialism.

Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."