Posted on 05/25/2005 6:52:50 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Dozens of bills, including proposals to build more toll roads, control plant and animal pests and require satellite monitoring of high-risk sex offenders, were shelved Wednesday as an Assembly committee pared down spending measures.
At the same time, the Appropriations Committee approved bills to recognize gay marriages, allow doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients and raise the state minimum wage.
The committee held up more than a third of 506 bills that would have a significant impact on state spending or revenue and cut the cost of many of the measures it sent to the full Assembly.
The action reduced the potential state cost from $5.54 billion to $291 million, said Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park.
"We were very conscious of the ($8.6 billion) budget deficit," said Chu, the committee's chairwoman.
Appropriations committees in both the Senate and Assembly take up spending bills each year at one hearing rather than a series of hearings to rein in state spending.
"It's very important to look at all the bills as a whole so you can weigh one bill against another," said Chu.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up its spending bills on Thursday.
The bills shelved Wednesday included measures that would:
-Require the state to draft a plan to control invasive plants and animals.
-Give a tax break to people who buy hybrid vehicles.
-Renew the Department of Transportation's authority to contract with companies to build toll roads.
-Require satellite monitoring of high-risk sex offenders on parole.
-Exempt California National Guard members from paying vehicle registration and weight fees and require the state to provide $250,000 in life insurance coverage for Guard members called to federal active duty.
-Require a study of mountain lions and the frequency of mountain lion attacks.
-Make high school students take college preparatory courses to graduate.
-Require state prisons to employ one clergyman for every 500 inmates.
-Put a 2 percent limit on student fee increases at the University of California, California State University and community colleges unless at least a third of the increase was used for student financial aid.
-Provide another $80 million in state support for community colleges.
-Give state scientists up to three days of paid leave a year to take professional development classes.
-Set up a grant program to pay for school garden programs.
-Require schools to develop programs to deal with teen dating violence.
-Make Anaheim instead of Los Angeles the southern terminus of the first leg of an 800-mile high-speed rail system.
The committee did approve a bill that would delay from 2006 to 2008 a public vote on a $9.95 billion bond measure that would help pay for that first segment of the system, which currently is slated to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
The bills that were kept in committee can be taken up again in January when lawmakers start their 2006 session.
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On the Net: www.assembly.ca.gov
It is about time the runaway spending started showing down, WAY down. Good news.
Seems I need to re-read Revelations, I'm expecting the 4 horsemen to show up on the evening news any day now.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
From this comment I gather you believe runaway spending is slowing down If that's the case you need to better understand this article in reference to past proposals.
Spending proposals, both from the Austrian and the legislature are increasing, not slowing down. The rate of increase is not slowing down either. All average over 5% a year.
Spending proposals, both from the Austrian and the legislature are increasing, not slowing down.
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Until the taxpayers' money is no longer used to fund illegal aliens and also pay for schools that do not meet good teaching standards, the whole discussion is academic. So much fraud and waste exists in those two areas, that the state funds would be bouyed significantly if there was responsibility and accountability in our state government for what our money is spent on. And to top it off, the UNIONS, the minions of the left, are whining because the state, in real terms, cannot keep throwing money at them, and false-promising them just to keep their liberal, special interest votes.
The state needs BIG fixes financially. Time will tell. And I am hoping for MAJOR changes voted by the taxpayers in a special vote in November. Let's just hope it all becomes real, and is not just cheap political talk.
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