Posted on 02/07/2008 8:11:51 AM PST by SmithL
Sacramento -- California voters' rejection of a ballot initiative that would have allowed state lawmakers facing term limits to keep their jobs longer is expected to create more challenges for the Legislature, which already faces the huge problem of solving the state's looming $14.5 billion budget deficit.
Among the 34 lawmakers who will be looking for new jobs at the end of this year are three of the Legislature's four leaders: Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Senate Minority leader Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine.
With those legislators becoming lame ducks, there probably will be intense politicking inside the Legislature in the following weeks and months as lawmakers jockey to succeed those caucus leaders.
Proposition 93 would have given those legislators a chance to keep their jobs longer by allowing them to serve 12 years in one house of the Legislature. Current term limits law sets a maximum of six years in the Assembly and eight years in the Senate, for a total of 14 years.
But Prop. 93 was defeated. With nearly 99 percent of the state's precincts reporting, 53 percent of the voters rejected the measure. The highly contested initiative was the brainchild of Núñez, who hired his top political consultant, Gail Kaufman, to lead the campaign for the measure.
The rejection of the measure is expected to spark intense campaigning among legislators over who will become the new leaders. That will not only become a distraction within the Legislature, but could hinder Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who needs to negotiate with lawmakers to fix the state's fiscal crisis.
"When the governor looks for the big cheese, all he's going to find are a group of mice," said John Pitney Jr., a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
“which already faces the huge problem of solving the state’s looming $14.5 billion budget deficit.”
They weren’t going to do that in the first place.
Too freaking bad...Poor guys, how did things EVER get done in California like this? I’ve heard some pretty ridiculous excuses for inaction, but this one takes the cake.
California’s ultra-leftist state legislature has never considered the radical and far-flung idea of REDUCING SPENDING as a solution to its record-setting obscene state deficit....California was once the greatest state in the country, until the liberals took over. No dept, best education system, best highways, not overrun by millions of illegal aliens, reasonable taxation, business-friendly....all the things that come with American conservatism.
We wish all of them were term limited out and we could start again. The voters need a chance to tell them the state is broke and we won’t take it any longer..
Yes, kiddies, the Mexican kid from Tijuana (well, mommy crossed the border to have Anchor Baby Fabian) who once went bankrupt 'cuz he ain't got no real skills will now have to hit the pavement looking for a real job again.
His little plan to keep taxing the crap out of the gringos to keep him living high seems to have run out.
Oh wait -- the state Dim party will see to it that he gets a nice $100K a year job like they did for Tony VivaLaRaza, until he got his new gig running The Second Largest City in America.
And then he can go back to calling people "racists" if they don't vota por Fabian.
But for now he's gotta think about that.
“For the past couple of years, Núñez had been the Republican governor’s main cohort in hammering out agreements on key issues such as curbing global warming, increasing the minimum wage and reforming health care - a campaign that stalled last week in the Senate Health Committee.”
Probably one of the best reasons to have defeated 93!
Villar (drop the second half of his name because it was his estranged wife's name) will wind up in a Clinton cabinet (god forbid!). Nunez and and the one who introduces the drivers license bill every year will lobby the state legislature for the government of Mexico. Bet on it!
California: a place with a $14 bill deficit that spends $10 bill per year providing services to people who are not legally present in the state; with a legislature that is wondering how to solve the budget crisis.
The same people who lost out for term limits are the ones who created “the huge problem of solving the state’s looming $14.5 billion budget deficit.”
no loss
>California: a place with a $14 bill deficit that spends $10 bill per year providing services to people who are not legally present in the state; with a legislature that is wondering how to solve the budget crisis.<
Tie it on a brick, fling it upside their heads and they’ll still refuse to go there!
IMOHO, the only logical solution is to stop providing these services, but they never will.
Does anyone know how much in state retirement Núñez will get?
Good question!
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