Free Republic

SACRAMENTO – Seven years of deficits have left the state budget so far out of balance that a Republican legislative leader is saying that closing a huge budget gap with cuts alone is unworkable. Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto said he remains staunchly opposed to tax increases and is now proposing that the state borrow – possibly from funds for local government, transportation and other programs – and quickly repay the loans with money from bonds backed by the lottery. “What we would like to do is see the state get its spending in line with its revenue,”...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he will refuse to sign any bills that reach his desk until the Legislature sends him a budget agreement. "At this point, nothing in this building is more important than a responsible budget to fix our broken budget system," he said at a hastily called afternoon press conference. "So until the Legislature passes a budget that I can sign, I will not sign any bills that reach my desk." Schwarzenegger acknowledged that his decision "means some good bills will fail." But he said with a cash crisis looming, the late budget takes on even greater...

The predominately Democratic California legislature is at it again, coming up with different ways to take your personal freedoms away for the sake of a few. On the heels of attempting to make spanking a misdemeanor, the legislature now wants to make it permissible for a landlord to prevent smoking in apartment buildings on the pretext of protecting other tenants from secondhand smoke. The spineless legislator who sponsored the bill didn’t have the courage to make it a crime under the state’s Health and Safety Code. The proposed legislation merely allows the landlord to make the decision, essentially making him...

Some California legislators might claim to be victims of pay discrimination if the commission that sets state elected officials' salaries decides this week to impose its first pay cut. The California Citizens Compensation Commission is scheduled Tuesday to consider a proposal by its chairman to cut elected officials' salaries by 10 percent to help deal with a $15.2 billion state budget deficit. But a legal opinion the commission requested could limit those affected by the cut to the 80 members of the Assembly and half of the 40 state senators. The opinion by attorneys for the Department of Personnel Administration...

Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado is running for reelection this year - as both a Republican and a Democrat. The Santa Maria lawmaker turned in signatures earlier this week to qualify himself as a write-in candidate in the Democratic primary of his 15th Senate District, though he is already unopposed for the GOP nomination. Maldonado's campaign said the rare move was intended to give the moderate Republican's Democratic supporters - including his mom - the right to vote for him in the primary. "Abel's mother, who is a Democrat, said, 'Son, I want to vote for you in the Democratic primary...

SACRAMENTO -- Dick Messer likes driving around Los Angeles with Peaches, his Pomeranian, in his lap and thinks it's ridiculous that a proposal in the Capitol would make him an outlaw for doing so. The proposal, which would prohibit drivers from carrying "live animals" on their laps behind the wheel, is one of several that would regulate who can drive, when, where and how. Bills regulating cars and drivers "It's just nuts, the stuff legislators come up with instead of dealing with the real problems facing the state: crime, the economy, the . . . budget deficit," said Messer, director...

SACRAMENTO – Powerful state senators from both parties are challenging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed spending spree on selected state programs to address global warming. Drawing particular scrutiny is the Institute for Climate Solutions, a new creation of the Schwarzenegger-appointed Public Utilities Commission that would cost ratepayers $600 million over its 10-year life. During a recent Senate committee hearing, Republicans and Democrats claimed the institute was illegal without Legislature approval. That sparked a blunt exchange between lawmakers and Michael Peevey, the commission president who at one time pounded the table to drive home his points. The confrontation was as much about...

He denounced it as a political stunt and power play, but was the recall campaign against state Sen. Jeff Denham the best thing to ever happen to his political career? The upside for the Atwater Republican grew immensely this week when Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, called off the campaign. Denham, who has raised considerable funds to fight the effort, vowed Thursday to continue his defense because his name will still be on the ballot June 3. Indeed, some local Democrats intend to keep campaigning against the senator on a grass-roots level. Ads against him have already run. But Denham...

Don't blame small-town legislators for taking junkets. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday it's good for lawmakers "from those little towns" to go out in the world and see worldly things like "an airport," "a highway that maybe has 10 lanes" or even "a highway on top of a highway." The Republican governor, speaking at a conference with billionaire Michael Milken on infrastructure, said he has benefited by riding high-speed trains in France and China, which gave him more inspiration to support such projects in California. His comments on small-town legislators drew laughs and applause from the big-city audience at the...

Once in a while, almost by accident, the California Legislature sets aside pettiness and venality and does the right thing. It happened last week, although you won't find any official record, when legislation that would have changed a city's redevelopment powers in ways that could lead to widespread abuse was quietly killed without a committee hearing. Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, dropped the bill that the City of Industry was promoting after getting an earful of complaints from other local governments, especially Los Angeles County, and redevelopment reformers. Redevelopment, for those who aren't familiar with it, is the process by...

State regulators have slapped state Sen. Carole Migden and her managers with a $350,000 fine for 89 campaign spending and disclosure violations between 2003 and 2007, including illegal personal use of campaign funds. The state's Fair Political Practices Commission on Tuesday released details of the San Francisco Democrat's transgressions, which also included misrepresenting spending, soliciting donations prior to establishing campaign accounts, and failure to adequately disclose contributions and expenses. The fines come as Migden is locked in a tough re-election battle, facing two fellow Democrats in the June 3 primary, Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco and former Assemblyman Joe...

Eight California lawmakers are traveling overseas this week to study high-speed rail systems and other matters as the Legislature takes an 11-day spring break. Assembly members Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward, Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, are on a trip to Spain sponsored by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy. Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, and Assembly members Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, and Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, are part of a delegation visiting Japan. One reason for the trips is to study the development of high-speed rail systems in...

Ted Costa isn't one to take government tomfoolery lying down. Costa, who heads the People's Advocate political watchdog group and was a leading architect of the 2003 recall campaign that toppled Gov. Gray Davis, is incensed that Democrats are trying to recall Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater. Chief among Denham's alleged crimes is that he opposed the state budget last year. But Costa says he's thinking about launching a recall against Senate-leader-to-be Darrell Steinberg, unless Steinberg repudiates the Denham recall effort. Costa's grounds: Steinberg helped get the state in its current fiscal mess by supporting last year's budget. "The budget is...

With the unexpected failure of Proposition 93, state lawmakers in Sacramento find themselves with some difficult questions on their hands, questions like: How did our efforts to fool the voters go wrong? And who's to blame? To that second question, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pointed the finger at Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. The Legislature, Arnold says, didn't deliver. By not getting the work of the people done - whether on water, health care, the budget or redistricting - the Legislature's top brass failed to prove itself worthy of the extra time in...

SACRAMENTO -- Softening his past opposition to changes to California's term-limits law, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to endorse a February ballot measure that would allow many sitting lawmakers to run for office again this year rather than be forced to leave the Legislature, said people close to the governor and the campaign. Schwarzenegger's backing is a boost for the Proposition 93 campaign and its chief proponent, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), who will be forced out of his seat after this year unless the term-limits law is changed. Nunez endeared himself to Schwarzenegger by pushing the governor's health...

As a general rule, political officeholders want their voters to be happy because satisfaction with the economic and social status quo translates into approval of those in office. Cranky voters, on the other hand, are likely to take out that anger, even if misplaced, on Election Day; it's one of the risks that those who pursue political careers must accept. Californians are increasingly gloomy, a new statewide poll finds, and axiomatically, they may be inclined to punish politicians, given the chance. Ironically, however, their only looming opportunity to do so will be a measure on the Feb. 5 presidential primary...

Supporters of a proposed ballot initiative to alter California's legislative term limits announced Monday that they are submitting about 1.1 million voter signatures - 400,000 more than necessary - to qualify for the Feb. 5 ballot. Launched by Gale Kaufman and Matthew Dowd, political strategists for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, respectively, the initiative campaign needs 694,354 valid voter signatures. Kaufman announced Monday that the initiative petitions are being submitted to elections officials for certification. "Representing the people of California is honorable work," Núñez said in a written statement. "This initiative with its bipartisan coalition of supporters...

Besieged Senate Republicans continued to block passage of a state budget Friday night even as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger publicly sided with Democrats and urged GOP senators to give up the fight. The deadlock in the Senate persisted despite the Assembly passing a budget on a bipartisan vote following an all-night session into Friday morning. The Assembly has since disbanded for a monthlong recess. GOP lawmakers complain that the Assembly spending plan does not cut deep enough and are holding out for more reductions. On Friday night, Schwarzenegger, whose role in budget talks has largely been limited this year, stepped in...

SACRAMENTO -- A group advocating term limits complained today to the state about use of campaign funds by Democratic Senate leader Don Perata, an Oakland lawmaker activists are targeting as part of efforts to retain caps on politicians' time in office. Bob Adney, director of the California Term Limits Defense Fund, said papers filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission accuse Perata of using some of his political donations "as his own personal slush fund." Adney said in his statement that the complaint is based on portions of a weekly newspaper story, which partially overlap allegations under scrutiny for some...

WASHINGTON — A California Democrat is pushing for Congressional hearings on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for the first time since it was put in place 14 years ago. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., one of the leading opponents of the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, said Wednesday that she has begun planning with other members of the House Armed Services Committee on holding public hearings in coming months. “I think the country and the rank-and-file military are way ahead of Congress on this issue,” Tauscher said. “I think not only are the American people ready,...