Free Republic

First and foremost, it's obvious on the face of it to be able to say that the six Republican legislators (Senators Ashburn, Cogdill and Maldonado and Assemblymen Adams, Niello and Villines) who actually voted for the bill that imposed over $14 billion in new taxes were critical to its passage. Shame on them. But in taking some time to contemplate the politics of the final hours of this Big 5/Big Taxes deal passing out of the legislature, you have to say, how did it happen? You needed three Republicans to support the actual tax increase legislation, and they were one...

1:58 AM PST Reporting from Sacramento -- Aiming to end a three-month impassse, the California Senate prepared to vote early this morning on a deal Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reached with a GOP holdout to resolve the state's fiscal emergency. Under the deal, Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria agreed to provide the final Republican vote needed to pass a spending plan with billions of dollars in tax hikes. In exchange, Democrats would rewrite election rules that Maldonado says are stacked against moderates like himself. (snip) Throughout the day, negotiators stayed focused on Maldonado and GOP Sen. Dave Cox...

The game of chicken in Sacramento just claimed its first victim, one that has to send a chill down Democratic spines.  Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader, the man who crafted a deal with Democrats to resolve the budget standoff with massive tax increases as part of the package.  The GOP has apparently accelerated their car, and the Democrats will have to decide whether to swerve or crash: A state budget deal to close a $41 billion shortfall has been put further into question early this morning after Senate Republicans ousted their leader who had helped negotiate the...

Republican state senators upset with tax increases in the budget proposal agreed to by Republican Sen. Dave Cogdill have voted to remove him as minority leader, Cogdill said early Wednesday. The Senate's 15 Republican members voted to replace Cogdill with Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murietta. The late-night coup could derail already strained budget talks by requiring Democrats and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to renegotiate with a new Republican leader. Majority Leader Darrell Steinberg directed lawmakers to begin taking up the budget vote just before 1 a.m.

California senators began an around-the-clock lockdown Tuesday as a plan for easing massive money woes of the nation's most populous state remained stalled by a single vote. Senators spent more than two hours debating a plan to close the state's $40 billion shortfall, then they temporarily postponed a vote to buy time for continued negotiations. Stakes rose as the state began sending layoff notices to 20,000 state workers and braced for a shutdown of 374 construction projects valued at $5.58 billion if no budget is passed by today. [snip] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg...

Reporting from Sacramento -- As California's government continued its grinding downshift toward insolvency, efforts to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget gap hit a new snag late Tuesday as Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader. Around 11 p.m., a group of GOP senators, unhappy with the higher taxes that Senate leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto agreed to as part of a deal with the governor and Democrats, voted to replace him in a private caucus meeting in Cogdill's office. Shortly before midnight, it was still unclear who would replace him. Cogdill's ouster could be a major setback to...

California senators began an around-the-clock lockdown Tuesday as a plan for easing massive money woes of the nation's most populous state remained stalled by a single vote.Senators spent more than two hours debating a plan to close the state's $40 billion shortfall, then the house postponed a vote until late Tuesday night to buy time for continued negotiations.Passage of the plan requires a two-thirds majority in each house, meaning at least three GOP votes are required. Sen. Abel Maldonado, a key prospect to put up the third GOP vote, said he is "still working with Darrell" Steinberg, the Democratic leader...

The first GOP leadership challenge resulting from the budget negotiations came and went Saturday night as Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, moved unsuccessfully to unseat Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines. In a closed-door Republican caucus before the marathon floor session, DeVore made a motion to remove Villines as GOP leader (known as "vacating the chair" in Capitol-speak). None of the other 28 Republican Assembly members seconded the motion. "The discussion was a credit to the caucus. Nobody raised their voice, everything was logical, people made their case and I lost," said DeVore, who is plotting a 2010 run for U.S. Senate....

California legislators trudged through a second day of trying to close a $40-billion hole in the state's budget this afternoon, still one vote Republican vote short of approving a package that contains $14.3 billion in tax increases. State Sen. Abel Maldonado, a moderate Republican from Santa Maria, indicated in an interview with The Bee that he was willing to consider casting the decisive vote if he was satisfied with the final version of the tax proposal. "I'm very concerned with the tax package, said Maldonado, who in the early morning hours had been quoted as saying he was adamantly opposed...

SACRAMENTO — One vote shy of a budget deal, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday pressured reluctant Republicans in the Legislature to pass a complex plan to close the state's $42 billion deficit. The head of the Assembly locked down the chamber, forcing members to remain as the measure stalled in the Senate. Republicans are unwilling to raise taxes to deal with the state's historic deficit, but at least three GOP votes were needed in each house for the two-thirds majority required to pass the budget. Senate leaders thought they had enough votes lined up to ensure passage, which meant...

Reporting from Sacramento -- Some California lawmakers haven't let the state's financial calamity keep them from enjoying the good life; they've been using campaign cash for first-class travel abroad, expensive dinners, salon makeovers and visits to luxurious spas. Spending reports filed with the state covering the last three months show: * Several lawmakers checked into the Fairmont Hotel on Maui on donors' dimes two days after the start of an emergency session on the budget in November. * The lead state senator on budget issues joined colleagues who left the fiscal crisis behind to go to India, where they toured...

The California GOP's stimulus dodge Republicans in Sacramento have been trying to change overtime and meal-break regulations long before the current crisis. December 7, 2008 One of the keys to finally closing a state budget deal may be a controversial package of economic stimulus measures, either in the form recommended by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the unsuccessful special session of the Legislature that came to a close after Thanksgiving, or with some tweaks here and there to satisfy various constituencies. Democrats are expected to come back with the same budget proposals they put forward last month, a call for Republicans...

As the LegislatureÂ’s latest attempt to fix the stateÂ’s fiscal mess ended once again in a bout of partisan sniping and no visible progress, something surprising happened: Hints began to emerge of the possible contours of a compromise. All year, Republicans have refused to consider raising taxes, without which Democrats and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger insist the stateÂ’s massive deficit $28 billion through mid-2010 canÂ’t possibly be closed. At least a handful of GOP votes are needed because California law requires a two-thirds supermajority to raise taxes. That opposition continued when the governor called lawmakers back to Sacramento this month...

Sacramento - -- More than a dozen state lawmakers have missed much of the special legislative session called to tackle the state's fiscal mess, instead traveling to India, China and Hawaii to learn about education, high-speed rail and dams. The legislators include Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, and several Assembly Budget Committee members who missed a hearing on the crisis on Friday. At least two of the lawmakers are not expected to return by Sunday's planned floor sessions of the Senate and the Assembly, their staff members said. "Obviously, they're not taking the...

Republican Tony Strickland took an 840-vote lead over Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson in the oh-so-close balloting in the 19th Senate District on Thursday, the first day of what could be a month-long process to determine the winner of the most expensive political contest in Ventura County history. Strickland emerged with a lead after Ventura County election officials counted 11,294 mail-in-ballots that hadn’t been received in time to process before Election Day. His 948-vote net gain allowed him to leapfrog ahead of Jackson, who led by 108 votes after election night. The votes counted Thursday were exceptionally rich for Strickland. He was...

Los Angeles, CA, September 25, 2008 – Armineh Chelebian, a successful accountant with deep roots in San Fernando Valley's cultural and business communities, is the Republican nominee for California's 40th State Assembly District. She is seeking the seat currently occupied by Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (D) who is being termed out in 2008. If successful, Armineh will become the first Iranian-Armenian-American to be elected to the California State Assembly. Born in Iran, Armineh immigrated to the United States with her family in 1978 at the age of sixteen. Soon after, she was accepted to California State University, Northridge where she majored...

SACRAMENTO – Anti-tax Republican legislators, blamed for what will soon be a record two-month state budget deadlock, answered their critics yesterday, proposing an alternative budget balanced without a general tax increase. The Republican plan replaces a one-cent sales tax increase backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate Democrats with $2 billion in lottery-backed bonds, $1.5 billion in spending cuts, and $1.5 billion in new tax revenue. The Republican plan, unlikely to quickly end the deadlock, was criticized for making painful spending cuts and failing to end years of state deficit spending. “We believe our plan is the responsible way to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken on an unlikely role as one of the Capitol's most steadfast champions of a tax hike, spurning his fellow Republicans' uncharacteristic effort to borrow their way out of budget trouble. In an interview with The Times on Tuesday afternoon -- 50 days into the new fiscal year -- Schwarzenegger said resistance to tax hikes had led GOP lawmakers down a reckless path. He said they wanted to balance the budget by raiding local governments and public transportation accounts for billions of dollars. That money, under state law, would have to be repaid with steep interest....

SACRAMENTO — Assemblyman Sandre Swanson is convinced that the only way to avoid lengthy budget stalemates in the future is to strip the minority party of what he calls its out-sized influence. The Oakland Democrat is among a handful of East Bay lawmakers who want voters to overturn the constitutional requirement that two-thirds of the Legislature must approve the budget. Now in its 50th day, the budget standoff is threatening to spill into next month as both parties remain far apart on finding a solution to the state's estimated $15.2 billion deficit. "It just has to change, and citizens will...

In the latest episode of Capitol punishment, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass tossed Assemblywoman Nicole Parra from her office on Monday morning after the Central Valley Democrat failed to vote for the budget on Sunday. In a twist, Parra hasn't been reassigned to more cramped quarters in the Capitol itself - but booted straight across the street to the Legislative Office Building. She will be the only member of the Legislature whose office is not housed in the Capitol. "I knew going in Sunday that if I didn't support the budget, something was going to happen," Parra, D-Hanford, said in an...