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Here are some partial quotes: "Voters were very confused on what we were asking them to do" "Voters were saying: "It was quite complex" "This is too complicated" "We don't want to vote on it" "We are fatigued with the number of elections we have had, especially Special Elections" "We realize that there are going to be cuts but whatever needs to be done, you do it, and we don not want to participate in it." What an arrogant condescending twit. And she still doesn't get it. I sent her a "nice" message. http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/Speaker/

BURBANK, Calif. — A commission has voted to cut future salaries of California lawmakers and other state elected officials by 18 percent, a day after voters offered their own rebuke. The action by the California Citizens Compensation Commission will have no immediate effect. It comes three weeks after the panel deadlocked over whether to cut salaries by 10 percent, in part because several positions were unfilled. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger filled those vacancies immediately afterward, setting the stage for Wednesday's 5-1 vote. The commission is prohibited from cutting officials' pay in midterm, meaning current lawmakers and elected officials will maintain their...

Citing pay decreases and layoffs being imposed on rank-and-file state workers, the California Citizens Compensation Commission approved the reduction, which also applies to the state attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, controller, insurance commissioner, treasurer, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and members of the Board of Equalization. "I think they should share in the sacrifices that everyone else has had to encounter," Commissioner Kathy Sands, a former Auburn mayor, said after the panel's 5-1 vote at a meeting in Burbank. The commission had wanted to decrease current officials' pay, but the panel's attorney said California law does not allow that....

BURBANK - Declaring that elected officials must share the pain of California's fiscal crisis, an independent commission voted today to impose an 18 percent pay cut for statewide elected officials and all members of the Legislature. The California Citizens Compensation Committee, which sets salaries for state officers, earlier voted in favor of a more modest 10 percent pay cuts in an April 29 meeting in Sacramento. But the action couldn't stand because the seven-member board lacked the required four votes. But today the commission voted 5-1 to make a deeper reduction in elected officials' salaries because of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's...

A state panel this morning slashed the salaries of elected state officials by 18% -- a day after voters rejected a plan by the governor and Legislature to address the budget crisis. Citing pay cuts and layoffs being imposed on rank-and-file state workers, the California Citizens Compensation Commission approved the reduction for the governor, legislators and other state officials elected next year. "I think they should share in the sacrifices that everyone else has had to encounter," said Commissioner Kathy Sands, a former Auburn mayor, after the panel's 5-1 vote at a meeting in Burbank. The commission had wanted to...

He promised to make it work by cutting 'waste, fraud and abuse.' It was never that easy. The real solutions are obvious, though. One: Eliminate, or at least loosen substantially, the two-thirds legislative requirement to pass a budget or raise taxes. This rule has allowed a tiny Republican minority to hold up all budget progress. Two: Remove legislative term limits. Three is the Big One: Revise Proposition 13. Prop. 13 is often described as a tax-cutting measure, but that scarcely does justice to the damage it has caused.

The end of Washington’s spending spree may soon come thanks to incautious California. The day care center known as the California Legislature has led the State of Disaster to fiscal ruin. So bad is the situation here in the Shaky State that politicians - unable to balance the budget without bankrupting the taxpayers - rigged a series of ballot propositions to do jigger the books. ... Odds of these ballot measures passing is slightly below Hell’s sixth ring. If they fail, California’s $42 billion shortage combined with its junk bond rating would likely push the Land of Fruits and Nuts...

A bill declaring a Harvey Milk Day in California - to honor the slain gay rights figure - passed the state Senate today 24-14 and now goes to the Assembly. No surprise that all 23 Democrats present voted yes. But Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, changed his vote from a "no" on the same bill last year to the sole GOP "yes" on the floor Thursday.

Saying it is time for new leadership, Assemblyman Mike Villines announced his resignation Thursday as head of the house's GOP caucus, effective June 1. Villines' replacement, expected to be Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo Asked about Blakeslee, Villines called him "one of my best friends" and described him as "thoughtful, pragmatic but also very focused on conservative economic issues."

When Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg launched an effort this year to root out waste in state spending, he tapped a Sacramento attorney who is one of his best friends to lead it. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass turned to a termed-out assemblywoman and a politically connected former utility company executive, among others, to supplement her staff with outside expertise. The Legislature's nine personal service contracts – touted as a way to cuts costs in tough times – went largely to those with personal relationships or political ties to lawmakers. None of the nine contracts was competitively bid, so anyone...

Sacramento -- California voters, frustrated by the recession and the state's fiscal crisis, gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature their lowest-ever approval ratings, according to the Field Poll released today. Only 33 percent of registered voters surveyed April 16-26 said they approved of Schwarzenegger's job performance, while 55 percent said they disapproved and 12 percent were undecided. Schwarzenegger's rating is his lowest since becoming governor in 2003. But the governor's numbers are better than the Legislature's approval rating, which sank to 14 percent, with 74 percent disapproving. It was lawmakers' worst rating since the Field Poll began tracking such...

If voters reject proposals May 19 to fix the state budget, GOP Senate leader Dennis Hollingsworth predicted Wednesday that "by default" his party's ideas for cutting public spending and easing business regulations will catch fire. "Eventually they're going to have to start listening," Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, said of the Democratic majority in the state Legislature. "There won't be revenues available to do what they want to do. They're killing the Golden Goose." Speaking with reporters in his minority leader office, Hollingsworth said that if the set of six propositions on the ballot fail, the following day "it gets uglier." The GOP...

California politicians seeking and occupying seats in the Legislature and statewide office have raised more than $1 billion since 2000, despite a voter-imposed cap on campaign contributions, according to a critical new report by the state's campaign watchdog agency. "The $1,006,638,463 directly raised by officeholders and candidates works out to $344,503 per day or $14,354 per hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year," said Ross Johnson, chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, .. The FPPC's new report, entitled "The Billion Dollar Money Train," criticizes the vast sums of special interest money that has...

As state budgeters look toward another multi-billion dollar budget deficit this summer, attorneys for the Legislature and Gov. Schwarzenegger have issued a new opinion reaffirming the legality of a plan passed by Democrats last December that raised revenues without requiring a two-thirds vote. The March 9 opinion from Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine, addressed to Gov. Schwarzenegger, reaffirms a 2003 opinion by her office that finds a bill that raises one tax and lowers another by an equal or greater amount only needs simple majority votes in each legislative house. “We think that a tax bill is not subject to the...

Unemployment in California may be at its highest since 1983, but there are jobs with the state Legislature for the well-connected. Yolie Flores Aguilar, a longtime friend and political ally of some powerful California Democrats, last year supplemented her income as vice president of the Los Angeles school board with more than $32,000 as a consultant assigned to a state Senate committee that, during her tenure, did not meet or release any reports. State Sen. Rod Wright (D-Inglewood) was paid at least $27,900 by the state Senate last year for miscellaneous tasks as he was campaigning for his current job....

The fallout from the state budget mess continues for Republican lawmakers. Two more GOP legislators are being targeted for a recall by fellow Republicans, not because the lawmakers voted for the budget that included tax increases (they didn't), but because they didn't support the attempted ouster of the Republican Assembly leader who helped broker the deal. The Republicans are mad at Assemblymen Jeff Miller of Corona (Riverside County) and Jim Silva of Huntington Beach (Orange County) because they wouldn't go along with the bouncing of Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis (Fresno County). Villines survived the coup attempt. Over...

California Assemblywoman Diane Harkey accepted $16,600 in political contributions from real estate developers who had received loans from her husband's business, now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The borrowers later failed to repay loans brokered by her husband's lending company, Point Center Financial Inc. of Aliso Viejo. The firm was accused of fraud last month in an investor lawsuit, and the company's owner has confirmed that Point Center is under investigation by the SEC. Harkey (R-Dana Point) said Monday that there was nothing improper with the developers' contributions and that she had no idea they had loans...

Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams cast his "aye" budget vote at dawn today with full knowledge that, as he has said, "this will probably be the end of a political career for me." But that doesn't mean the Hesperia Republican plans to go down without a fight. The second-term assemblyman spent much of Wednesday trolling the Capitol corridors, folder in hand, gathering endorsements from his caucus for his 2010 reelection. "I think it's important that people know that my caucus is supportive -- that I'm not making any decision lightly," Adams said on his way into a GOP member's office Wednesday....

Will the last Republican senator voting for the budget be a hero or a zero? The strategy sent one senator into the spotlight. "Yeah, my party's not going to be happy with me," said State Senator Abel Maldonado. Maldonado alienated his own party by casting his yes vote. And he's not making friends across the aisle either after working in last-minute reforms like an open primary system in the state. I don't like it, and it's an unpleasant part of the process," said Darrell Steinberg. And listen to fiery words from one assemblyman calling Maldonado a political extortionist. "There's no...