Free Republic

The state Assembly on Monday approved the first phase of a $14.4-billion plan to extend medical insurance to nearly all residents, giving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Democratic allies their first victory in a risky yearlong campaign to overhaul California's healthcare system. The measure, negotiated by Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), would require almost everyone in California to have insurance starting in 2010. It would provide subsidies and tax credits for those who would have trouble paying their share of the premiums. The authors estimate that it would bring medical coverage to 3.6 million Californians, including 800,000...

That bill does not contain the taxes or other measures that would provide the $14 billion a year needed to finance the ambitious overhaul and would not take effect unless the ballot measure passed. That puts Democratic lawmakers in the highly unusual position of voting on the plan without being able to assess whether the intricate financing scheme will be adequate. Republicans have vowed to vote against the measure. The moves came as Schwarzenegger promised to call an emergency session of the Legislature for early January to make cuts to the state's budget. The governor's office estimates the projected gap...

Legislative leaders said Thursday that more taxes would be needed to fill a projected $14-billion budget gap next year, and the state Senate president said a healthcare overhaul -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's priority this year -- will have to wait. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said lawmakers would have to consider raising a host of taxes, including those on Internet purchases and on foreign companies that do business in California. "We've got to close those tax loopholes," Nuñez told reporters at a news conference. "We can generate billions by doing that." Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) said...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told social service advocates Tuesday that the state's anticipated budget shortfall -- already feared to be the worst since he took office -- has widened to $14 billion, according to people at the meetings. That new figure indicates that the state's fiscal fortunes are declining even more rapidly than many leaders had expected. Less than a month ago, the Legislature's chief budget analyst calculated that California is on track to come up $10 billion short by June 2009, when the state ends its next fiscal year. A $14-billion budget gap would translate to more than 12% of...

SACRAMENTO -- California's 51-day budget impasse ended today as Republicans in the state Senate extracted enough concessions from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers to allow the $145-billion spending plan to pass. The agreement is almost identical to the plan passed by the state Assembly on July 20. To overcome the GOP objections in the Senate, Schwarzenegger had agreed weeks ago to use his veto pen to eliminate the $700-million deficit with which the state is expected to end the fiscal year June 30, 2008.

The Republicans will present their proposed state budget before the full Senate today. It would cut numerous programs Democrats hold dear, including the elimination of an institute for labor studies at the University of California. The budget plan includes nearly $1 billion in spending reductions beyond those in the bipartisan plan approved by the Assembly on Friday. Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) made public only a few of the cuts his caucus would propose. The linchpin of the plan, Ackerman said, is a $324-million cut in the state's welfare program. The cut was initially proposed by the governor in...

Stymied by Republican resistance, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hope of placing the most comprehensive rebuilding project in California history on the June ballot foundered Wednesday amid recriminations among legislative leaders and the administration. The California Assembly approved only a $4.1-billion borrowing plan to shore up the state's levees and $19 billion more for school construction. But late Wednesday night, the Senate declined to act on either measure, and the upper house's leaders said further negotiations would have to focus on the November ballot. Passing the hastily negotiated package "starts looking to Californians like we don't know what we are doing," said...