Free Republic

SACRAMENTO - The Legislature's Democratic leaders on Tuesday abandoned plans to campaign with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for the massive package of public works bonds on the November ballot, a development that signals an abrupt end to the bipartisan dealmaking that has buoyed the governor's re-election bid. It also could jeopardize the record $37.3 billion borrowing plan. Polls released last week show voters supporting the four infrastructure bonds, but just barely. Tuesday's change of direction came after Schwarzenegger and the two top legislative leaders - Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland - had...

-Proposition 1B: The biggest chunk, $19.9 billion, is for transportation projects that will cost $38.9 billion to repay. Most of the money, $11.3 billion, would be spent to improve highways and local roads... YES Proposition 1C allots $2.85 billion for housing and shelter...But this is a sector of our economy in which public and private funds compete. NO Proposition 1D would upgrade and build more schools at every level...NO Proposition 1E is a $4.1 billion bond to improve disaster preparedness and flood prevention...YES We cant afford everything we need right now. But voting no on every measure is not in...

A $37-billion package of proposed public works bonds that has strong bipartisan support in Sacramento is in some peril among voters, along with ballot measures dealing with alternative energy and a cigarette tax, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll. The vast majority of likely voters knew too little about the infrastructure bonds — backed by both Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators — to express an opinion. After poll respondents were read a ballot summary of each measure, none of the items generated much enthusiasm. Only two eked out a bare majority: those on housing and disaster...

No one can seriously question one of the two major assumptions behind the $38 billion worth of construction and repair bonds proposed on the Nov. 7 state ballot. Traffic relief is a must in myriad parts of California. Port security isn't a tenth as tough as it needs to be. Who can argue against battered women's shelters and housing assistance for senior citizens, veterans and working families? Overcrowded public schools need relief. And the levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta area are a disaster waiting to happen. Taken together, all those realities make up one big assumption behind the...

Californians' wariness of new debt is just one problem facing backers SACRAMENTO – After years of criticism about failing to invest in infrastructure, lawmakers now face questions about whether they are trying to do too much. The Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger placed a record $37.3 billion package of public-works bonds on the Nov. 7 ballot for roads, schools, housing and flood control. BIG BONDS The governor and legislative leaders have placed a record bond package on the Nov. 7 ballot: Proposition 1B – $19.9 billion for transportation Proposition 1C – $2.85 billion for housing Proposition 1D – $10.4 billion...

The cast of characters at Monday's press conference was unusual, to say the least. The participants represented each of the major factions in last year's special election: the drug companies, big-business Schwarzenegger allies and unions. But this time they were all on the same side. They all opposed Proposition 89, which would create publicly financed campaigns in California. "It's a murderers' row of political spenders in California," says Common Cause's Ned Wigglesworth, who supports Proposition 89. If, as the saying goes, politics makes for strange bedfellows, then California's 2006 elections are one giant slumber party. Held in the twelfth-floor suite...

Politics: Two policy groups say plan would increase state's debt SACRAMENTO - Two nonpartisan policy groups on Tuesday said there are major problems with the $37.3 billion public works package that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature put on the November ballot, representing the first opposition to the plan by an organized group. The Reason Foundation, a nonprofit libertarian think tank based in Los Angeles, and the Performance Institute, a San Diego-based for-profit that describes itself as nonpartisan and dedicated to improving government performance, said the bonds would dangerously increase the state's debt load without providing clear benefits to residents....

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In his bid for re-election as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a comfortable lead over Democratic challenger and state Treasurer Phil Angelides among the state's "high propensity" voters, according to a report released on Tuesday. These voters also back two of four general obligation bond measures that lawmakers put on the November 7 ballot that seek billions of dollars in debt issuance for public works. The celebrity governor, a Republican, has the support of 53.6 percent of high-propensity voters, compared with 31.4 percent backing Angelides. Another 11.4 percent of these voters favor other candidates and...

No one can seriously question one of the two major assumptions behind the $38 billion worth of construction and repair bonds proposed on the Nov. 7 state ballot. Traffic relief is a must in myriad parts of California. Port security isn't a tenth as tough as it needs to be. Who can argue against battered women's shelters and housing assistance for senior citizens, veterans and working families? Overcrowded public schools need relief. And the levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta area are a disaster waiting to happen. Taken together, all those realities make up one big assumption behind the...

The Reason Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting Libertarian ideas, is out today with a white paper arguing against the package of bonds -- at a total cost of $84 billion -- put on the November ballot by lawmakers and the governor. The authors, including one economist who served on Gov. Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review, argue that the bonds only add to the state's debt and avoid the type of long-term planning needed to meet infrastructure requirements. The bonds, they say, "represent a new pinnacle of fiscal irresponsibility and lack of policy imagination. Rather than taking on record-breaking debt to...

This November California voters will be faced with a wide array of ballot measures, mostly looking for ways to raise taxes or borrow money. What does this tell you? It tells you that the appetite for state government SPENDING is voracious. These measures all come at voters during a time when an unprecedented amount of taxpayer funds are already being sent to Sacramento. The current state budget is well over a HUNDRED BILLION dollars, and this represents sharp increases of funds in the state budget over recent years. It is important for every FlashReport reader to join together in sending...

Public works bonds flounder Big spenders, other woes threaten support for infrastructure SACRAMENTO — Public-works bond supporters fear they won't have the cash to sell voters on costly infrastructure improvements because monied oil and tobacco firms fighting propositions are inflating the political television ad market. At the same time, other problems are piling up — uneven support based on regional concerns, awkward politics, the sheer size of the multibillion-dollar bond total, and disclosures that much of the money for transportation would not go directly to easing traffic congestion. "It's going to be difficult to have a voice to be heard...

Environmental groups, lured by the prospect of more than $4 billion for public-transit projects, are backing away from opposing the massive transportation bond on the November ballot. The environmentalists also are daunted by the nearly $7 million in campaign funds amassed by the bond's supporters. Over the weekend, the 75-delegate board of the Sierra Club of California decided against opposing the $19.95 billion bond package, which includes the money for public transit and $14 billion for road construction, plus other projects. Bill Allayaud, the group's legislative director, said Northern California members pushed to fight the bond, while many Southern California...

SACRAMENTO — The historic $37.3 billion bond package on the November ballot not only would be California's biggest investment in roads, schools and housing in more than 40 years, but also it's at the center of a political drama being played out in the governor's race. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's strong embrace of the investment plan — which entails four separate bonds — reflects his move to the political center to rehabilitate his image, badly damaged in 2005 with his ill-conceived special election that ended in political humiliation. Just as significantly, it has complicated Democratic challenger Phil Angelides' approach to the...

Up and down the November ballot, Californians face choices about vast sums of money: how much to spend, how much to borrow, how much to generate by raising taxes. Together, the proposals would open a $46-billion gusher of spending on highways, schools, levees, hospitals, housing, parkland and more. They would add $84 billion in debt and interest to state budgets over the next 30 years. Taxes, mainly on oil and tobacco, would rise by more than $3 billion a year. The torrent of money on the ballot gives voters a chance to set California's fiscal course for decades: They could...

Propositions 1A through 1E are a rare case in the world of elections: they will appear on the November ballot as a package deal supported by both major political parties, with no organized opposition. The bonds, which are supported by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic challenger Phil Angelides, seek to use existing funds to improve California’s infrastructure in the long term. While each bond deals with a specific problem, together the five separate measures provide a plan for rebuilding. “It’s a rare case of bipartisan cooperation,” said Paul Hefner, spokesperson...

Can california go back to the future? At a time when Americans distrust their leaders and doubt government's ability to deliver, California voters are being asked to approve massive bond issues, totaling $42.7 billion, to rebuild schools, roads and other parts of the state's crumbling infrastructure. The package of five bond issues on the November ballot, four of them the product of an elaborate compromise between Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic-controlled Legislature, overshadows everything else on the ballot. In terms of California's future, they are arguably more significant than the governor's race, in which Schwarzenegger has maintained a...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger leads Democratic challenger Phil Angelides by 13 points, and voters -- though hit with sticker shock -- are backing four of five multibillion-dollar public works bonds, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Public Policy Institute of California survey shows likely voters favor the Republican governor over the Democrat 45 percent to 32 percent. Preferences have changed little since July, when the poll indicated the governor was leading 43 percent to 30 percent. The governor's approval rating among likely voters also is up by eight points since May, with 50 percent of voters approving and 42 percent...

It was a priceless photo for a Republican governor running for reelection in a blue state: Him standing at the mike, the two Democratic legislative leaders at his side. All three grinning into the cameras in the Capitol news conference room — announcing their bipartisan agreement last week on a bill to raise the minimum wage. But that was not an abnormal picture in this atypical year. Bipartisan deals, aberrant in the past, have become commonplace: a $37.3-billion package of state bonds for public works, a rare on-time budget and — the most recent — legislation forcing drug companies to...

While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger worshipped with a mostly Democratic congregation Sunday morning, his political party rejected two of five bond measures he's supporting on the Nov ballot. Conservative activists had urged the California Republican Party to reject all five of the $42.6 billion in bond measures during its three-day convention here. "By passing these bond measures, we are passing the buck to our children and grandchildren," said Jon Fleischman, former California Republican Party executive director. But behind-the-scenes negotiations produced a compromise that led to the party rejecting two of the measures, endorsing two and taking no position on one. The...