Free Republic

One secret behind the revival of Big Labor's political power is its claim on union dues for election purposes. So it's worth watching the fate next month of Colorado's Amendment 49, a ballot initiative that would prohibit state and local governments from withholding money for lobbying or electioneering from a government worker's paycheck. When former Governor Bill Owens issued an executive order to achieve this objective for all state government workers, union collections fell by more than half. But that edict was rescinded by current Governor Bill Ritter, a Democrat and union ally. Thus the need for Amendment 49, which...

Telephone giant AT&T, which spent millions last year to influence legislation giving the company access to California's cable television market, gave about $500,000 Tuesday to a private after-school program founded by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger, who signed the 2006 cable law, attended a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, where AT&T's philanthropic arm announced the donation to the governor's nonprofit After-School All-Stars program. Schwarzenegger founded the national program in 1992 as a way to provide tutoring services and sports to at-risk middle school students. It has affiliates in 14 cities. For AT&T, Tuesday's donation followed a 2006 legislative session in which...

SACRAMENTO – An initiative sponsored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2002 to help launch his political career finally took effect this year, providing enough new money to double the number of after-school programs in the state. Despite that impressive debut, Proposition 49 was able to fund only half the schools that want after-school programs, which advocates say help children stay out of trouble while providing homework aid and cultural and recreational activities. An official with the Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., said the $428 million in additional annual funding provided by Proposition 49 strengthened California's position as...

Hoping to attract support among black voters in his re-election race, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is aggressively courting black clergy by luring them to the same after-school aid program that was a springboard for his political career. About $500 million in state grant money for schools, nonprofit groups and faith-based institutions is available this year for the first time under Proposition 49, the initiative Schwarzenegger promoted in 2002. That effort lay the groundwork for his entry into the recall campaign the following year. In recent months, the governor's staff has been offering black churches help in applying for the competitive grants...

As of July 1, more than $600 million for after-school programs will sit in a state bank account waiting for schools to ask for it. At this point, the fear is they won't. The lion's share — more than $400 million — will come from Proposition 49 — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pre-gubernatorial initiative, his first foray into politics. Voters approved The After-School Education and Safety Program Act in 2002. The measure required the state to be economically in the black before the measure triggered. It took four years for that to happen and now for the first time, the state...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could find a lot of reasons why the Legislature turned away his public works plan, but Paul Folino wasn't one of them. Folino's participation wasn't happenstance. His informal lobbying is just one example of the close and beneficial relationship Schwarzenegger shares with Folino and the rapidly expanding political action committee he helped establish, the New Majority. Members of the centrist group have donated or raised more than $10 million for the Republican governor's political ventures. And the New Majority is pushing to expand its influence. The group, which has about 250 members and funnels roughly $7.5 million...

In 2002, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger created a ballot initiative for after-school programs that he used as a springboard to the governor's office the next year. Now, that measure is about to become a drain on the state treasury — and on schools. There's mounting pressure on the governor to delay his after-school program expansion — or dump it entirely. Critics say state government can't afford the $426-million cost. Sacramento still is writing checks in red ink. The governor has proposed spending $6.4 billion more than the state takes in during the fiscal year starting July 1, when he intends to...

Actor-director Rob Reiner is taking a lot of well-deserved media and political heat - from politicians in both parties, for a change - over a lavish promotional program for preschool education financed by tobacco tax money that is controlled by a commission he heads. Although Reiner and the First 5 California Children and Families Commission insist that he didn't play a direct role, it's perfectly clear that the commission was using public money to boost a Reiner initiative to tax the wealthy for preschool programs. Reiner temporarily stepped down from the chairmanship last week as political and media criticism mounted,...

Actor-director Rob Reiner is taking a lot of well deserved media and political heat--from politicians in both parties, for a change--over a lavish promotional program for preschool education financed by tobacco tax money controlled by a commission he heads. Although Reiner and the First 5 California Children and Families Commission insist that he didn't play a direct role, it's perfectly clear that the commission was using public money to boost a Reiner initiative to tax the wealthy for preschool programs. (snip) The bigger issue is the emerging syndrome of wealthy Californians pursuing their pet causes through the initiative process, spending...

An effort is about to get underway to attempt to delay the implementation of the initiative on which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut his political teeth: after-school programs. Senator Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) plans to introduce a proposed constitutional amendment to delay the implementation of Proposition 49. The measure, campaigned for by Schwarzenegger and approved by voters in 2002, is expected to cost the state an extra $428 million in the coming fiscal year. Prop 49 was written in such a way as to only trigger when the state's revenues reached an adequate level. But the Legislature's non-partisan analyst has been suggesting...

SACRAMENTO - For the first time since then-private citizen Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded voters to pass Proposition 49 in 2002, the state will start spending more than $500 million on after-school programs next year. Under Schwarzenegger's proposed 2006-07 budget, the state will spend an additional $428 million on after-school programs under Proposition 49, bringing the total funding for those programs to $550 million. That is new spending required for the first time under Proposition 49 as triggered by an increase in state revenue, although it is not supported by new taxes or other revenue sources. But some critics say the measure...

Then-Gov. Pete Wilson coined, or at least adopted, the phrase "autopilot spending" in the early 1990s as he struggled to close an immense state budget gap and confronted political and legal barriers that made it nearly impossible to reduce spending even when revenues had plummeted. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has voiced the same complaints, most recently this week when he proposed a budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year. But an exchange with reporters also underscored that while Schwarzenegger complains about automatic spending, he's also an ardent advocate of it. At one point, he renewed his pitch for gaining unilateral authority to...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An unexpected boost in state revenue has given Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger an election-year bonus: funding for the after-school initiative he championed during his initial foray into California politics. Proposition 49 will be funded for the first time since voters approved it in 2002. Schwarzenegger is expected to include the funding in the budget he presents to the Legislature next week. "It's a happy coincidence of his sponsorship of a popular measure and now a favorable budget situation," said Jack Pitney, government professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. "It's one bit of good luck after a line...

SACRAMENTO – A little more than a week after voters rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's four ballot measures, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill repeated her call to repeal the after-school funding measure that helped launch the governor's political career, Proposition 49. Hill recommended the repeal yesterday during her annual budget forecast, which produced a rosy assessment about overall state finances, including a projected $4 billion increase in the state's current year budget reserve. The projected growth in revenues, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office and the state Department of Finance, will trigger the operation of Proposition 49 in fiscal 2006-07, which begins...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill suggested new ways Thursday to solve the state's budget problems, including suspending the after-school initiative championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger before the actor turned politician. Though the program hasn't begun, Hill said it could soon add $424 million to the state's bills while California remains in a budget crisis. Schwarzenegger, who headed the Inner-City Foundation to provide after-school programs for children, successfully qualified and passed Proposition 49 on the 2002 ballot. Days after Hill suggested revenues are up $2.2 billion due to an improving economy, she labeled the governor's measure - which gives...

SACRAMENTO — In his campaign for governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has labeled unions and Indian tribes that operate casinos as "special interests" and rejected their campaign money. But last year, as Schwarzenegger was raising money for a ballot initiative he was promoting, he accepted $530,000 from the California Teachers Assn., one of the most powerful public employees unions in the state. And he hosted a fund-raising brunch for Indian tribes in San Diego, three of which gave a combined $62,000. The donations helped Schwarzenegger's effort to finance the successful campaign for Proposition 49, which aimed to expand before- and after-school programs....

<p>The explosions that got this recall campaign off and running lit up the political sky but left a lot of damage, much of it self-inflicted. Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunning announcement flattened Gov. Gray Davis and shattered Democratic unity around the party's recall strategy, sending Davis' lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante, scurrying into the race, breaking his own pledge not to run.</p>