Free Republic

Fiscal conservatives seeking a constitutional cap on state spending suggested Tuesday they likely will wait until 2014. Proponents are concerned that the state spending cap would be buried on the November ballot with tax initiatives and a proposal to limit union dues collection, said Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. The California Taxpayers Association, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Small Business Action Committee want to reset the state's spending limit at the 2010-11 level. They would cap spending growth based on a formula tied to population and cost-of-living increases. The measure was cleared for signatures on Feb. 8,...

Gov. Jerry Brown could have some company if he decides to seek to qualify his tax proposals for a November ballot. Proposed initiatives to limit increases in state spending and make significant changes to the public employee pension benefits were submitted to the attorney general's office today, putting proponents in a position to qualify for a potential November election. Launching an initiative campaign is one of several options Brown is weighing as time runs out to secure Republican support to set a June special election on maintaining higher tax rates for five years. Republican-backed proposals for a spending cap and...

I am going to vote no on all of the propositions in May. Very simply stated, the so-called spending limit does not warrant the tax increases, or an extension. As usual, our Republican friends in the Legislature got sold a bill of goods. They really got nothing for the tax increases they voted. for. The ballot propositions that are supposed to implement the budget solutions are either meaningless, foolish, or increase state spending. As usual, the Democrats got everything they wanted, that is, no spending reductions at all (I am not going to argue about the baseline issues, there really...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he "absolutely" loves the idea of holding a constitutional convention to overhaul state government. California hasn't had such a confab in 131 years. ... The Republican governor would like the convention to consider, among other things, eliminating some statewide offices -- like treasurer, controller, superintendent of public instruction and, especially, lieutenant governor, all currently held by Democrats. "It makes no sense that the governor is surrounded by constitutional officers who are trying to derail him," Schwarzenegger says. "Look at the way the nation runs: The president appoints those Cabinet positions." ... Meanwhile, two blocks from the...

The pictures told the story. They were laughing, back slapping and sharing high fives all around. It could have been Butch Cassidy and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang celebrating a successful train robbery. Only these were malefactors of another sort. They were members of the Legislature expressing their joy immediately after agreeing to make California taxpayers the most overburdened in the nation for at least the next two years. Lawmakers and the governor, who was equally eager to get his hands on the new tax revenue, sought to make the bitter medicine taste better by promising the new taxes were temporary --...

After months of holding firm on a "no new taxes" pledge, some Republican lawmakers said Wednesday that they are willing to consider a tax hike as part of a wider-ranging deal to close the state's budget gap. Republican legislators' internal budget discussions were part of a private, two-day policy conference at Sacramento's Hyatt Hotel. The GOP caucus realizes a tax hike will be part of any budget pact but could support it only if agreement were reached on permanent program cuts, a hard spending cap and other issues, lawmakers said. "The reforms have to be there," said Assemblyman Anthony Adams,...

CALIFORNIA IS FACING a $27.8 billion budget shortfall over the next two years and the prospect of shutting down a number of key public works projects, including the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, later this month. Perhaps now our lawmakers in Sacramento will begin to face reality and adopt a budget. Unfortunately, neither the Legislature nor governor have been keen on dealing with the real world when it comes to piecing together a balanced budget. Over the past few years, state budgets have been "balanced" with borrowing, raiding voter-designated funds, delaying payments, creative bookkeeping and a lot of wishful...

State lawmakers began moving toward a deal this week to close California's deficit with the help of steeper car fees that would cost many drivers hundreds of dollars annually, according to people involved in budget talks. Under the plan, GOP lawmakers -- most of whom have signed anti-tax pledges -- would vote to triple the vehicle license fee that owners pay when they register their cars every year in exchange for a ballot measure that would impose rigid limits on future state spending. Motorists' annual license fees would rise from 0.65% of the value of their vehicles to 2%. For...

>Nebraska State Senator DiAnna Schimek's 20-year legislative career is nearly over. She feels victimized, no doubt, by the voter-enacted term limits that make this her final year in power. Still, Senator Schimek hopes to go out with her boots on, firing one final shotgun blast to maim or kill the initiative process she has long abhorred. You see, it was only through the voter initiative that Nebraskans passed term limits . . . three times. Yup. It took three petition drives and three votes of the people. Of course, term limits passed overwhelmingly each time. But a charmed third initiative...

Fourth in a series of 10 columns ... (snip) As he took office, the state faced a huge repayment of short-term budget deficit loans in June 2004 that it didn't have the money to make. The proposed solution was stretching out repayment through a $15 billion debt refinancing bond - much like a family's taking out a new home mortgage to cover crushing credit card bills - but it would require voter approval at the March 2004 primary election, so time was short, and Republicans were demanding a tough state spending limit. Initially, Schwarzenegger backed the strict limit, but Democrats...

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, Republicans were hopeful he would restore the credibility of their party. Since Pete Wilson's reelection in 1994, the party had been in steady decline for nearly a decade-losing every single statewide office, and mired hopelessly in the minority in both legislative houses. Schwarzenegger built early momentum during his first year in office. But after the November 2004 election, Schwarzenegger and his advisors hatched an ambitious agenda, which would be laid out in the State of the State address in January 2005. The agenda would amount to a declaration of political war on many...

The scene may seem familiar to Californians: a Republican governor warning that fiscal meltdown is imminent unless voters approve new rules on how much money the state can spend each year. But Colorado Gov. Bill Owens isn't looking for the kind of budget cap that California Republicans want voters to approve next month. That was imposed 13 years ago. Now he is pleading with voters to lift it. The problem: Colorado's spending controls appear to have worked too well. Now some of the most strident fiscal conservatives in Colorado — long viewed as a model for others considering such restraints...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implored California's mayors Thursday to support Proposition 76, a ballot measure intended to stabilize state finances and end deficit spending. He warned that if the measure fails to pass during the Nov. 8 special election, state lawmakers would likely raid local treasuries for funds to close the state's persistent budget gap. "I've already been informed in Sacramento that that's the very money they're going to go after next year if they don't have money," Schwarzenegger told several hundred officials at the annual conference of the League of California Cities. "Remember, they can. The...

Former Silicon Valley Rep. Tom Campbell brought the fight over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives to San Jose on Wednesday, warning members of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce that new taxes are "highly likely" if a proposal to curb government spending is not passed by voters in the Nov. 8 special election. Last week Campbell announced he was taking an unpaid two-month leave from his job as the state finance director to campaign for Proposition 76, a proposed state spending cap. "This is the most important thing I can do for our state," Campbell said at a round-table discussion...

SACRAMENTO – The politically potent T-word "taxes" is being used by both sides in the debate over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's main ballot measure in his special election Nov. 8. Analyses of Proposition 76 dryly talk about a limit on state spending, new power for the governor to make mid-year cuts if the Legislature fails to keep the budget in balance, and a change in the school-funding guarantee. In early television ads for his initiative, and in campaign events, the governor is hitting a hot-button issue: A spending limit is needed to prevent out-of-control spending by the Legislature from forcing a...

The cap on state spending that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants voters to pass in November is emerging as a centerpiece of a nationwide strategy by influential conservatives to slash government spending in state capitals across the country. Although the authors of the California proposal say they were not influenced by out-of-state groups, a loose affiliation of ideologically conservative organizations are hoping that the proposed California "Live Within Our Means Act" will help fuel a national taxpayer revolt they are working to coordinate in more than two dozen other states. "This is the next big thing at the state level," said...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants a key provision in his spending-limit initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot to be part of an agreement on a new state budget, deepening a deadlock as the new fiscal year begins tomorrow. The governor is pushing for the power to make midyear cuts when the budget falls out of balance if the Legislature does not act to close the gap. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said that a new budget proposed by Democratic legislators, which Republicans are expected to block in votes in the Senate and Assembly today, will result in wider budget gaps....

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled his "Year of Reform" special election from his populist playbook, predicting that California voters will support his agenda because they want change in the way state government operates. Yet several of the measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, including two of Schwarzenegger's, have that "been there, done that" feeling. The election lineup includes at least three initiatives that are similar to ones California voters have rejected in the past, suggesting the governor could have a difficult selling job in the months ahead. In elections dating to the 1970s, voters have rejected variations of...

The following initiatives are likely to be on the ballot Nov. 8 if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls a special election by Monday, as he said he would. Five already have qualified. Others are awaiting verification by the Secretary of State's Office. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing three initiatives(all qualified for ballot): TEACHER TENURE: CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS: STATE SPENDING CAP: Other initiatives: PARENTAL PERMISSION FOR ABORTION: (Q) PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNION DUES: (Q) PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISCOUNTS (by D)(pending) PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISCOUNTS: (other) (pending)ELECTRIC SERVICE PROVIDERS: (pending)

Too bad there’s never an egg timer around when you need one. Arnold Schwarzenegger cooked his political future some more this week, recklessly endorsing the anti-illegal-immigrant Minuteman Project vigilantes and helplessly watching as a public poll showed him losing a third of his popularity in three months. Maria Shriver was on the warpath about her husband’s downward spiral, urging wholesale firings at the top of Team Arnold and consulting such unlikely counselors about saving her husband’s career as Dick Morris, the Republican who engineered Bill Clinton’s revival before becoming Fox’s favorite Clinton hater. The wily Morris made his national reputation...