** AS REPORTED HERE FOUR DAYS AGO, $23 MILLION EXTRA FOR CHILDREN’S HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS INCLUDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KIDS HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM CALIFORNIA’S BUDGET. This removed the biggest stumbling block to today’s resolution of the budget.
** THE CLEAN MONEY INITIATIVE SPONSORED BY THE CALIFORNIA NURSES ASSOCIATION HAS BEEN CERTIFIED FOR CALIFORNIA’S NOVEMBER BALLOT. The measure would provide public financing through a slight increase in the corporate tax rate, establish very strict contribution limits (including on so-called independent expenditure campaigns), ban fundraising from lobbyists, strengthen public disclosure requirements, and remove those who cheat the system from office, among a variety of provisions. It will be one of several very interesting initiatives on a very important November election ballot.
** POOCH’S HUMAN EVENT. Republican Chuck Poochigian‘s campaign for state attorney general is sending this column around today. Written by John Gizzi, political editor of the conservative magazine Human Events, it was featured by our Republican friends at the Flash Report this AM. I thought that it seemed very familiar, however. And so it is.
For the June 26th column, which blasts former Governor Jerry Brown as a radical whacko, is essentially the same column published on May 8th, which blasts former Governor Jerry Brown as a radical whacko. The only significant difference is that the May 8th column refers to the presence of Poochigian strategist Ken Khachigian at lunch with the columnist and other Human Events writers discussing former Governor Jerry Brown and his radical whacko past.
I thought recycling was a lefty thing.
** COAST GUARDING. A few days after addressing the American Legion convention, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides has again launched his “Coast Guard” plan, which he released during his primary contest with Steve Westly. It looks pretty familiar, more funding for the Coastal Commission and marine protection (not Marine protection), a stringent eye on existing oil leases offshore. I’ll link to it again when I’m not on the blackberry. The new element appears to be its rhetorical linkage of Arnold Schwarzenegger to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Republican Congressman Richard Pombo, who wants to open up offshore drilling. Schwarzenegger is against that, of course, but he is a Republican.
UPDATE: And just like that, a release has arrived from Team Arnold, detailing the Democratic candidate’s history of accepting big contributions from developers in a sensitive coastal zone, and of Schwarzenegger’s thanks from the Sierra Club for opposing Pombo’s coastal moves, his increase of funding for the Coastal Commission, etc.
UPDATE: Now momentarily off the blackberry, here is a link to the treasurer’s Coast Guard plan.
** A PUFF OF WHITE SMOKE OVER THE CAPITOL DOME? The “Fab Four” legislative leaders of both parties in both houses have reached agreement on California’s state budget. No further details are currently available, other than a vote prior to the July 1st constitutional deadline.
** Out and about checking in via blackberry, the governor will call for a special legislative session to deal with the prison crisis. As it has bipartisan origins, he will call for bipartisan solutions.
UPDATE: I will have a full report on the politics and policy of this in tomorrow morning’s column.
** Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will discuss crime and California’s prison crisis in an address this morning to the California District Attorneys Association in Newport Beach. The address, at 11 AM, will be carried live here via webcast.
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| Comments (19) |
I certainly hope he takes this opportunity to defend Susan Kennedy (Hagar’s report). I have not read that Arnold has said anything publicly on Hagar’s report as of yet. She certainly was not doing anything that he did not know about or approve of, so I think it is rather strange that the report focused on her role. Also, you cannot administer the prisons without dealing with the union, so of course she met with them! Regardless, it is incorrect, even a bit unmanly, on his part to leave her hanging out there to dry on this. Especially as the press is zeroing in on her alleged role in impeding prison reform. The only way to improve this situation is to build more prisons and revise 3 strikes. Unfortunately, neither appear to be very popular.
You all will pardon me that I am not going to immediately tell you everything I know and think about the prison issue.
AB 2902…very clever!…lease-revenue bond financing…that will only need majority vote not two-thirds…it’s interesting, with finding out a few posts ago that so many of the Speaker’s staff worked for Davis and now Arnold’s key appointments being Davis ex -staffers .. there appears to be a healthy synergy at work between the 2 offices, if I am correct, I am sure that is due to staff relationships as well as the reported good relationship between Arnold and the Speaker….this is all very good for getting things done…as there certainly is a great deal to do!
While not on topic, I’ve just read that they have reached a deal on the budget and hope to have a vote prior to July 1.
Sorry, must have left my reading glasses on the side table this morning, as you already had the item posted. I shall now go back into the river bank.
Thank you, Phil.
I find it’s dangerous when I post items first. People somehow miss them.
Let me tell you a secret, however.
I knew about the budget puff of white smoke the same way the other journos posting later about it knew.
I got the press release.
I’m just a little faster with the blackberry …
Was that puff of white smoke coming from the cigar tent?
Don’t know about that, but the press release was from the Democrats.
Not to nitpick, but…
Technically, the Constitution requires that the Legislature pass the budget bill by midnight on June 15 (Cal. Const. Art. IV, Sec. 12(c)(3)).
The bill must be signed by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
So, we’ve already missed the deadline, just like we haven’t since 1986, according to the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-budget15jun15,1,1813308.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
The constitutional deadline for the bill to be signed is July 1st. When I’m writing on a blackberry I focus on the bottom line.
Bill – The constitution doesn’t change just because you’re on blackberry. The Legislators are still two weeks late and there’s no guarantee it’ll be signed by July 1st.
You might want to pay attention to what I actually wrote.
Well, well.
“Jim Meyers” has … hold to build suspense … a fake e-mail address.
Shocking. Positively shocking.
I see withholding healthcare from illegal immigrant kids wrong on two levels. One, it’s a bad deal for taxpayers and two, it’s wrong and immoral.
Cutting $23 mil out of the budget for healthcare including illegal immigrant children is silly. We are all going to pay that $23 mil anyway in the form of indigent ER care. I would like to see a study comparing the costs of putting the kids thru ER visits vs. non-ER clinic care funded thru the $23 mil program — I assume ER visits costs more, much more.
The children did not make the choice to immigrate here illegally. To withhold care from them seems overly harsh to me. Seems they should get care at least until Bush, Arnold and Congress sort out what to do with the parents.
Why do NONE of the campaigns post the mudslinging on their web site? Why is it always filtered through the press and press-ish organs like the Capitol Morning Report?
Bill B. ~
Did you say that the Governor *has* increased the budget of the Coastal Commission (you said you received a press release) or is it that he is promising he will do that?
Seems he could get more mileage since he has the power to do that NOW – rather than just be another promising politician!
If the campaign is saying he already has, I don’t know if the Coastal Commission staff knows that! (Many of us who deal with coastal issues from time to time have heard that, while AS has not *cut* their budget, as every Governor in recent history has done, he has also not increased it.)
And, it just might help protect our coast too…..while he’s at it, he could also replace a few of his Commission appointments, which would *definitely* help in protecting the coast (not the chair; she’s his one bright spot there.)
He says he’s increased the coastal commission budget, by a few percent.
Re the Clean Money Initiative: how exactly will IE’s be “matched”? For instance, using the primary as an example… if Angelo runs $10M of ads for Phil, then is another IE committee set up explicitly for the purpose of running ads for Phil’s opponent? If this is the case, how in the world can the charade of no “cooperation, communication, or coordination” possibly be maintained? Or does the state just hand Phil’s opponent the $10M? This doesn’t make any sense, either… Phil could complain that whereas he (allegedly) had no cooperation with the IE’s ad makers, and thus less creative control over message, his opponent’s new $10M of ads were directly controlled by the campaign, creating an unfair advantage.
Would love to know more about this aspect of an initiative that is otherwise a mixed bag. I hate IEs passionately and would love to do away with them. I’m very interested in hearing how the nurses intend to do so.
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