It appears we will be taking up a highly amended form of AB 1X Monday, first in Appropriations Committee in the morning and, zowie, ‘if’ it passes out of Committee,the Assembly floor session is already scheduled for 1PM.

Not much detail yet on what the Guv’s office and the Speaker’s officeare including in the plan. Talk is the Senate isn’t too interested and will not be convening.… Read More

Just off the transom, Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chairman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks):

“With recent reports showing that next year’s budget deficit has grown to $14 billion, it’s clear that lawmakers must act to get the deficit under control. I’ve been disappointed to see some in the Legislature immediately seize upon our growing deficit with a call to raise taxes rather than reduce state spending. As the old saying goes, the first thing you should do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging. Proceeding with a course of action that the voters have summarily rejected will only deepen the current budget crisis. We must remember that frustrated Californians sent a powerful message to Sacramento the last time taxes were irresponsibly raised by recalling the Governor.

Now is also not the time to grow government. Our state simply cannot afford the massive government-run health care program that will be voted upon next week, which includes, at a minimum, an $8 billion tax increase. Taxpayers deserve responsible leadership that will make the necessary decisions to deal with California’s spending problem,… Read More

Apparently Governor Schwarzenegger, after much prodding, is going to declare a “State of Fiscal Emergency” for California. That is a good move because it moves the emphasis onto dealing with the state’s huge megabillion dollar fiscal problems.

In football parlance, its time to take the offensive team out of play and field the defense. The folly of blowing taxpayer funds on questionable scientific theories or massive expansion of the government’s role in healthcare will have to wait (yeah!).

That said, as pointed out by Senator Jim Battin on this blog, the actual declaration of fiscal emergency is much more style than substance. But if it indicates that the Governor is moving into austerity mode, then, it is a worthwhile declaration, indeed!… Read More

Supporters of Mitt Romney, John McCain, Fred Dalton Thompson and Rudy Giuliani, please give a warm welcome to Mike Huckabee’s new campaign chair, Ed Rollins.

According to an article in the Washington, DC-based publication The Hill, Republican presidential candidate Mike Hucakbee has signed longtime political consultant Ed Rollins to serve as national chair of the former Arkansas Governor’s presidential campaign.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee scored a major victory Thursday when he secured the support of prominent GOP insider Ed Rollins, who will serve as national chairman of Huckabee’s campaign.

Rollins, who has struggled with recent campaigns, was known as the campaign manager behind Ronald Reagan’s landslide reelection in 1984.

The fact that he would throw his support behind Huckabee lends the former governor some Republican institutional credibility, especially as he appears to be surging in the early

Lest anyone doubt the power of earmarks, various people (including yours truly) proposed that one way to close the budget stalemate between Republicans and Democrats would be to eliminate all $20 billion in earmarks from the budget. We would do this regardless of whether those earmarks were proposed by Republicans or Democrats. This idea got some traction for a while. Then, following a meeting with her caucus, Speaker Pelosi rejected the idea and said that they would cut other spending to try and close the gap. Similarly, the Intelligence bill is riddled with abusive earmarks, but a proposal to eliminate them was defeated on the floor.

Earmarks should be the first thing we cut when we are looking for money. Apparently, this Congress believes that earmarks should be the last thing we cut.

Chaos in Congress: Well, this was supposed to be the last week Congress would be in session for the year as we were to resolve many of the disputed issues which have impending deadlines.

It was supposed to be. But in fact, not a single one of these issues was brought to a vote. One of the most dysfunctional Congresses in history reached a new level of… Read More

Now that I am not making a living at politics, I think I understand why people get so frustrated by what they see going on in politics. These guys must think we are stupid.

Nunez says yesterday he wants to raise the car tax. John Laird, chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, says "this problem cannot be resolved by cuts alone. It will take a combination of tax increases and spending cuts."

Raising the car tax was in the talking points of Steve Peace, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee in the Gray Davis years. He actually put in a bill to allow the Governor to raise the car tax unilaterally, without a vote of the Legislature. When the Governor tried to do that, he got recalled. Of course, the people that counseled the Governor to raise that tax didn’t lose their jobs, they just went to work for the next Governor.

Tax increases and budget cuts were in the talking points of John Vasconcellos, Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee in the 1991-92 budget crisis. Then Governor Pete Wilson bought into that line, and in a $14 billion deficit (on a $41 billion budget as opposed to today’s $111 budget), supposedly cut… Read More

Today we are pleased to feature this guest commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…

Shades of Gray Davis

The State Capitol is hemorrhaging red ink. The non-partisan legislative analyst’s office (LAO) has released a report showing that the revenue shortfall from the budget just passed in August could exceed $10 billion. Fortunately, the governor and the Legislature established a modest $4 billion reserve or the deficit would be much higher. How did we get into this mess? If this seems like déjà vu all over again, you’re right. It’s been just seven years since then Governor Gray Davis, who inherited a budget surplus, began to run up massive state deficits… Read More

Today we are pleased to feature this guest commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…

Shades of Gray Davis

The State Capitol is hemorrhaging red ink. The non-partisan legislative analyst’s office (LAO) has released a report showing that the revenue shortfall from the budget just passed in August could exceed $10 billion. Fortunately, the governor and the Legislature established a modest $4 billion reserve or the deficit would be much higher. How did we get into this mess? If this seems like déjà vu all over again, you’re right. It’s been just seven years since then Governor Gray Davis, who inherited a budget surplus, began to run up massive state deficits… Read More