“Transparency” is a great sounding word. It probably polls well, but what does it mean? In the context of the budget deal, at this point, it really means having the final language of the bills in the package in print and available to legislators and the public. But it is more than just having the information available, transparency is enhanced by having it available to DO something with it.

I am sure that many GOP legislators recall the chaos and confusion that surrounded the final days and hours of the ill-fated February budget deal. I can't tell you how many Republican legislators who have privately told me that in retrospect, they wished they had voted different. Most of them cited the rushed process and lack of detailed information as contributing to votes they now regret.

I can tell you from my perspective, as an “interested-party-not-in-the-Capitol” that my experience with that February deal was not good, but instructive.

I along with many people I know were assured that the language in Prop. 1A was a spending cap. And when I say assured — I mean over and over. Assurances came from some legislators… Read More

I see U.S. Representative Darrell Issa as a combination of a stinger missile and the Energizer Bunny. As the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, FR friend Issa has been relentless at holding the feet of the Majority Party to the fire — over and over and over…

Now Issa has confronted a controversial issue – Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise? A new report released today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans presents evidence that ACORN has evaded taxes, obstructed justice, engaged in racketeering, and created a conspiracy to defraud the United States. ACORN’s ability to flaunt the law is made possible by a complex structure that hides illegal uses of funds and positions low-level employees to take the fall when it gets caught for illegal acts. Federal taxpayer dollars continue to flow to ACORN – this report explains in great detail why Americans should be outraged by taxpayer… Read More

Yesterday afternoon a group of prominent California conservative leaders (including yours truly) sent an open letter to the 120 members of the state legislature urging them not to vote on or for any proposed budget deal until all of the text of the proposed legislation has been available to the public for 72 hours… One of the flaws of the tragic February budget deal was its secrecy and lack of transparency. In a representative democracy, the people have the right to understand what is being voted on, and to have enough time to give input and feedback to their elected legislators…

Here is the letter…

An Open Letter to Republican Members of the California State Legislature: July 22, 2009 … Read More

Professional distractions have kept me from writing here lately, but isn’t our Governor doing a wonderful job of facing down the union bosses on our state budget?! I believe that this is truly Arnold’stime, theopportunity to establish the definingmoments of his term in office, and his firm stand on the budget is fantastic.

At the same time, SpeakerKaren Bass is proving to be an unmovable and largely irrelevant but willing captive of thefrightening bizarro worldsought by theService Employees International Union, whose best shot recently is to muster a press releaseclaiming credit for a new budget, and blaming the structural deficits she and the Legislature’s Democrats have caused on the "national economic recession" (read: George W. Bush). [It took the national Democrats over ten years to stop blaming the Reagan budget cuts of the ’80s for everything in the ’90s, I imagine Obama and Bass will be dumping on George Bush in the same manner thru the 2020s.]

On a few other topics, we note Nativo Lopez, as predicted here, pled… Read More

As of the time posting, seven of the bills are available here. From what we can tell, as more bills are uploaded, they will also be available at that link.

So far there are seven bills uploaded, on these subjects: Health, Development Disabilities, Property Tax Rev Allocations, Reorganization, Lottery, General Government (inc. Non-HSS COLAs), and Public Safety & Judicial.

This is a good step forward. Hopefully Republicans will not put up votes for any of this for 72 hours, giving a reasonably opportunity to have the product negotiated behind closed doors to be reviewed and vetting by the public.… Read More

With a top o’ the hat to Scott Lay at the Community College League, and the Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert, below is a .pdf of the Draft Report that summarizes in detail the proposed changes that are encompassed in the budget deal.

FR readers should be cautioned that this is a summary, prepared by the Democrats. As of now, the actual language of these changes has not been made public. And it would appear that the legislature seems intent on "ramming through" this deal without providing enough time for anyone outside of the Capitol to analyze the language, and provide meaningful feedback to legislators. This is NOT GOOD.… Read More

When Sony Pictures released the movie, “Who Killed the Electric Car,” (http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html) the U.S. political landscape was much different, and Detroit had a lot more clout than it does today. The movie honed in on a very specific moment in time when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) eliminated the production of electric vehicles in the zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) initiative, and pinned the blame on D.C.-based lawsuits and lobbying in Sacramento as the reasons electric cars failed to achieve economically-feasible market share. I’d be the last person to underestimate the effects of Sacramento lobbying, but in truth, there have been two primary consumer concerns that have inhibited the success of the electric car: · the cost of the vehicles is higher than comparably-sized gasoline cars; and … Read More

Republican legislators in the State Capitol (at least on the Assembly side) now have copies of the actual bill language to be voted on as early as tomorrow. The GOP Caucuses should be scanning these documents (provided to legislators in printed format only, of course, by Democrats) and posting them on the web right away — like NOW.

Republicans have called for transparency in the process and now is the time to prove it. Once that information is up onm the web, that should start a 72 hour countdown. Republicans should refuse to put up any votes for any of the bills until the public has had three full days to read it, understand it, and provide input to legislators.

Just a few months ago we had a b udget deal that was cloaked in secrecy. As a result, many legislators voted for a supposed spending cap that, upon analysis from experts outside of the Capitol, turned out to be swiss cheese. Let's not do this again.

If a legislative deal is so fragile that it cannot hold up under public scrutiny, then it isn't a good deal.

Please contact your GOP legislator and them that you expect 72 hours to be able to look over those… Read More