[Publisher’s Note – This particular opinion piece rambles on a bit. Somewhere in this is a point to be made. Discerning readers will have to figure it out… Flash]

There is definitely no road map for a conservative legislator when dealing with the state budget debacle, which is why if you look at the vote’s on the state budget in the Senate and Assembly, Republicans are split – many reliably conservative legislators voted for the bill, while still many others voted against it.

Welcome to the intersection of policy and politics. I mean, let’s be clear. The budget that sits on Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk, that he has vowed to veto on Friday (presumably Friday to maximize inconvenience to legislators who would have to come up on the weekend for a potential over-ride vote, with one Assemblyman, Lloyd Levine, having to choose between a budget vote in Sacramento, and his own wedding in Seattle), is riddled with reasons for a conservative to vote no. Frankly, it doesn’t contain nearly enough… Read More

The Governor’s petulance over the budget vote is just the latest in his exercise of ego as an element of government policy. It is now clear that he cares little about anything other than getting his own way. Policy has long ago left any discussion. In his mind, it is now all about the Governor.

While it is true the budget is flawed, it has one major benefit. Recessions do not last forever, revenues will recover and will recover soon. Spending that extra money on current bills, rather than program expansions prevents even worse spending crises in the future. The only time this Governor exercised any spending restraint was when he was paying off the bills incurred by Gray Davis. Maybe if we force him to pay off the bills he incurred yesterday from future revenues, we can prevent this spendthrift from sending the state into another budget crisis.

And that is why his criticism today is so hypocritical. It was his spending policies that created this mess. It was his deals with the Democrats that cause the collapse of the current budget. For him to criticize this budget, which is attempting to fix his mess, on the grounds that it doesn’t… Read More

The state budget was completed including about 27 trailer bills this early morning. It came over from the Senate as they got done first, whwere it was 29-11, with 10 Republicans "No", 5 "Aye" and oneDem voting no.

On the Assembly side, after much waiting around,it was passed about 63-9, don’t have final count asthere were folks still adding on. The trailer bills were a mixture, with most passing. That’s all for now.… Read More

Over the weekend I was in Washington, DC, to attend Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit. Now in its third year, the conference drew over 2,000 pro-family “values” voters from all across America to the Washington Hilton for three days of conservative speakers, networking and informative break-out sessions.

Keynote speakers for the event included Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Sean Hannity, among other conservative commentators, political leaders and policy experts. As a group of credentialed bloggers (new media) typed away in the back of the convention hall, Hannity boldly declared that 2008 is the year journalism officially died in America. “Journalist” Charlie Gibson’s embarrassing gotcha interview of Governor Palin two nights before was certainly the death knell.

As you can imagine, California was the topic of many speeches and private conversations. After all, the most critical battle for traditional marriage is taking place in our state with Proposition 8. In a break-out session about the marriage issue, Alliance Defense Fund attorney (and my Constitutional Law professor in law… Read More

The buzz in the capitol is that Governor Schwarzenegger is going to announce his veto of the budget passed early this morning by the legislature. We’ll find out at 3pm when he holds a press conference. There’s probably a legislative override coming if the veto does happen. Maybe if the governor knew the names of the Republican Caucus members he could call them to find out just how firm they were on their budget votes…

Watch the press conference live here.… Read More

In the wee hours this morning, the California State Assembly, following behind the Senate who had done so hours before, passed along to Governor Schwarzenegger a budget that represents the collision of two immutable forces — Democrats who simply refuse to reduce state spending to a reasonable amount, and Republican legislators who finally have said "enough is enough" and refuse to raise taxes any longer to feed the overspending.

The result is, as Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association calls it in a column on the FlashReport today, a budget that is ugly, but holds the line on taxes. And we agree, this budget is an unfortunate one, because it doesn’t represent what Californians deserve, but it likely represents the best that they are going to get, given the dominance of the radical left in the building.

It is widely accepted that one of the items that actually moved the budget negotiations away from a "Democrats with Arnold" model to a "Big Four" legislative leader model… Read More

In the wee hours this morning, the California State Assembly, following behind the Senate who had done so hours before, passed along to Governor Schwarzenegger a budget that represents the collision of two immutable forces — Democrats who simply refuse to reduce state spending to a reasonable amount, and Republican legislators who finally have said "enough is enough" and refuse to raise taxes any longer to feed the overspending.

The result is, as Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association calls it in a column on the FlashReport today, a budget that is ugly, but holds the line on taxes. And we agree, this budget is an unfortunate one, because it doesn’t represent what Californians deserve, but it likely represents the best that they are going to get, given the dominance of the radical left in the building.

It is widely accepted that one of the items that actually moved the budget negotiations away from a "Democrats with Arnold" model to a "Big Four"… Read More

If you need the case for reforming the budget-drafting process, then take two minutes to read the budget bill here. Good luck though, it would take a seasoned state policy expert a much longer time to even delve into this document. And it doesn’t even include the 27 trailer bills.

If the process is working correctly, authentic budget negotiations (you know, between Republicans and Democrats) would take place in the normal Budget Committee process. But of course that doesn’t happen now, as the majority party rams through "their" budget through committee on a majority vote — disregarding the fact that it takes a 2/3 vote to pass the budget in each chamber. It’s worthy of note that Senator Jeff Denham introduced legislation to do just this — which was voted down by Democrats.

So now just about everyone has to play "catch up" and figure out what the heck is in this mammoth and recently released budget language.… Read More