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

Legislative Democrats for about two minutes today were given a big disincentive to override a pending Gubernatorial veto of the just-passed state budget. Just minutes ago the Governor made it clear in prepared remarks at a press conference that he will not sign a budget that is absent real structural budget reforms. Of course we here at the FlashReport feel that we need a true Gann-style spending cap in place if we are going to have real reform. While legislative Republicans support that, it has not been introduced by the Governor. But even the "lite" version of budget reform, championed by the Governor, was gutted by the Democrats.

The Governor actually said that if the legislature overrides his veto (which can be done with the same 2/3 vote in each house that just passed it), that he will respond by using his veto pen on all of the nearly 900 pieces of legislation sitting on his desk! This really throws down the gauntlet at Perata, Bass and their other Democrat legislators, since virtually any piece of meaningful legislation on the Governor’s desk is something they put there.

My mind started to race… Republican legislators… Read More

From reading MSM reports this morning while putting together the website, it sure sounds like there is a budget deal, although details have yet to be presented by the "Big 4" to their respective caucuses. It sounds like this deal can best be summed up as "No new taxes, mostly, and not enough cuts."

On the new taxes side of things, NOT in this plan based on what I have read are the outrageous proposals by Democrats for a massive income tax hike, or the disappointing proposal by the Governor for a massive sales tax increase. Still present, however, and quite disturbing is a de facto tax increase on California businesses (an estimated $300 million++ bit) reducing their ability to write off losses.

According to reports, it would appear that while the best interests of California would be to have more cuts in state government, such as proposed by legislative Republicans, this budget comes up with a myriad of various one-time accounting gimmicks and other "creative ideas" to close the budget gap — so there will be a game of "kick the can" to the upcoming state budget (which will… Read More

I am pleased to announce that today we the FlashReport Website on California Politics is launching FRMobile, a version of this website that is optimized for use with your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Whether you are using a Blackbery, iPhone, Treo, Palm, Q or other mobile platform, you will now be able to enjoy some of the main feature of the FlashReport with ease! For the thousands (and we have heard from many, many of you) who have tried or who have struggled with trying to read the FR on a PDA these past nearly three years, we commend you for your patience, but we dedicate this new easy-to-download, easy-to-read FRMobile platform to you…

While not every aspect of the FlashReport is optimized on FR Mobile, we have placed FR’s most popular features there. When you go to the site with your PDA, you will get the FR main news page.… Read More

Did you miss the joint appearance of Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton on Saturday night live? LOL. … Read More

**Steve Poizner Files Papers – Launches Gubernatorial Exploratory Committee** **Announces Impressive Array of Early Endorsements; Taps Key Campaign Team Members**

Last evening my phone rang — it was State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner calling to let me know that he has formally decided to run for the Republican nomination for California Governor, and that tomorrow (now today) his campaign would be going down to the California Secretary of State’s Office to formally file papers for an Exploratory Committee for Governor. I just received a call confirming that this has taken place!

I told Commissioner Poizner that while this news was hardly unexpected, that it was certainly exciting, and of… Read More

As the General Election approaches, we here at the FlashReport are going to be paying more attention – a LOT more attention – to the race for Congress in California’s 11th District, most of which is located in the Tracy/Stockton area of the Central Valley, with a chunk of it going over the hills into the East Bay Area. The incumbent candidate is Democrat Jerry McNerney, who is a far left extremist, who is totally out of synch with a district that is moderate in some areas, and quite conservative in others. The challenger is GOP fiscal hawk Dean Andal, who served in the State Legislature and on the State Board of Equalization.

I took a few minutes to start “researching” McNerney and, well, let’s just say that there is a ton of stuff available that shows how extreme and out-of-touch McNerney is with his constituents.

Just to start the ball rolling, let’s start with a “Look… Read More

The Democrats came this close to sneaking in a measure (in one of the budget trailer bills) that would have given future prisoners one day credit for each day served behind bars — for doing nothing more than breathing. (Read an earlier post that explains this concept in better detail)

But luckily for California families and law-abiding citizens everywhere, the "prison-credit sneak" was caught before it became law.

Now other public safety measures contained within the trailer bills are in dispute — specifically the fixes Republicans requested for the bi-partisan 2007 prisonmeasure (Assembly Bill 900) that would build more prison beds and Prison Receiver J. Clark Kelso’s prison bond (Senate Bill 1665) that relates to prison health care.

Stay tuned …… Read More