Pardon me for perhaps being the last observer of California politics to comment on a incident that occurred last week, but it’s been a busy time for me, yet I could not let this one pass buy without commentary. So last Tuesday Governor Brown comes and meets with the Senate Republican Caucus to discuss his budget plans. After the meeting is over, one Senate Republican, Tom Berryhill of Modesto, apparently told reporters that, “no one person in there is ready to support extra taxes.”

Senator Berryhill (pictured) went on to say that the budget is, “really not our problem. The Democrats own this.”

Apparently these sentiments did not go over well with Democrat Senate President Darrell Steinberg who used Berryhill’s comments to strip him of the Chairmanship of the Senate… Read More

CalPERS Continues its Nose-Thumbing of Divestment Laws… The State retirement giant is entrenched in its outright defiance of laws mandating divestment from companies doing business in Iran and Sudan (see my FR entry from February 2010).

Yet, CalPERS is spending a significant amount of money — $550,000 — to comply with the laws, while doing no such complying.

San Diego CityBeat‘s Dave Maass has covered this issue in detail in the past and digs up the latest in a January 5 story. Some excerpts:

CalPERS has a funny definition of “compliance.” … In fact, CalPERS’s board passed a policy in February 2009 stating that it would not divest from companies as the law demands, period. As CityBeat reported last year, CalPERS failed to disclose this decision to the state Legislature in its annual report. … Read More

Having spent some time with political pros this week, one of the most disconcerting of probable outcomes of the coming reapportionment of Congressional districts in California is that long time Republican Congressman David Dreier’s San Gabriel Valley Congressional district might be swallowed up by Republican Congressman Gary Miller’s multiple county district. Reapportionment may end up pitting many incumbents, including incumbents of the same party, against each other in 2012. But the Dreier-Miller mishmash may be among the most awesome for Republicans.… Read More

The more things change in the legislature, the more they stay the same. Senator Tom Berryhill was stripped of his Chairmanship of the Food and Agriculture Committee by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg for shockingly reminding everybody that the Republican Caucus would not be supporting tax increases and the democrats own this "solution" that has already been rejected by the voters.

To make matters worse, Steinberg, in his letter to the Rules Committee stripping Berryhill of the post arrogantly states "Each member of the California State Senate represents nearly one million people and we have a duty, regardless of party or philosophy, to actively engage in the serious work necessary to address the challenges confronting California." It seems that "actively engaging" on the budget to Senator Steinberg means checking the reasons your constituents sent you to Sacramento at the door.

Steinberg has made a choice to put politics first and reminded Californians that a critical piece of our economic structure that creates jobs and tax revenue keeping this state afloat will take a back seat to political… Read More

Yesterday, I talked about Republicans changing the process of how budgets are decided. Today, most government budgets start with baseline spending, and then try to figure out how to make a combination of "cuts and revenue increases to balance the budget." That mindset has led to the tax and spend mentality that predominates in government, whether the government is run by the Republicans and Democrats. If the starting point of any budget discussion is how much to spend, every decision made after that is driven by a discussion about spending. In fact, the language of budgets is the language of preserving spending levels, not finding ways to "live within our means."

However, if the budgeters look at revenue, and then try to figure out how to match the spending to the revenue, the whole mindset changes. I promised yesterday to apply this principle to the Governor’s budget. Here it is. The numbers are derived from the Governor’s budget. Remember, I don’t have thousands of staff to analyze this multiple volume document. If the numbers are not precise, use the principles to find the… Read More

Strickland: Community events are the cornerstone of our democracy Previously published at the Ventura County Star.

Like all Americans, I was shocked and heart-broken when I heard the events of this past weekend in Tucson, Ariz. My thoughts and prayers go out to Rep. Giffords, the Green family and all of the victims of this horrible act of violence.

It’s times like this I can’t help but think about the hundreds of community events and town hall meetings I, as well as all of my colleagues in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., hold every week and how it could have been one of us or our constituents.

Rep. Giffords was doing what every great elected official does — getting input from the district he or she represents. In my short time in office, I have always made this a priority because I believe the best elected officials are not the ones who give the best speeches, but rather, the ones who listen to their constituents and take those voices… Read More

It came as no surprise that Gov. Jerry Brown’s first budget plan included a proposed tax increase that requires a vote of the people.He was very clear in his campaign that he would not increase taxes without a vote of the people and a balanced budget without a tax increase would be just so…un-Democratic!

Reaction from the right side of the aisle also was not surprising. Senate Republican leader Bob Dutton immediately said that there was “zero” support in his caucus for increased taxes. After Brown visited with the Assembly GOP caucas, theirleader Connie Conway described the meeting to the Los Angeles Times: "It was cordial. It was conversational. I don’t think anyone changed their mind about raising taxes."

Jerry Brown unveiled his budget. I haven’t had a chance to review it all, but I will before tomorrow. However, I thought I would first start with principles to guide my Republican friends in the Legislature on how to analyze and deal with the budget issues they will face. What I propose here is a little outside the box, but it can work in their favor if they choose to follow it.

The first thing for most legislators to understand is the lingo used by budget gurus. What people hear from these budget types is noises that sound like English words, but those words don’t have English meanings. For instance, a cut is not a reduction in spending, as most people would think. It can be a fund shift, or it could be a decrease in the amount of projected spending increases. Republicans cannot fall into the trap of using the words of the left or the budgeters. Republicans must use real English to describe what is going on in the budget process.

A couple of important words:

(a) "Base" or "Current Year Budget" – That is how much money the state is spending on programs this year… Read More