"The most consistent and smartest thinking and writing about progressive politics isn't happening in Sacramento, but being churned out day after day on sites and by organizations like Calitics, Orange County Progressive, and the California Budget Project." - CalBuzz
Stormy, in that legislators were trying to reach a deal to pass a budget on a crazy July night. Amidst the mayhem and the deals, shadowy forces were planning a powerful land grab. They wanted the OC Fairgrounds and they were going to get it.
Sometime during that dark night, a deal was made, and language was inserted to budget bill AB4X22 that would allow the state to sell the Orange County Fairgounds, a public resource in the middle of Costa Mesa that actually makes money. It was said that the money from the sale would help the state balance the budget.
Most legislators had little knowledge of the deal and the public had no chance to cry foul. The bill passed on July 23rd and was signed by the Governor on July 28th. Only former OC Supervisor Jim Silva (AD-67) voted against the sale.
Turns out that the shadowy group was led by Fair Board members and their consultants, who wanted to form a private foundation to buy the Fair so they could operate it without public oversight and for their own profit.
This past week, OC Legislators have learned more about the deal, and discovered that all was not right. At the same time they were receiving hundreds of letters, calls, and faxes opposing the sale and met with a group of OC community leaders.
Now, one by one, they've come around and most of them are opposing the sale.
Governor Schwarzenegger appears to be the only one whose still in favor of the sale, and sources say it could be because he's not getting the information and hasn't seen the hundreds of letters and faxes his office has received opposing the sale.
There's an incredible scandal brewing at the Orange County Fairgrounds and Attorney General Jerry Brown better get on top of this before it blows up in his face. The deal to sell the fairgrounds has stunk, and the Attorney General's office is right in the middle of the muck.
The Fairgrounds is run by an obscure state agency, the 32nd Agricultural District, and their legal representation comes from the Attorney General's office. Unfortunately, the current functionary has completely failed to protect the interests of the people of the State of California. The Fair Board, political appointeees of the Governator, have gone far beyond violating open meeting laws, and instead have used public funds in a conspiracy that approaches racketeering.
Here's how the story unfolds.
The Board of Directors of the Orange County Fair Grounds are as arrogant and clueless a bunch of Yacht Party Republicans as you would find anywhere. Their appointments were political plums for big campaign contributors. Until public scrutiny ended the practice, each of them was receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year in front-row concert tickets complete with catered meals at the Pacific Amphitheatre summer concert series.
As the state starts making changes to comply with the orders of the federal courts, expect more convictions for misdemeanors, with prisoners who end up in county jails rather than state prisons.
It's one of several logical reforms that the state will implement, regardless of the howls of outrage from the fear-mongerers like Tom Harman.
Compare the 2009 Grand Jury Report on the OC Jails to the grim conclusions of the federal panel, and it's obvious that the county jails do a far better job at every level, with a commitment to inmate health and safety, work-release programs that benefit the county in multiple ways, and an emphasis on reducing recidivism.
(The Grand Jury report also had strong praise for the steps taken by Sheriff Hutchens in managing the jails.)
Unfortunately, when the logical reforms start happening, we have an ocean of problems to address, many of which stem from money.
Expansion and modernization of jail facilities requires a commitment of capital funds from both the county and the state, money that is lacking as the county spends down its reserves and the state is broke.
Larger facilities require more jailers, who are employees of the Sheriff's Department, even if the county is able to replicate the Panopticon, as they apparently plan to do.
Do we expect the state to send the county more money to fund the jails? Or is it much more likely that the Sheriff's department will just have to do more with the same amount of money, or perhaps even much more with even less money.
Of course the Sheriff's department can roll the shit downhill further, pumping up the fees they charge contract cities, increasing booking fees, and pushing more responsibilities back down to local police departments, which are already strapped as their revenues plummet. But not very much.
So as our local tough on crime legislators rail on about crime, ask them how they plan to fund their plans. And when they repeat their same talking points about eliminating waste and fraud, remind them that the Governor has already budgeted billions based on phantom savings.
An opinion from the legislative counsel minced no words in outlining the reasons why the Governor's curious attempts to veto spending cuts cross clear Constitutional lines.
It's fun reading well-written legal opinion. I liked it when the Governor's actions were characterized as "wholly ineffectual and void". Kind of describes his entire term as Worst Governor Ever.
Is anyone keeping score of the number of times that the Governor and his advisers have been over-ruled by the courts. Seems to happen a lot.
The poorest and weakest Californians continue to pay for the Governator's lies, reckless tax cuts and irresponsible borrowing. If you're homeless, disabled, or poor, you get a punch in the face. If you're a predatory lender or multinational international, you get multi-billion dollar tax cuts.
One more part of Arnold's savagery became apparent as he vetoed the Department of Public Health's Domestic Violence Program, which provided $20.4 million for 94 domestic violence shelters and centers.
Last fall, when Chris Norby went to bat for funding the Women's Transitional Living Center, Yvette Cabrera at the Register wrote a great article that talked about the funding dilemmas for one shelter;
We haven't had a break," said Watson. "And, as the economy continues to worsen, we're going to see a lot more of these cases and a lot of women and kids walking through our doors."
So far, the nonprofit hasn't turned anybody away. But the increase in need comes at a time when the center is struggling financially.
The nonprofit lost nearly $400,000 this year when it took a 10 percent cut in state funding and didn't get a federal grant and several foundation grants. That led to layoffs of 17 staff positions, including case managers and child advocates, among others
As the Assembly works on finishing another train wreck of a budget package, contemptuously ignoring state law, fiduciary responsibility and the entire twentieth century tradition of good government, let's not forget what precipitated the worst of our problems.
We chose to believe a charismatic Austrian expatriate during a bogus minority election, and the 40% of Californians who voted bought into his propaganda when he promised he could cut the car tax and balance the budget by eliminating waste and fraud in government.
The car tax cut cost 4 billion dollars a year in lost revenue, and when there were no savings from the Schwarzenegger administration, our state sold bonds that we had to repay, adding another 2 billion a year to our deficit to pay for the car tax cuts.
Add to that the lost revenue from phasing out the California Estate Tax, which would be bringing in 1.2 billion a year now, and we had sacrificed over seven billion dollars a year in badly needed revenue.
Instead of entering the Great Recession with reserves and a balanced budget, we entered reeling from reckless tax cuts and reckless borrowing to support the tax cuts.
All under Arnold's inept leadership.
Worst Governor Ever!
Snippets of news trickle from the budget negotiations among the big five in Sacramento, and the news sounds desperate for local governments, already reeling from revenue drops in every tax that normally funds their operations.
The hit will be devastating, and will cut deeply into public safety funds, particularly police, sheriffs, and district attorneys.
Earlier, after every local elected officials lobbied the Governor and their legislators, everyone backed off from the initial plan to "borrow" 2 billion from local property tax revenue to balance the budget.
Now, as Schwarzenegger and Republicans remain opposed to any new revenue sources, and Democrats refuse to go along with Arnold's pure Shock Doctrine plans to gut social services, it appears highly likely that new raids on local government are part of a pending deal.
Below the jump, a detailed breakdown from the League of California Cities.
Among the deeply dishonest aspects of the Governor Schwarzenegger's Shock Doctrine approach to the California Budget crisis is a little noticed provision to piratize part of the the State Fund for worker's comp.
This will inevitably lead to higher insurance rates for 180,000 small businesses that now receive their worker's compensation insurance through the "public option".
As part of the ongoing California state budget negotiations the 'Big 5' agreed over the weekend that the bill directing the Department of Finance to sell parts of State Compensation Insurance Fund is - repeat - is going into the budget. Highly placed sources near the budget negotiations told Workers Comp Executive that the sale provision allows the legislature and governor to use the prospective $1B in revenue as income to balance the budget. It is as if the funds were real. But the funds are not real.
The bill, already rife with controversy, directs the Department of Finance to sell some as yet unknown parts of State Fund within two years for $1 Billion. The legislation specifically excludes both the Department of Insurance and the Attorney General from any role in the sale.
For large California companies and organizations, there's a competitive market for workers compensation insurance. Smaller companies rely on the State Fund, which Arnold is proposing to rape.
Refusing once again to claim any responsibility for his actions, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed plans approved by the legislature to avert a meltdown of the state budget.
From Arnold's twitter feed;
As I promised, I just vetoed a partial budget fix.
There were some technical problems which needed to be resolved by midnight last night to make last-minute adjustments to the fiscal year budget that ended June 31st.
Failure to make these cuts will lock in formulas which require higher levels of spending in the fiscal year that begins today, based on requirements in various education funding formulae and requirements in the stimulus plan for maintenance of effort.
This adds more 3.3 billion to the 2009-10 deficit, and the inept Governor has admitted that he has no ideas about how to fill this additional gap.
Schwarzenegger once again demanded preposterous cuts to the budget, including last minute changes that were absurd. He can't find votes for his radical shock doctrine packages, so he'll instead force the state into paying IOU's.
State workers were paid with IOUs in 1992, but a federal court ruled the practice illegal in 1996. Although workers will continue to receive regular paychecks, their reimbursement for travel and other expenses will be paid in IOUs.
Unable to pay state workers with IOU's, Schwarzenegger is now poised to force another pay cut on state workers, requiring that they take three days a month furlough without pay.
Since he was elected, Schwarzenegger has promised to bring huge savings by making state government more efficient. He cut taxes recklessly and borrowed profligately promising his savings and reforms would make up for eliminating the car tax.
The movie star's narcissism and political ineptitude now threaten not only the state but the national recovery.
A recall petition is qualified. Time to get rid of this sociopath.
Although there is no formal definition, most economists agree a depression is a prolonged slump with a 10% or more decline in real GDP.
By that definition, California is entering a depression, a locomotive engine plunging off a missing bridge, and Orange County residents are passengers on one of the cars that will plunge into the abyss.
Our incompetent national media makes it sound like it's just another wacky California problem, more silliness from the land of fruits and nuts. We've got an Austrian action hero as Governator, a dysfunctional legislature with an absurd 2/3 requirement to pass a budget or a tax increase, and an electorate that keeps voting for stuff like bullet trains and stem cell research, while pushing through tax cuts. Sell California to the Scientoligists. Ha Ha.
The Register, with their hapless coverage and bizarro politics, is hurting our county.
What nobody is noticing is how much worse the downturn is in California than elsewhere, and how it's going to get far worse. The green shoots that you might see in Texas aren't happening in cities like Soledad or Gonalez where the unemployment rate is 21.5%, or for a neighborhood in San Bernardino, where home prices have dropped 84% from the peak.
In a rallying cry for progressive solutions to the state's budget crisis, Rick Jacobs, founder and chair of the 700,000 member Courage Campaign, made the following statement regarding Governor Schwarzenegger's address to the joint session of the Legislature:
"When California voters rejected five of the six ballot propositions at the May 19 special election, they did so because they wanted lasting solutions to our budget crisis not temporary fixes crafted without public input.
"We are therefore deeply troubled to hear Governor and the Legislature are proposing to close the budget gap through a particularly reckless and destructive "cuts-only" budget. These cuts will literally hurt and kill people.
"The people of California did not vote to take away dialysis from patients suffering kidney failure. They did not vote to eliminate the AIDS Drug Assistance Program that as Senator Mark Leno states 'literally keeps people alive.'
"Voters did not ask for the elimination of the Cal Grant Program which enables hard-working students to afford a college education, and they did not vote to lay off more teachers. And they did not vote to close 80% of our state parks.
"Nor did they vote to approve one of the largest corporate tax cuts in state history, allowing companies to essentially write their own tax rules. The $1.5 billion cost of that tax cut could help preserve programs that are facing destructive cuts.
"Instead, numerous polls have shown Californians embrace fair and responsible taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, including at minimum a restoration of the upper-income tax brackets that were implemented by Republican governors Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson. Right now, an individual making $900,000 pays the same tax rate as someone making $50,000. Oil companies pay the same property tax rate as an elderly homeowner -- and unlike Alaska and Texas, oil companies pay no tax on the oil they extract in California.
"Instead of these irresponsible cuts, our legislators must offer responsible and fair solutions that will solve our crisis -- and refuse to back down from this position.
"We understand that California's system of government presents impediments to these progressive solutions, such as the 2/3rds rule. But we do not accept that those obstacles are immovable.
"As President Barack Obama showed us, a campaign that offers hopeful empowerment can produce dramatic political change. It is time for California's legislators to offer that to the people of this state by taking a stand against firing teachers and denying children health benefits to support tax breaks for the rich. It's time to offer voters what they really want and make spending accountable and taxation equitable.
"We offer our support to those legislators who refuse to embrace the destruction of progressive California and instead will fight to implement the kind of responsible revenue solutions that Californians want."
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Worst Governor Ever, is now desperately seeking to bypass governmental agencies and put the Director of Finance in charge of making environmental decisions on off-shore drilling.
In January, the State Lands Commission (SLC) denied a proposal by PXP to drill in State waters off Santa Barbara County at Tranquillon Ridge. This proposal would have become the first new drilling in California in 40 years, setting a precedent that would have opened all of California to new federal OCS drilling.
In April, Governor Schwarzenegger told Secretary Salazar he was opposed to offshore oil drilling. However, he now wants to circumvent the SLC, allowing PXP to resubmit their proposal for a hearing in front of the Director of Finance (who voted for PXP) and enable him to make the decision. The Governor is introducing, through the budget, a trailer bill that would say that if a project has been denied by the SLC, then it may be re-submitted to the Director of Finance.
This is an attack on the SLC and our coast. It sets a precedent that would enable a Governor to overturn a decision of the SLC that he did not agree with. Equally important it sends a message to DC that the state considers financial contributions to its general fund a benefit that outweighs the risk of pollution and contamination of its coastline. It would undermine efforts to prevent OCS drilling in federal waters off California and therefore could result in additional spill risk and damage. Any benefit from the funds accrued to governmental entities would not offset the cost of dealing with the impacts to our state resources and coastal economy if there were a major spill.
PXP has been heavily lobbying in Sacramento, lying and saying that there is no opposition to their project in the environmental community and this is a way to raise money for the State (approximately $100 million per year for 14 years).
Contacting your legislator now and tell them that we can't sacrifice the rule of law and our environment for one more crappy budget deal.
This comes to us from Jerry Collamer, San Clemente warrior in the battle to save Trestles, who will be recognized as Environmental Activist Leader of the Year by the League of Conservation Voters at their annual awards dinner on May 14th.
"Who's on first?"
"No, Who's on second."
So went, America's most defining parable, thanks to Abbot & Costello.
Damn I'm smart.
Six months into my (then) new career on Mad Ave, 23 years old (1966) and clueless, I totally got "it."
I remember the moment.
Came to me in a flash (albeit a bit disappointed. I'd been warned in college,when you get to Madison Avenue, don't expect to get "it" right away. It will take you 6 months to figure out where the mensrooms are)
Wrong. I figured it out in 6 minutes.
But darned if can remember where the mensrooms were.
From the You Should Have Seen it Coming Department:
With a hat tip to the Capitol Alert, one delegate to the GOP Convention this weekend wanted the party to apologize to Gray Davis for recalling him.
Ha ha. Here's the actual resolution:
"Whereas, in 2003 a grassroots effort was begun to recall then-Governor Gray Davis from office on grounds which included gross mismanagement of the budget and finances of the State of California;
"...Whereas, candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned as a reformer and champion of fiscal discipline and responsibility who would bring change and reform to government which it sorely needed;
"Whereas, in the subsequent years Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has instead proven to govern as a tax and spend politician precisely similar to the one he campaigned to replace in the recall election;
"Whereas, the trust and confidence of Republicans has been betrayed and shattered by Governor Schwarzenegger's repeated and ongoing efforts to collaborate with Democrats in the Legislature to seek solutions to the state's fiscal crisis by irresponsible borrowing and increasing taxes and refusal to make the needed reductions in state spending;
"Whereas, Governor Schwarzenegger's current budget solution includes more than $14 billion in higher taxes on sales, income, gasoline and the car tax which he specifically attacked Governor Davis for raising;
"Whereas, it is plain that Governor Schwarzenegger has abandoned the most basic tenets of Republican ideology and rendered the whole purpose of the 2003 recall pointless;
"Therefore, be it resolved that the California Republican Party officially extends a heartfelt and sincere apology to former Governor Gray Davis for its role in recalling him from office."
