In the least surprising state news of the past decade, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that California will face a deficit of $12.4 billion to $14.4 billion when he releases his budget plan in January 2010.  In Capitol-speak, this means that by July (or August or September) when Legislators finally mosey down to the chambers to vote on the next terrible budget, the deficit will probably be in the $15 billion + range.

How did this all happen?  As Paul Cook has mentioned on several occasions over the past year, the Governor’s office (in particular the Department of Finance) never ceases to issue rosy tax revenue projections during the previous budget negotiations.  Lo and behold, the state is “$1 billion behind in tax revenues through the first three months of the 2009-10 fiscal year.”  

We know, we know … how could any one have guessed that the economy wouldn’t have recovered by now!?  Hell, Obama only dumped the fortunes of several generations into the economy, in the form “bailouts” and “stimulus.”  Well, anyone living in reality could have guessed it.

Until the Capitol embraces the truly terrible California budget structural and is brave enough to tell the public the truth about revenues, we’ll keep fumbling along, following the same pattern: deficit, gridlock, rosy projections for the next year, repeat.

Read more about it here:

http://is.gd/4RY6g

Yet another report on California government wasting millions in your taxpayer dollars. This time, the Sac Bee found that "Two of the state's largest departments spent more than $5.5 million on new cars and trucks this year only to leave them idle and gathering dust for months."

To make matters worse, the state departments trot out their versions of the Iraqi Information Minister to make every lame excuse possible and, in doing so, further erode public trust.  

George Orwell is alive and well. Experience 1984 .. TODAY!

http://is.gd/4CT47

Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee has a topical article on California’s economic prospects when the recession ends.  California just lost the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company, SAIC – an unfortunate compliment to the well-publicized closure of the Toyota-GM NUMMI auto plant in Fremont recently.

While the situations are dissimilar in that the auto plant closure affected rank-and-file workers and SAIC headquarters relocation affected the upper echelon employees, they are indicative of a systemic problem here in California: the state’s burdensome laws and regulations are unfriendly to business.

So when the economy fires back up, new companies and companies looking to expand to look elsewhere in the US, to the South and Southwest in particular.

http://is.gd/4raHV

Assemblyman Paul Cook has stated his support for a part-time Legislature. The less time Legislators spend in Sacramento, the less time big-government advocates have to drive the state into the ground. The Sac Bee dips its toes in the water (but not much more) on the subject in this article:

http://is.gd/3MTse

As mentioned in the article, there is a proposed ballot initiative to create a part-time Legislature. Learn more about it here:

http://is.gd/3MTrk

The Hi-Desert Star and the Sacramento Bee produced write-ups on AB 717, Assemblyman Paul Cook’s bill to create a Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day in California on March 30th of each year. The bill still needs Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature to become law, but Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the bill. The Hi-Desert Star reports accurately that after Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar measure, Cook's AB 264, a meeting occurred between Cook and Schwarzenegger, and "Cook rescued the measure by placing the language into a new bill." There is talk of a bill signing ceremony for AB 717, with veterans groups present.

Hi-Desert Star article

Sac Bee article

The prisons bill is stalling in the Assembly. The Sacramento Bee needs to decribe the situation. So what do they do? Well why not ask their friends in the Democratic Caucus (in the Assembly) and take their word for it without scrutiny. Always eager to paint Republicans as obstructionists, this is the first line in the SacBee article describing the situation:

"But Assembly Democrats lack the 41 votes necessary to pass the package over Republican opposition, caucus sources said." 

The truth? This is a Democrat prison proposal, that lacks Democrat votes. Karen Bass, Speaker of the Assembly, doesn't have the votes in her own caucus. For the record, there are 50 Democrats. Twenty-nine Assembly Republicans can't kill a bill that needs 41 votes.

What a crock. Read it here if you can stomach it:

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2126584.html