While the eyes of the nation are on San Francisco and the 9th Circuit’s Prop 8 hearing, there is some other news around the state. Keeping the preview theme up, the new legislature gets sworn in today in Sacramento. We’ll have 10 new Senators and 28 new Assembly members.
Meanwhile, Governor Schwarzenegger will call a special session on the budget, just to see if he can try to do something while Sacramento waits for Gov. Brown. But, there might be some trust issues:
California lawmakers are in no mood to tackle the state’s latest deficit before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves office next month, even as the governor prepares to declare a fiscal emergency and call a special session of the Legislature on Monday.
The ruling Democrats distrust the Republican governor, who has used his veto pen to make deep cuts in programs they prize, and they don’t want to hand him a new opportunity to exercise that power. Moreover, state law allows them 45 days to pass any deficit-cutting legislation in the special session – and by then, Schwarzenegger will be gone and Democrat Jerry Brown will be governor. (LA Times)
After the courts have affirmed Schwarzenegger’s blue pencil line item veto actions, I’m just not sure why you would deal with him. If the issue is to make cuts alone, better to make the cuts with Gov. Brown. At least you know the score with Jerry.
As Asm. Beall said, Arnold is Expendable.
Are we still on track to sell off our State Office buildings to speculators ?
Selling State assets to make a Governor’s budget look balanced is Awful economics for the State
I’ll be Glad to see the backside of Arnold
What happened to al lthose crdit cards he was gonna cut up ?
Anybody know if the partisan balance changed in the asembly or the Senate ?
The state is still selling office buildings and other property. A client of mine, who works for a commercial realtor, says it actually does save the state money in the short term. In the long term, it’s far less clear. At best, as you say, it’s a temporary fix.
Though I’m not all that sanguine about having Jerry Brown at the helm. I hope the one promise he breaks is going to the voters for any tax increases. C’mon, Jerry. You’ve had a long public service career. It’s time to do the right thing and raise top tax rates and withdraw tax breaks for multinational corporations, and let ’em howl.