As the UCLA Anderson Forecast projects a “nasty recession” with “ugly” unemployment figures that won’t turn around until 2010 at the soonest, California Republicans have decided to join their fellow partisans in the US Senate and place pathological hatred of unions and environmental laws ahead of our fiscal and economic survival.

The LA Times reports that Mike Villines was willing to support a VLF increase – but only if Democrats agreed to his insane and possibly illegal demands for cuts in government programs and regulations:

Sources said Villines raised the possibility of GOP support for a higher car fee in budget negotiations last month, saying he thought that he could bring rank-and-file Republicans along if Democrats agreed to steep cuts in government programs and a permanent cap on state spending.

The sources who were in the room said his suggestion came after Democrats offered spending cuts they would reluctantly agree to implement.

Villines denies it of course – he’s got to keep up the anti-tax front – but this is typical and unsurprising. Republicans have a habit of promising to finally do what common sense has long dictated – provide a bridge loan to automakers, ensure that California doesn’t go bankrupt – but only if Democrats agree to destroy a union, or a government program, or an environmental treasure. And if Democrats refuse to go along with such recklessness, Republicans walk away and let everything collapse.

I suppose I should see Villines’ willingness to embrace a VLF increase as a victory, but what this really does is bring into clear view the fact that the Yacht Party has no intention whatsoever in trying to solve this crisis. They genuinely don’t care what happens to schools, health care clinics, or the economy as a whole. They’re out to break liberalism, whatever the cost.

We’re not dealing with rational actors here. The focus of political work in California is no longer about trying to work out a budget deal. It’s about defusing a full-blown hostage crisis where every one of us – our economic security – are being used as pawns in Villines’ game.

Combined with Dave Cogdill’s crybaby move at today’s budget talks this suggests a clear strategy for moving forward – show Californians just how reckless and dangerous the Republican Party has become. And if any of these jokers want to have a shot at higher office in 2010 they’re going to have to defend their decision to let this state collapse in their desire to settle old scores.

California will pull through this crisis, but the light at the end of the tunnel never seemed so far away.

For a while, Speaker Bass and others (including lots of posts here) have pleaded with Governor Schwarzenegger to stand up to the Republican obstructionism.  He says he is for revenue increases, but he’s not knocking heads like past Republican governors have been willing to do. Pete Wilson and Ronald Reagan did it, surely Arnold could bang out some sort of compromise.

But up to now, he’s just been sort of attacking the legislature in general and really failing to recognize the underlying unwillingness to work for a solution from the Republicans. Now, surely we can agree that today’s Republicans are a lot more partisan than those of 20 years ago.  However, that’s just not a sufficient excuse for the Republican governor to fail to bring a single vote over.

At yesterday’s press conference, Arnold slighlty altered his tune.  He began to acknowledge what this is: Republicans are holding the state hostage.  They are simply not negotiating in good faith.  Take this for example, from the transcript on the Bee:

But I think that what is important is to come to the meeting and to be prepared and to propose those kind of issues. I have been to many meetings; none of those things were discussed. So I think it’s very hard for the Democrats, in a way, to negotiate when no one puts that on the table and says here is the list of things that we ask for and if we have this list then we’re willing to increase taxes and to come up with extra revenues. But it’s always very vague and nothing specific and I think that makes it sometimes frustrating in those negotiations.

Ok, well it’s a start, Governor, and the legislative inaction clock is very cute. But this simply isn’t enough. But today it seems that criticizing Republicans is too much.  After a Big 5 meeting, Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill decided to take his frustration out on the Governor:

I believe that the Big 5 process has been irreparably compromised as a result of comments in the press over the last couple of days, and it’s pretty difficult to negotiate in good faith in that situation. My personal belief is that any resolution to this that is going to be negotiated will result from efforts with the Big 4 similar to what we were able to accomplish with the budget last year, because, again, I just don’t see this process as being productive or helpful. (SacBee 12/11/08)

The thing is that the Republicans in the Legislature have grown used to one Arnold. The post-partisan Arnold that tries to make nice with everybody. The Arnold that we’ve basically had since the 2005 Special Election.  Then some new Arnold dared to nudge the Republicans for failing to negotiate in good faith, so Cogdill is going to take his marbles and go home. Boo-hoo Dave, there’s no crying in politics, Hillary Clinton aside. You are being intransigent, and you got called out on it. You know what else? Nobody likes you, so go cry about that too.

In actuality the problem here isn’t that Arnold is being too tough now, it’s that he’s not being tough enough. We need the Governor to play hardball with these Republicans. The real problems is that he already missed his chance to really break the logjam a few months ago. If he wanted to get reform, well dammit he should have been hanging out in Audra Strickland’s district and campaigning against Tony Strickland in the Senate. He should have gone to Stockton and argued to the voters there that John Eisenhut would work to fix the budget and that Bill Berryhill would not.  But it seems that post-partisanship doesn’t extend so far as to electing people who will actually pursue sound policy, regardless of party.  

Oh to be a fly on the wall of that Big 5 Meeting, but Sen. Steinberg gave us a clue about the atmosphere:

“There was no lunch served,” Steinberg said.

The leaders are signaling that perhaps there will be a deal next week, but I won’t be holding my breath.  The recent behavior of Cogdill and Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines don’t give much reason for hope.

UPDATE: Speaker Bass released a statement on Cogdill’s little tantrum:

“They said that they came up here because of what they believed in and they believed that there should never be a tax increase. All of us came up here for what we believed in. I came up here to make sure that I would protect programs that now I have to recognize have to be cut.  We all have to do things that we never thought we would do because California is in a catastrophic situation.”

It’d be nice if the Republicans could at least pretend to care that our state government is about to collapse.

Speaker Bass, perhaps annoyed by the clock, acknowledged that the Governor is going to have to provide some real leadership here:

Gimmicks aren’t going to keep transportation projects moving, let schools stay open or provide public safety. The fact remains Democrats are the only ones who have been serious about compromising to find a budget solution. We have stepped up to the plate and support both the deep cuts and new revenues it will take to help close the budget deficit. It is past time for Governor Schwarzenegger to break the logjam created by his own party and produce Republican votes for a package of cuts and revenues. The 2/3 vote requirement means Democrats can’t do it alone. With 51 Democrats we only need three Republican votes in the Assembly. But we need real leadership from Governor Schwarzenegger to convince even a few of his Republican colleagues to compromise. Other Republican governors have done that in time of emergency. This governor has to deliver as well.

Yacht Party Assembly leader Mike Villines visited the Sacramento Bee editorial board yesterday, and like any good mob boss, he offered an ultimatum.

Solving the budget stalemate is simple enough, Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines said in a visit to The Bee’s Capitol Bureau Tuesday. Democrats have to capitulate to GOP demands for the 8-hour work day, meal breaks, looser environmental regulations, permanent budget cuts and a stiff spending cap, among other things.

Then, and only then, will Republicans come to the table to discuss — but not necessarily agree to — new taxes.

“We think you have to do these reforms first, cuts first and make sure that you’re doing an economic package that puts people back to work,” Villines said. “Then you have a discussion about revenue – and only then.”

Many of these things, you’ll notice, have nothing to do with the budget.  In fact, CapAlert published the ransom note that Villines brought with him, and while he puts his demands in somewhat vague terms (and the Bee should really spell it out if they want to inform the public), it’s pretty clear what he and the GOP want.  They want to eliminate overtime regulations and meal breaks for state employees.  They want to re-legislate already-passed environmental regulations on retrofitting buildings, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and air quality standards.  And they want a bushel of tax cuts for businesses.  I’ll put the ransom note on the flip.

Aside from being ridiculous, this is extremely close to being illegal.  Yes, illegal.  I know horse-trading is customary in politics, but it violates California law.  This is Section 86 of the California Penal Code:

86.  Every Member of either house of the Legislature, or any member of the legislative body of a city, county, city and county, school district, or other special district, who asks, receives, or agrees to receive, any bribe, upon any understanding that his or her official vote, opinion, judgment, or action shall be influenced thereby, or shall give, in any particular manner, or upon any particular side of any question or matter upon which he or she may be required to act in his or her official capacity, or gives, or offers or promises to give, any official vote in consideration that another Member of the Legislature, or another member of the legislative body of a city, county, city and county, school district, or other special district shall give this vote either upon the same or another question, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years and, in cases in which no bribe has been actually received, by a restitution fine of not less than two thousand dollars ($2,000) or not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or, in cases in which a bribe was actually received, by a restitution fine of at least the actual amount of the bribe received or two thousand dollars ($2,000), whichever is greater, or any larger amount of not more than double the amount of any bribe received or ten thousand dollars ($10,000), whichever is greater.

Put it this way, there’s a Governor in Illinois who just got arrested for this activity.

But instead of indicting Mike Villines, he will be allowed to hold up the California Legislature, confident in the knowledge that Democrats, given little choice with the 2/3 requirement, will come around to his demands. In fact, Villines has already announced his intention to run for Senate in 2014, something that even cranky winger columnist Jim Boren scoffs at.  

Villines helped lead the Legislature to an 85-day budget stalemate and then was a party to passing a phony budget that quickly fell apart. And so far, he’s done nothing to solve the state budget crisis in the latest round of negotiations. And that’s the record he’ll run on for his next post?

Do our legislators live in a world where doing badly means you get to move up?

Yes, in a word.

And mind you, what Villines illegally lays out is just a precondition to TALK about revenue increases.

“This is very hard for Democrats to accept,” Villines said of his list, which he said he had been distributed to the governor and other legislative leaders. “They’ll say that look, ‘This goes right to the heart of many things that we care terribly about and we just can’t go there.’ I understand that because we feel the same way about revenues.”

Jim Evans, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, challenged the Republicans to “put a specific $17 billion, half cuts, half revenues, deficit-reduction plan on the table and then we can begin productive conversations.”

Villines is holding out hope Democrats will cave. “I think that they’ll ultimately come around to this,” he said.

Why wouldn’t he say that?  A criminal who never gets caught usually keeps robbing banks.  The learned behavior is that Democrats will give up at some point.  And with General Fund revenue down another $1.3 billion in November, and the state due to run out of cash in February, who is going to disagree with him?

Or, the real question is, will anyone arrest Mike Villines for crimes against the state?

UPDATE: Denise Ducheny, Senate Budget Committee chair, sez:

“To the extent they’re saying, ‘Undo all the labor laws and we’re still not voting for taxes,’ there’s kind of nothing to talk about,” Ducheny said.

The correct response is “I am directing the Sacramento police to arrest Mike Villines.”

UPDATE 2: Even the Sac Bee describes this as a hostage crisis:

In other words, Republicans are refusing to negotiate. They will only release the hostages after their demands are met.

REGULATORY CHANGES – EMPLOYMENT LAW FLEXIBILITY

Employee Schedule Flexibility

Expanding Health Care Options for Employees (Health savings accounts)

Reducing Unwarranted Litigation

Overtime for high way earners

Meal and Rest clarification

Eliminate “needs test” to allow more apprenticeships

REGULATORY CHANGES – BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Design-build

Public Private Partnership

ADA compliance

Streamline small business certification process for micro businesses and sole proprietorships

Reclassify “destination management companies” (DMS) as consumers rather than retailers (SB 1628)

Streamlining the permitting process (THPS, development)

Contracting out

ENVIRONMENTAL FLEXIBILITY

Expanding deadlines for engine retrofits (on and off road)

Extending deadlines for greenhouse gas regulations (AB 32

Carl Moyer program changes

Regulatory flexibility for agricultural industry

3rd party analysis of economic impact of ARB regulations

TAX CREDITS

A new employee tax credit for businesses that hire out-of-work Californians

A manufacturing investment credit to help businesses purchase the equipment they need

Capitol gains reduction for businesses that invest in California

Modification of the tax code to encourage companies to locate jobs in California

Suspension of regulatory burdens that “discourage job creation”

This could be just to get the freshman members of the legislature up to speed, but it sounds rather… serious.

The entire Legislature will meet in a joint session Monday in the Assembly chambers to discuss the state’s cash situation and overall budget dynamics with state fiscal leaders, according to Jim Evans, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

In a rare Budget 101 session, Treasurer Bill Lockyer, Controller John Chiang, Department of Finance Director Mike Genest and Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor will describe the consequences of delaying a compromise over the budget. They’re likely to discuss the possibility of issuing IOUs to state vendors and state workers, as well as layoff scenarios and other consequences.

If I had to guess, this will be one of those meetings where everyone is sat down and told that this is what they have to do or the state will fall into the ocean.  They should get some veterans from Scared Straight to run it.  Put the fear of God into these lawmakers.

Although, I can’t say whether or not it’ll be successful.  I mean, the Governor has already called a state of emergency and that didn’t shake anybody up.  Mike Villines is still sounding like a Yacht Party regular on budget issues:

Republican Assembly Leader Mike Villines (R-Clovis) took a dim view of a Democratic proposal to take reducing the threshold to pass a state budget to the voters.

Calling the proposed bill, which would ask voters to make a simple majority all that’s necessary for passing a budget, a Democratic power grab, Villines said doing so was a duck on responsibly addressing the state’s budget woes.

“Shutting Republicans out of the budget process will just make it easier for Democrats to pass more of the same reckless spending measures that have resulted in our current fiscal crisis.” Villines said in a statement released late Wednesday.”This will do nothing to improve our long-term budget picture, and will actually make things much worse.”

He still wants a spending cap, of course.

But Lockyer and Chiang have plenty of ammunition to throw around.  Failing a bailout from the Feds (which I think is a better bet at this point), state workers are about to be laid off or have their salaries frozen, and cuts to popular professions like teachers and nurses and cops and firefighters would be on the horizon in a protracted delay.  Whether or not this threat of potentially hundreds of thousands of angry Californians and their families marching in the streets (Lockyer and Chiang need to have a flair for DRAMA in this speech) is enough to overrule the Iron Law of Institutions remains to be seen.

For a while now, the federal government has been handing out money to private business. Mostly banks, but a few insurance companies and the possibility of the Big 3 Automakers.  It’s raining cash if you happen to be “too big to fail.”

Meanwhile, the state of California is bleeding red ink, laying off workers and cutting the services Californians count on in poor economic times. So, hat in hand, off we go to the feds:

Led by California with a $28 billion hole in its budget, 41 states are in financial trouble, and many of their leaders are looking to Congress to bail them out. State officials are hoping to join the ranks of the financial industry and auto manufacturers, who’ve found a sympathetic ear on Capitol Hill. They’ve found some key supporters: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats are promoting aid to states as part of a broad stimulus package that could inject more than $300 billion into the ailing economy.

* * *

Speaking Wednesday before a Chamber of Commerce group in Fresno, Calif., Schwarzenegger said that “government is really at fault” and that Washington was obligated to “get us out of this mess.” (McClatchy 11/14/08)

The economy sucks, that much we all know.  Sure, we’re tossing everything up at the wall hoping it sticks. But, here is one simple statement of fact: money that comes in to the state goes out almost immediately in the form of services to those who most need it.  It gets recycled as state employees that would have otherwise been on the chopping block retain their jobs. And of course there is the fact that by spending a little money now to retain a decent level of services, we can save ourselves a lot of money on the back end on prison and other corrective, and expensive, services.

Yet there are those who simply see the states as profligate dens of the mythical “waste, fraud, and abuse.”  Unsurprisingly, one such opinion, by the Manhattan City Institute’s Steve Malanga, appears at Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal:

Thus, when practically every day the federal government is defining downward the very notion of what constitutes fiscal responsibility, the states know they are hardly the most reckless supplicants in Washington. Unfortunately, more federal aid all but guarantees they won’t use the current crisis as an opportunity to put their fiscal houses in order — setting the stage for worse problems to come.

While it is true that California’s 2/3 system of governance has built a budgetary house of cards, simply letting that house of cards collapse is no better than letting GM and Ford simply disappear.  Apparently Mr. Malanga would like to see the states get taught a lesson just like some would have beaten into the banking system’s hide. But while conservatives are lining up to give money to AIG, perhaps they should take some of that time to consider just who they are teaching a lesson.

Are they teaching a lesson to the 6 year old who now has a first grade class of 45 kids and doesn’t have any actual contact with his teacher. I’m sure his not being able to read will really teach the Mike Villines of this world a huge lesson.

Are they teaching a lesson to the state’s seniors? To the disabled?  I’m sure Dave Cogdill will repent once he sees a few thousand more homeless mentally ill across our state.

Or perhaps not, but the lesson’s worth a shot, right Mr. Malanga?

UPDATE: Over the flip find the letter that the Democratic Leaders sent to Pelosi, Boxer & Feinstein. (h/t SacBee)

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer:

We write to strongly encourage the prompt adoption of a federal economic stimulus plan that will provide direct assistance to the states. During this historically challenging economic time, the states–especially California–need the federal government’s help.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), twenty-seven states will begin the 2009 Fiscal Year with deficits well exceeding $100 billion collectively. A recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concludes that states are facing “a great fiscal crisis,” with 41 of 50 states projected to be facing budget shortfalls over the next two fiscal years. In the midst of this crisis, states are forced to drastically cut essential services (services that more citizens rely on when economic times are tough), raise taxes, or do both.

The fiscal challenges for the state of California are great. According to our non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), California is facing a 20-month deficit of $28 billion. The Governor has called a Special Session in which lawmakers are contemplating a plan that would close the deficit by imposing tax increases on all Californians and slashing more than $10 billion in essential services in education, healthcare, aid to seniors, the blind and the elderly, public safety, and transportation. The impacts of such a plan are particularly harsh in an economic climate in which each month more than 13,000 Californians are suffering job loss.

California needs its federal partner to help its citizens weather this economic storm. A “States Economic Stimulus and Fiscal Relief Act,” akin to that recently passed to assist the nation’s banking system, is what California needs now. While federal aid will not solve California’s fiscal problems, an infusion of flexible federal funds would provide necessary relief to millions of Californians, by limiting the magnitude of tax increases and cuts to essential services otherwise required to balance our budget.

In addition to the infusion of federal funds, many provisions of the $60.8 billion economic stimulus bill, H.R. 7110, passed by the House of Representatives in September, 2008, are helpful to California. For example:

1. An increase in the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) match with the trigger points for state eligibility like those contained in the bill (i.e., home foreclosures, food stamp caseload level and unemployment level) means nearly $2 billion for California;

2. The extension of federal Unemployment Insurance benefits provides needed assistance to Californians suffering job loss. California’s unemployment rate now stands at 7.7% and is projected to rise well above 9% in 2009.

3. The investment of federal funds to improve public infrastructure is meaningful to California. In 2006, Californians passed a $42.3 billion bond package to invest state funds to improve our roads and bridges, expand public transit, strengthen levees and improve water quality, provide affordable housing, and build or modernize school facilities. Many of the projects and programs funded by the state bond package require federal matching funds to become fully funded.

While H.R. 7110 represents a good start, we agree with Speaker Pelosi’s assessment that as the nation’s economic crisis has worsened since September, so has the need for a greater magnitude of economic stimulus. Clearly, more is better.

As we continue our work to develop a comprehensive plan to close this state’s staggering budget deficit, we hope we can count on our federal partners to provide needed relief to millions of Californians suffering through an economic crisis of historic magnitude. Working together, federal and state policymakers can help the country and the state get through this difficult period.

Your prompt attention to this request is certainly appreciated.

Respectfully,

Don Perata

President Pro Tem

California State Senate

Karen Bass

Speaker

California State Assembly

Darrell Steinberg

President Pro Tempore-elect

California State Senate

It’s good to see the LA Times calling out the dysfunctional budget process. Even Halper describes some of the issues with the budget process and compares position to those of other states:

An outdated tax code, voter-approved initiatives that lock in billions of dollars for programs, inadequate oversight of spending and the lack of a substantial rainy-day fund all add to California’s financial ills. Other states have addressed such issues with impressive results. But attempts at similar changes here routinely fall flat.

These are all important issues, but if you look down the page, then you get to the real issues. One could quibble with putting a possible rainy-day fund above the 2/3 requirement and Prop 13. It’s burying the lede a smidge, but Halper spends some real time pixels/ink discussing the third rail of California politics, Prop 13.

But all the while, Villines insists that the solution is to build a rainy day fund while in the midst of a deluge:

“She [Michele Bachelet, Chile’s President] is a former communist, and she was talking about how you have to have a rainy-day fund to balance ups and downs,” Villines said. “If it is good enough for Chile and a former communist, it should be good enough for California.”

I’m just guessing that Bachelet’s advice didn’t begin and end with the rainy-day fund. As a Socialist and a believer in social programs, Bachelet understands the concept of a diversified tax base. It’s a pity that Villines dwells on the small things, while continuing to hijack the process using undemocratic means.

Comparing California to Virginia, the key difference is that Virginia, under Mark Warner’s leadership and without a 2/3 rule, had the flexibility to revise their tax code. Villines and his crew refuse to allow the same.

Congratulations, California!  It’s July 1, the start of the new fiscal year, and you don’t have a budget, again.  And if Mike Villines is to be believed, you won’t have one for some time:

“We’re doing meetings, but we’re not making a ton of progress,” Villines said on the final day of the 2007-08 fiscal year.

The four legislative leaders are meeting regularly, but “a lot of it is building a rapport.”

I hope they’re playing that “trust” game where one of them falls to the ground and relies on everyone else to catch them, that’s always a good one.  Maybe they could swing a team building trip to Joshua Tree while they’re at it!

According to Villines, those mean old Democrats are just irrationally sticking to raising taxes at a time of budget deficits between $15 and $20 billion dollars!  Don’t they know they could just stop funding public schools and everyone could go home for the summer? (over…)

In part, he blamed Democrats for sticking to a plan to raise taxes – $11 billion in the Senate and $6 billion in the Assembly – for stalling talks. He called such figures “totally unfounded and out of touch with reality.”

“We understand the budget is a compromise. Being in the minority, we understand that,” Villines said. “But we’re having a difficult time getting our counterparts to really change their original premise on the budget, which is, ‘We need taxes. We need to continue spending in government and that’s the budget that we want.'”

“I keep waiting for that to end so we can get to where we are seriously negotiating,” he added. “We haven’t gotten there.”

It’s funny that Villines claims he understands the budget to be a compromise, given that there are literally dozens of members of his caucus who have never voted for a budget in their political careers.

He also said that the Big Four has agreed to flatten out the corrections budget.  Funny, of all the things both sides choose to cut is the one program which is in such a crisis that we’re going to have a trial in November that will almost certainly lead to mass releases.  The failure of leadership on the prisons continues.

I also like Villines trying to make hay out of “Democrats not naming their tax hikes,” seeing that this was exactly the strategy Republicans tried last year, not naming their budget cuts once before eventually agreeing to a deal.  The hypocrisy, it blinds!

We know what the Republicans want to do.  They want to constrain spending so that it grows slower than the economy until it becomes so small they can drown it in the bathtub.  There’s nothing novel about it, it’s pure Norquistian conservatism, the same kind that we’ve seen fail the country during the Bush Administration.  As Dan Walters, believe it or not, said two weeks ago, “California’s voters, first by mandating two-thirds legislative votes on new taxes with Proposition 13 in 1978, and then guaranteeing schools a hefty share of current revenue and any new taxes with Proposition 98 in 1988, may have made it almost impossible to balance revenue and spending.”  They were sold a bill of goods by the Yacht Party’s con men, told they could have their low taxes and eat from the fruit of generous public services too.  Everyone now understands this is a sham, but snake-oil salesmen like Mike Villines are still trudging out to the fields with the bottles of “Dr. Turlingtons Balsam of Life” trying to sell it to the rubes.

And that, my friends, is why there’s no budget on July 1 again.  And this will continue to happen until the Yacht Party is made to pay at the ballot box.  Because the current laws make the state ungovernable, only a 2/3 majority that can reform the rules, so that the party in power can rise or fall on the results of the actions it is allowed to deliver, will ever provide what’s necessary for California to function and survive.

One thing you can usually count on in a hostage crisis is that the hostage takers will eventually start to freak out. And so it is with Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, who let loose on Democrats in an interview with Valleyfornia. (h/t to Josiah Greene at the CMR) Some highlights, beginning with his whining on dams and environmental rules:

That’s a liberal minority of people these environmentalists, who I call whackos, who are totally out of touch with reality (that) are controlling the legislative process.

Right there Villines explains why his party is viewed by even other Republicans as tainted dog meat – in a state that is so strongly environmentalist, California Republicans have deluded themselves into thinking that voters actually think the way Villines and his Rush Limbaugh-fed colleagues do.

Villines then predicted that Republicans would win seats if the redistricting measure passed – showing the “government reform” groups supporting that plan to be useful idiots – because, in his words,

They are totally out of touch with reality. Their main issues are gay marriage, no reservoirs, no taxes. This is not mainstream California. They are out of touch.

Psychologists might call that “projection” but we can just call it the last gasp of a dying party. Unfortunately that dying party has a lot of power with the 2/3 rule and they are using it for all it’s worth. Villines says some progress is being made in negotiations with Speaker Bass and the Senate leadership but these comments ought to suggest they’re locked inside the building for the long haul, until all their demands are met. If innocent Californians are hurt, well, tough – such is the mentality of the hostage taker.

And to think these are the guys George Skelton thinks we oughta listen to…

California has been a very cyclical economy for quite a while now. We experience the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. Today, the University of the Pacific’s Economic Forecasting Center let us know that, yup, we’re in a recession. The PDF of the report is here, but it won’t really shock you. It simply acknowledges what most of us have known for a while: our economy is in trouble. (h/t SacBee)  The report doesn’t really say anything major, it takes their prediction from slow growth to light negative growth.

While we may not be in a catastrophic position at this point, we can only harm ourselves by slashing our investments in the state. But rather than having the government run an organized program, you have cities like Davis independently organizing and fundraising for schools.  Leaders in Davis are organizing a “dollar a day” drive just to keep the schools open and the teachers employed.  All the while, the Republicans fiddle away in their obstinacy. Over at the Flash Report, Asm. Minority Leader Mike Villines writes that over their dead body will taxes be raised.  

One thing is clear: Republicans will not support tax increases on you and your family.  Our priority is helping California live within its means by cutting wasteful government spending.

We don’t believe it makes sense to create new government programs when we can’t afford what we already have.

We are also working to reform our broken budget system so that our state has the tools it needs to avoid severe budget deficits like this one.  Republicans will propose common-sense reforms like a rainy day fund that can only be used in fiscal emergencies or adopting a pre-negotiated list of budget reductions that state leaders can implement during economic downturns to save the state from a budget crisis.

First, these solutions are nothing of the sort. Villines wants to create a rainy day fund?  While it’s pouring outside? Brilliant, I suppose if you’re totally immersed in the water, you don’t notice the additional rainfall.  So, perhaps we need to make good on the the rhetorical threat I implied from his writing: Taxes over the GOP’s dead body. We have the opportunity to hammer the GOP at the ballot box in the legislature in November, but there’s still the Governor hanging around. Sure, he’s willing to nibble around the edges, but unwilling to address the real need to reform our revenue system.

Villines writes that, “The contrast between the Republican and Democrat approach could not be clearer.” He is correct. They stand for firing thousands of teachers, Democrats stand for working to ensure the long-term stability of our education system. They stand for a crumbling infrastructure build around 1950s values, we stand for maintaining our assets and working to provide a long term vision. Republicans stand for social Darwinism without a net. Democrats understand that we cannot continue to think that it’s still “good times” with our revenue and not expect consequences.

Fiddle on Mr. Villines, but don’t expect Californians to pay the price of admission for that performance.

Here's some interesting stuff:

• Hillary's lead is shrinking! Oh my goodness, the newspapers and horse race crowd will have something to cover! Yay, can we hear some more incessant blather about how people are “connecting emotionally” or whatever.  Wouldn't it be nice to hear about policy for once? But, I suppose it's not to be. Anyway, the Field Poll for the presidentials(PDF) came out today. Hillary leads Obama by only 14 these days. However it seems much of this has to do with the famous “momentum” drawn from Iowa. Ah, fun compressed primary schedule. Oh, and if you are a CapitoAlert subscriber (and why wouldn't you be, now that it's free?) you can get the cross tabs.  Interestingly, Clinton's lead is strongest amongst 18-29 year olds.

  By the way, pretty much any Democrat trounces the GOP field in California.

• Even the Wall Street Journal (it's behind a paywall) is talking about the need to raise revenue in California. But, as Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines says oh so frequently, taxes will not be raised on his watch. So, Arnold has another great idea: flush our money down the toilet that are P3s:
  • “Mr. Schwarzenegger and his advisers say the real problem is that the way the state's budget is devised needs to be changed. One suggestion: more public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects to lessen the state's financial load.

    “What we have to do is fix the budget system,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said in a speech Friday in Long Beach. “The system itself needs to be fixed, and I think this is a good year, this coming year, to fix it.””

• Duncan Hunter has lost once again on opening Santa Rosa Island to hunting. The Congressman and Presidential Candidate (haha) tries this pretty much every year, and has not yet found a way to get 'er done.  The Park Service is trying to get rid of the invasive deer and elk, and Hunter wants to let them be hunted by disabled veterans(?). Lois Capps, whose district includes the island, opposes Hunter's persistant attempts every time.
• [update by Julia] Speaking of the presidential race, the Drum Major Institute in partnership with The Nation has a new project caled Mayor TV.  The goal is to try and get the candidates talking about issues facing our major cities.  Here is Mayor Villariagosa's video, and yes he does flack for Hillary at the end.