Everything that is corrosive and broken about California politics can be seen in this incredible article by Kevin Yamamura.  In it, he explains that negotiations on the budget are being held by the Assembly and Senate leadership in secret, so as not to upset the critical balance needed to pass it.

Five Californians are trying to solve the state’s budget crisis, in part by keeping the other 38 million residents in the dark.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders have continued their negotiations behind closed doors for weeks, bypassing open legislative committees and offering the outside world few details as a precondition of their talks.

See, what happens is that the population of 38 million elects 120 representatives to go to Sacramento, and they vest all their power in the hands of four leaders, and they go off to run the state by themselves.  It’s such a brilliant program, not subject to personal ambitions or petty jealousies. Not at all.

Among the people the Big Five are hiding from are their own fellow legislators, and lobbyists:

They fear special interests will mobilize on every proposal they hear about, ramp up pressure on lawmakers and prevent any possibility of reaching a deal that could secure enough votes.

“Whether it’s education or labor or any of the other groups, when we get wind of something that has significant jeopardy for us, we fight against it,” said Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist for hundreds of California school districts. “It’s a (lobbying) system set up to defeat the latest idea that’s been hatched, which makes it that much harder to get a solution.”

When they do reach a deal, legislative leaders intend to hide it as long as they can until a floor vote, for fear that lobbyists may undermine the agreement by persuading key legislators to vote against it.

Wow, there’s an honest lobbyist.

So let’s get this straight: budget negotiations are happening in secret, because if they were even remotely public, special interests would scuttle the deal.  And when an agreement is reached, they’re going to SNEAK IT ONTO THE FLOOR so no wayward lawmaker gets in his silly little head that he wants to read it.

The increased secrecy behind this year’s “Big Five” leadership negotiations has made interest groups nervous and has alarmed open-government proponents.

“The thought that to be able to solve this you have to ram it down members’ throats just to lock something up before a constituency finds it outrageous is evidence of how bad the process has gotten,” said Terry Francke of Californians Aware, an open-government advocacy group.

Yep.  Keep in mind that there has not been one Budget Committee hearing this year.  When a deal is reached, that committee will probably meet in the middle of the night and rubber-stamp the deal, moving to the floor as fast as possible to outflank the special interests who clearly run the state.

The Big Five process is absurd.  There are ways to decrease the influence of special interests, the biggest being full public financing of all elections.  The best practice is NOT to hide from them so that the legislative process is like a team of burglars trying to rob a jewelry store without being detected.  And the less people involved in any negotiation, the more possibility for eventual corruption through backroom dealing.

The entire brief for a Constitutional convention can now be “Read A-1 of the Sac Bee on February 4, 2009.”

Yesterday the California Majority Report reported that Assembly Democrats unfurled a scroll of all their budget cuts that they have adopted over just the past 5 years.

Assemblymember Noreen Evans, Chair of the Budget Committee, along with

Assemblymembers Saldana, De Leon, and Hayashi, unrolled a 150 foot long scroll listing all the budget cuts the Legislature has adopted since the 2003-2004 budget. The scroll stretched from the Capitol Rotunda to the Governor’s Office and displayed over 180 cuts totaling over $19 billion.

I’m pretty sure they didn’t do this because they were proud of the cuts.  They impact the least of society, and make it harder for those who are struggling at precisely the time they need to access basic services.

No, the Assembly Democrats did this in the hopes that bipartisan fetishists like George Skelton and Warren Olney and the Sacramento Bee editorial board and California Forward could maybe tell the truth for once about what is holding up the budget.  As the CBP noted yesterday, California is the only state in the entire nation with a 2/3 requirement for both the budget and tax increases.  The “solutions” they have therefore had to provide for past budget gaps are often gimmicky and simply delay problems into the future.  But the other consequence is that Democrats have OVER AND OVER AGAIN authorized often painful cuts to state services.  This is not a problem of “the legislature” – it’s a problem of one side willing (sometimes too willing) to compromise and the other unwilling to do so, protected by the dysfunctional laws of the state.

With the proposed federal stimulus bringing as much as $21 billion to the state over the next two years, there’s a lot of talk about a budget deal, and given the Feb. 1 deadline for action, that’s positive.  But the only specifics we’ve heard is another set of debilitating cuts, offered by Democrats as well as Republicans.  This is asymmetrical warfare, where Democrats act in the interests of the state and magical thinking Republicans whine and cry.  And nobody helps Californians sort it out.  This budget crisis is a media failure.  The blood is on their hands.  

The LA Times today has a bizarre editorial in support of a proposed initiative that would fire all the legislators and the governor if they do not agree on a budget by the Constitutionally-mandated deadline of June 15:

Brad Morisoli of Livermore has proposed an initiative that provides, among other things, that if the Legislature fails to adopt a budget by midnight on June 15, every elected lawmaker’s term ends. The governor’s too. Right then, right there. See ya. None of those people could hold office again for at least two years. The “Pass Our Budget Act” is not just cranky, it’s kooky. Simplistic. Destructive. Where do we sign?

What this would do is essentially turn California government into a parliamentary democracy, where a government falls and an election is called if a budget is defeated. I’m not entirely opposed to that concept. But this is not a solution to the budget crisis.

Once again the media, in the form of this LA Times editorial, ignores the elephant in the room. The budget crisis is being caused by Republican obstruction alone. Democrats have bent over backward to try and get a budget done. But instead of telling its readers that fact, the state’s largest and most influential paper has this to say about the Legislature:

But no, Democrats, Republicans and the governor are acting like brats on a playground. “They started it!” “Did not!” “Did so!” “We did everything we could.” No, folks, you didn’t.

All those angry and irresponsible ballot measures Californians have adopted over the years have exacerbated the situation, but it’s hard to believe that we deserve the childishness we are getting from the Capitol in this fiscal emergency.

Adopt a budget. Now.

This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve read in a newspaper in quite a long time. Legislators aren’t children – they’re adults engaged in a political process. One side – the Democrats – are willing to piss off their base and cut a bad deal to balance the budget. The other side – Republicans – refuse to do anything, placing Grover Norquist above the economic security of 36 million Californians.

The LA Times editorial is the equivalent of a driver standing over a mechanic screaming “fix it! fix it! fix it! fix it!”

Except in this case, the state’s paper of record could actually help fix it by refusing to mislead its readers about the situation in Sacramento, and tell Californians the truth – Republican obstruction is the only reason California lacks a balanced budget.

The Schwarzenegger Administration unveiled a new budget plan today, calling for more tax hikes and increased borrowing.  One notable omission from the plan was Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.

“We are facing a major crisis, probably the most challenging budget situation the state has ever faced,” said Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s finance director. “The governor believes in acting immediately.”

Schwarzenegger is out of state and vacationing at the family residence in Sun Valley, Idaho.

That’s some amusing juxtaposition from the Sacramento Bee.

On to the proposal, which is little more than just a warmed-over recapitulation of earlier proposals the Governor has made, with some new elements from right out of fantasyland.

That plan called for a temporary increase in the state sales tax, expanding the sales tax to cover some services, a nickel-a-drink alcohol tax, a new tax on oil production and a $12 hike on vehicle registration fees. It also called for $15.4 billion in spending cuts, including requiring state employees to take two-days-a-month unpaid furloughs through June 30, 2010 and give up two paid holidays each year.

The new elements include reducing the dependent care exemption on state income tax returns from the current $309 per dependent to $103; carrying over some of the deficit into the 2010-11 fiscal year; borrowing funds from voter-created programs that service the mentally ill and pre-kindergarten children’s health services; changing the operating rules for the state lottery in an effort to make it more profitable, and borrowing $4.7 billion from the private sector.

If there’s one thing the private sector is desperate to do right now, that’s take it’s carefully guarded cash and give it to the state with the worst bond rating in the country.  They’re really dying to get that done.

The real patterns we see here are familiar to all of Arnold’s budget – a deep lack of concern for the most marginalized elements of society, and a hearty desire to break unions.  Schwarzenegger’s lowest point as a politician as maybe as a person was getting blown out in the 2005 special election.  He still believes the ideas he put forward in that election were sound, and blames unions for his defeat.  Thus you see Arnold going after union members’ livelihoods, insisting on state employee furloughs and generally trying to roll back labor protections that this state has held for decades.

In addition, there’s a recognition that this budget hole is impossible to fill without a magic angel.  The proposal names that angel “private borrowing,” but that’s just not going to happen.  The angel is going to have to be federal relief from a stimulus package.  California reducing its public spending by $10-15 billion at a time when no other entity can pump money into the economy is counter-productive and deeply dangerous to any recovery.  The feds are going to have to make up the gap.

Finally, a new proposal looking at the entire $40 billion dollar deficit suggests that the Governor isn’t interested in going forward with the $18 billion dollar work-around budget which he has been negotiating with Democratic leaders.  That would be a mistake, because of the exponential effect of continuing to do nothing in the immediate term.  Then again, if he were interested in action, the Last Action Hero wouldn’t be in Idaho right about now.

…if you want to go through it yourself, the budget plan is here.

…statements from legislative leaders on the flip.

Steinberg:

If the administration’s point today in putting forward a $41 billion solution is to try to impress upon us the urgency of the situation, it’s not necessary. We feel the urgency of the situation, and that’s why Speaker Bass and I and our staffs have been working diligently throughout the holidays to try to meet the administration halfway or more on their economic stimulus proposals. The fundamental problem, of course, with what the administration laid out today is that they don’t bring a single Republican vote to pass the revenue elements of their proposal.

Bass:

The governor’s proposal released today has one positive message: he may finally be coming around and realizing he needs to approve the responsible package of budget solutions the legislature passed December 18.

That package includes $18 billion in real cuts and new revenues to head off the cash crisis and take a big swipe at the deficit. It includes $3 billion in new funds for transportation projects and $3 billion in expedited projects voters have already approved. That means we’d be creating 367,000 new jobs at a time California needs all the new jobs we can get.

So far, legislative leaders have compromised, but the governor has been holding up these budget solutions and these new jobs. We’ve compromised by easing environmental restrictions for transportation projects. We’ve compromised by expanding public private partnerships. We’ve compromised by putting half a billion dollars in state employee compensation on the table.

The governor’s latest proposal assumes the cuts and revenues from the legislative budget solution package. That’s progress. So let’s get agreement on that package, keep California from going over the financial cliff, and then tackle the next round of hard challenges to find solutions to the rest of the deficit.

There are significant questions about what revenue the lottery can really bring in…there are concerns about whether California can manage the additional borrowing the governor is proposing … and there are problems with cuts that seriously harm the students in our schools.

All those issues can be addressed as we move through the rest of the budget process. Right now the most important step is for the governor to recognize that all his demands aren’t nearly important as the jobs we want created.

I appreciate the governor acknowledging today the necessity of the cuts and revenues the legislature approved and I hope the governor’s first act of the new year will be to sign the responsible package we are putting before him.

Villines:

Republicans believe the Governor took important steps to address California’s growing budget crisis by including budget reform and proposals to streamline government in his latest budget plan. We also join with him in making economic incentives and job creation a top budget priority.

We are also pleased to see the Governor has adopted the Republican’s proposal to let voters choose to redirect billions in existing tax dollars to protect the priorities of working families in these tough budget times. However, Republicans cannot support the Governor’s proposal to impose $14 billion in higher taxes on Californians. We believe this will devastate an economy already in turmoil and will hurt people who are struggling to make ends meet. Before we should even consider raising taxes on people, we need to take action to reduce government overspending starting with the elimination of all automatic increases, and enact an economic recovery plan to grow our economy and create jobs.

We cannot wait until the summer to enact responsible budget solutions for California. When the Legislature comes on Monday, we should vote immediately to pass the over $6 billion in common solutions that were in the special session budget plans put forth by Democrats, Republicans and the Governor. Taking urgent action to pass these reductions can get us through our immediate cash flow crisis. If we also take action now to get Californians back to work and to help stimulate our economy, we will be in a better position to address our state’s budget problem for next year and the years ahead.

(that’s cagey.  “We all agree on $6 billion in cuts, just do them now!”)

Cogdill:

I applaud the Governor for including elements of the Republican budget plan into the proposal released today. During these tough economic times, it makes sense to go back to the voters and ask them to redirect money for their intended purposes, such as children’s health and mental health programs, instead of sitting idly in the bank.

While Republicans have serious concerns about raising taxes during a recession, we appreciate that the Governor’s proposal includes difficult, but necessary reductions to bring state spending closer in line with revenues.

Instead of simply asking taxpayers to send more of their hard-earned money to Sacramento we should focus on economic stimulus. Growing and protecting jobs in California has a direct relationship to a robust state treasury. Stimulating our economy should be the Legislature’s top priority and it is unfortunate that the majority party has blocked these common-sense reforms to get more Californians back to work.

In addition, we need to ensure the state never again faces a deficit of this size by enacting long term structural reforms such as a spending cap and rainy day fund.

Republicans continue to stand ready to be a part of a responsible budget solution. The Governor’s early release of his budget underscores the magnitude of the state’s budget problems and the need for urgent action in addressing this crisis.

Dan Smith reports that we’re nearing a deal on the work-around budget which would cover half of the state’s projected deficit between now and mid-2010.

“The areas of negotiations have significantly narrowed, and on those issues we’re very close,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, talked via videophone to Schwarzenegger, who is vacationing in Idaho. Talks will continue over the weekend, with leaders hoping lawmakers can be called back to Sacramento by the end of next week to approve a final deal.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said Democrats are “moving closer” to the governor’s demands for deeper spending cuts and an economic stimulus package. “But we don’t have any agreements,” McLear said.

We know that the main sticking point issues were: 1) eliminating CEQA for certain infrastructure projects, 2) privatizing a lot of those public works contracts and 3) cutting state worker holidays and overtime.  So the fact that Democrats are “moving closer” to those positions isn’t exactly heartening, although it’s contradicted somewhat later in the piece.

Bass said Democrats are trying to meet the governor’s desire to stimulate private investment in public projects without hurting public employees by shifting their jobs to contractors.

The Democrats believe changes to state employee pay must be hashed out at the bargaining table between unions and the administration. “There’s no question that state workers know that they’re going to be part of the solution as well, but we also think it’s very important to respect their ability to have a say in how that is done,” Steinberg said.

Privatization is simply not the answer, it has no relevance on budget savings (cost overruns exist in the private world, too) and is just a way for Arnold to reward his Chamber of Commerce pals.  

But what’s notable here is that these are meetings between the Governor and the Democratic leadership, and the Republicans have been completely frozen out due to their inability to play nice with others.  The byzantine plan for a majority vote on fee increases and tax shifts is still operative, and if it survives the subsequent legal challenge, suddenly the Yacht Party would be powerless.  The Very Serious pundits have already turned against Yacht Party rhetoric on spending as the source of the problem, and even the most casual observer understands that the 2/3 rule is destroying the state.  There ought to be a formal voting down of 2/3 (even this work-around will be insufficient to approve a new budget in June, which requires a 2/3 vote) but this is a creative solution to a crisis largely created by the rulemaking structure of the body and Republican intransigence (not to mention Arnold’s vehicle license fee slash, the dumbest first act by a Governor in many a year).

The national media is starting to pick up on the developments with the California budget, and their potentially devastating impact on the larger economy.  Bloomberg has an article on the shutdown of infrastructure projects and the impact statewide:

Just $5 million of work is needed to complete a new California Court of Appeals building in Santa Ana. The state may not have the money, and come July judges may be writing opinions in their living rooms.

“I’ve been on the bench for 23 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said David G. Sills, the presiding justice for the Fourth District Court of Appeals, Division Three, in a telephone interview.

California’s worst budget crisis has held up $3.8 billion in spending on public works, possibly including the courthouse adjacent to Santa Ana City Hall. Sills and his seven fellow jurists had planned to move in before the lease on their temporary offices expires June 30.

“Everyone will have to work from home,” said Sills, 70, “and we’ll have to rent a place for when we hear arguments.”

The story ticks off all of the projects lying unfinished – highway improvements, bridge and levee repairs, a hospital at San Quentin, a middle school in South Gate.  The delays are not only a threat to the soaring unemployment rate and the state’s economic future, but public safety.

South of downtown Los Angeles, a delay finishing a school building could put children in danger, said German Cerda, principal of South Gate Middle School. About a third of his 2,900 students are scheduled to move into the new building a half-mile away in 2012, relieving overcrowding inside and making nearby streets safer, he said.

On Dec. 2, a 14-year-old South Gate student was killed when a car stuck him a block away, an accident Cerda attributed to congestion.

“The biggest complaint we get from parents is what happens when the bell rings at 2:42 p.m. each day,” Cerda said. That’s the time that his students are dismissed and 3,000 more are leaving a high school down the street. “They don’t want to see another tragedy.”

Then there are the expected cuts to state Medicaid programs, at precisely the time when more Californians qualify for services.

Among the states with the gravest financial problems — and pressures on Medicaid — is California. In July, Medi-Cal, as the program there is known, slashed by 10 percent the rates it pays hospitals, nursing homes, speech pathologists and other providers of health care. It tried to lower payments to doctors and dentists, too, but they have sued to block the decreases.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has asked the state legislature to approve other cuts, including an end to dental care for adults, about 1 million of whom use it now, and a sharp reduction in care for recent immigrants.

At two hospitals run by NorthBay Healthcare, midway between San Francisco and Sacramento, about one patient in five is on Medi-Cal. The rate cuts translate into a $4 million loss this year. In September, the health system closed a rehabilitation program for children that provided physical therapy, speech therapy and other help to about 300 young patients at a time — with 100 more usually on the waiting list.

“It was heart-wrenching to have to go out and announce,” said Steve Huddleston, NorthBay’s vice president of public affairs.

The Obama campaign is weighing options for both backfilling Medicaid for the states and jump-starting infrastructure spending through cash infusions.  However, the biggest thing the federal government could do right now is what John Chiang describes in a letter to the Obama transition team and California’s congressional delegation – guarantee the financing for infrastructure projects.  The reason they cannot be funded right now is that the market for revenue anticipation notes and bonds is locked.  Though California has never defaulted on these securities, investors are nervous that the careening budget crisis will cause them to do so.  So putting the full faith and credit of the US government behind the notes, which if California does repay its creditors would cost the feds next to nothing, would immediately allow the infrastructure projects to begin again.  That’s the short version – here’s Chiang with the greater plan, including incentives for banks to lend.

This proposal is simple, straight forward and cost effective:

1) Develop a federal guarantee program of limited duration for state and local debt issued to fund new infrastructure construction and renovation. Each state could designate a state commission or agency to disburse the state’s allocation of federal guarantees in accordance with the program guidelines;

2) Allocate these benefits, or guarantees, in the amount of $500 to $1,000 per capita to states. The allocations can be based on unemployment or 2000 census population, with a minimum “baseline” allocation to low-population states; and

3) Furthermore, the proposal would greatly benefit from abolishing the limit on the amount of deductible interest costs for commercial banks related to the purchase of these particular state and local infrastructure bonds during the term of the program. This restriction has been in place since enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

This would mean the restoration of up to 200,000 jobs in California alone, as well as $16 billion in economic activity.  Those are numbers that an incoming Obama Administration cannot afford to lose as they begin implementing a recovery package.

Obviously, the biggest remedy to show confidence to the markets and gets the lending flowing again would be to pass a budget and prove to investors that California is getting its financial house in order.  That is up to the Governor to decide, and 200,000 jobs hang in the balance.

You don’t have to constantly refresh or check your RSS feeds for the next couple days – budget talks have been called off for Christmas.  There is a meeeting between the Big Three tentatively scheduled for Friday.

In my view, just that we’re talking about a Big Three instead of a Big Five is progress, suggesting that the Gov will go along with the work-around budget if he can save face on a few “stimulus” items (like, you know, taking people’s overtime and meal breaks away.  They can eat while working!).  The Governor never appeared in a movie about schizophrenia, but that’s how he’s been acting the past few days, holding press events at key sites where infrastructure improvements are being shuttered (a levee in Sacramento, the 405 Freeway in Karen Bass’ district in LA) blasting the legislature, while at the same time claiming that progress is being made toward a budget solution.

During a press conference along Interstate 405 in Los Angeles, the Republican governor said he and Democratic leaders made “some great progress” Sunday and that it may only take two more meetings of the same sort to reach a compromise this week. Schwarzenegger had been calling for a solution by Christmas, though he acknowledged Monday that a legislative vote would not take place until next week at the earliest.

“It could easily be that before Christmas Eve or Christmas Day that we have an agreement, that the legislators can be brought back between Christmas and New Year’s to vote on it,” Schwarzenegger said.

(UPDATE: Kevin Yamamura reports that the negotiations have come down to three issues: “rollback of environmental review for construction projects, greater use of private investment and contractors, and deeper spending cuts, including those affecting the state work force.”  These have almost no impact on the budget as a whole – you’re talking about cutting two state worker holidays – and are designed only to reward private business interests.  Arnold has always been in the pocket of the Chamber of Commerce.)

You’ll notice that none of these press events are being held in front of any state employee offices.  That’s because, in general terms, people don’t look kindly on mass layoffs and cutbacks right before Christmas.  It gives them the impression that the person making those layoffs is kind of a Scrooge.  Of course, the immediate halt to all public works projects, at a time when we should be encouraging stimulus projects of this type, also have an impact on jobs.  Not only does every contractor working on those projects get fired, but vendors get stiffed for work that they’ve already completed, leaving the state open to lawsuits.  The Governor should kind of be ashamed to stand in front of any backdrop with cancelled projects behind him, considering his epic mismanagement is partly to blame.  This is particularly true when considering that the voter-approved infrastructure work is vital to public safety and the state would undoubtedly be liable in the event of catastrophe.

Communities nationwide have repaired fewer than half of the 122 levees identified by the government almost two years ago as too poorly maintained to be reliable in major floods, according to Army Corps of Engineers data.

State and local governments were given a year to fix levees cited by the corps for “unacceptable” maintenance deficiencies in a February 2007 review that was part of a post-Hurricane Katrina crackdown. Only 45 have had necessary repairs, according to data provided in response to a USA TODAY request. The remaining unrepaired levees are spread across 18 states and Puerto Rico – most in California and Washington.

The Governor is cleverly casting this as a problem of “the legislature” hoping nobody will notice that he performed the veto, he blocked the very plan that could get these projects restarted.

Fortunately, grassroots Californians are noticing, and you can see the contours of a coalition forming, perhaps resembling the 2005 special election coalition only with more staying power.  Groups like Courage Campaign and the local blogosphere have the reach to engaged communities starving for information.  The California Budget Project provides the statistical heft.  Labor and environmental groups have the ear of the legislature.  And there’s a new member of the coalition – former Obama organizers in California who are moving with unusual speed to support a sane budget solution and slam the Governor for his intransigence.  At Schwarzenegger’s 405 Freeway presser, you can hear a small band of protesters in the background noise.  That was organized by Obama volunteers through their new Facebook-like application, CommunityOrganize.com.  Pam Coukos distributed a letter-writing tool urging a budget solution.  California for Obama has done the same in an email blast, asking it to be distributed to the various volunteer teams.  And there is already talk about veterans of the Obama movement running for state and local office.

This is pretty new and early.  But you can see how this network of committed organizers can gradually become a state political force, especially if the coalitions are built and networks made between the groups mentioned above.  I have long said that what is missing in California is a popular grassroots movement that can go around the media filter and whip up support for progressive values through direct action.  It is said that California is too big for such a movement to catch fire, but in political terms, we all know that the state is very small, and a committed movement can make an outsized difference.  This won’t happen overnight, but we’re moving in the right direction.  Now we just need a gubernatorial candidate to ride the grassroots wave…

I appreciate Bob’s sentiment that the time is now to fight the Governor and the Yacht Party and bring some sanity into the fiscal process, but my fear is that the time for that was three years ago, when the successful fight against the special election should have been built upon, and at this point, we’re already swirling in the bowl.

Let’s just get you up to date.  All infrastructure projects are currently shut down.  Unemployment nudged up to 8.4% in November, the state lost 41,700 jobs last month, and up to 200,000 more jobs are on the chopping block from the public works freeze if it continues.  Meanwhile the Governor is ordering up layoffs and furloughs for state workers, so just add those on top of the pile.  You’re likely to see a 10% cut in state employees, and a 10% reduction in the salaries of those who remain.  More job loss means less income tax and probably less sales tax, as well as more need for public assistance.

And that’s before a budget which could have further reductions to state employee paychecks, elimination of overtime and meal breaks, etc., is signed.  Not to mention the billions more in cuts that the Democrats included in their work-around plan which the Governor threatened to veto.  Schools, which were slated for $4 billion in cuts in that budget, have already gotten the jump on the state by cutting back their local budgets.  After-school sports, libraries, and new teachers are probably all going to go.

This is a nightmare beyond the ability of many, even myself, to comprehend.  It’s so big that it’ll affect everything, and the idea that a ragtag band of liberals have the power to stop the freight train from coming down the track is precious, but I think wrong.  This is the accumulation of 30 years of bad policy and worse government structure, and that’s not going to be turned around in the time it needs to be to avoid catastrophe.  Even George Skelton, poohbah of all poohbahs, admits that the Yacht Party is so nakedly ideological that they have made the state dysfunctional.  This work-around budget is good for the time being, but Schwarzenegger is clearly committed to hijacking that process.  It’s a large game of chicken that none of us can afford.  And as I’ve noted, even balancing the budget – which the work-around does not do – will not necessarily restart infrastructure spending, and even federal help might not be able to do that.  

Changing the constitution with a convention is a nice idea, but not so easy in practice, as we all know.

Talk of calling a constitutional convention has been banging around California for at least the last few decades – maybe since 1851, for all I know – and it’s gotten a lot louder recently. Here, however, is the rule for calling a convention:

The Legislature by rollcall vote entered in the journal, two-thirds of the membership of each house concurring, may submit at a general election the question whether to call a convention to revise the Constitution. If the majority vote yes on that question, within 6 months the Legislature shall provide for the convention. Delegates to a constitutional convention shall be voters elected from districts as nearly equal in population as may be practicable.

In plain English: you need a two-thirds vote of the legislature to put an initiative on the ballot and then you have to get it approved by the voters. The problem is that no matter how sweetly liberals might croon about what a convention could do, conservatives all know the truth: the whole point of the thing would be to get rid of our insane two-thirds requirements for passing budgets and raising taxes. Unfortunately, our whole problem is that Republicans control (slightly more than) one-third of the legislature. And if we can’t get them to vote for a tax increase in the first place, what are the odds we could get them to vote for a constitutional convention called for the express purpose of making it easier to increase taxes? About zero.

OK, but how about a simple initiative? We could get rid of the two-thirds rule just by collecting signatures and getting a majority vote, right?

Right. And we tried that just a few years ago. Prop 56 was supported by all the usual good government groups and would have reduced the majority needed to pass budget and tax measure from two-thirds to 55%. A bunch of other fluff was added to make it more popular (“rainy day” funds, no pay for legislators if they don’t pass a budget, etc.), and in the end…..

….it got whomped 66%-34%. No one was fooled for a second. Everyone knew the whole point was to make it easier to raise taxes, and so it lost in a landslide.

I think a similar proposition to 56 wouldn’t crash so hard today, but it would certainly go in as an underdog, because the majority of the state still doesn’t understand the consequences of all this failure.  It’s a “dysfunctional electorate,” as K-Drum puts it, as well as a dysfunctional government.

Do we need to fight?  Yes.  But we need some arms shipments from Washington (metaphorically speaking) before we can do that.  A rescue package for the state is desperately needed, and it got a whole lot more so yesterday when the Governor vetoed the work-around.

So the State Senate pushed through the creative, $18 billion-dollar lawsuit bait of a budget moments ago by a vote of 23-15.  Republican Sen. Mark Wyland abstained and there are only 39 Senators in the chamber, with Mark Ridley-Thomas’ seat currently vacant.  That means there was one Democratic “No” vote.

Thanks, Lou Correa.  

A vote is expected in the Assembly later today, and I don’t think anybody knows whether or not the Governor will sign it.  He asked for a bunch of “economic stimulus” reforms and only a few of them made their way into the final bill.

Nail-biter time.

…OK, these bills are on the Governor’s desk.

Democratic legislators today sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a complex and controversial package of tax increases and program cuts, an $18 billion effort designed to avoid the need for Republican votes that GOP leaders called illegal.

The state Senate and Assembly made their way through the package of bills required for the maneuver, voting along party lines on tax increases while jointly backing other proposals to hasten public works spending. Republicans opposed the tax proposals and accused majority Democrats of breaking the law.

There is some relaxation of environmental legislation in the package.  Now we wait to see if the Governor signs it.

…within minutes, the Yacht Party caucus in the Assembly dashed off a letter to the Governor urging him to veto, calling it “the Democrat’s illegal tax package.”  Every member signed it but one – Paul Cook.  And contrary to my musings that he was in a tough election fight and might want some distance from the crazies, Shane Goldmacher sez he’s out sick.

UPDATE by Robert: Sure enough Arnold says no to the deal. Arnold has the Republicans’ back, never let there be doubt about it. He’s perfectly willing to let the state collapse, even after he got his pound of worker and environmental flesh.