Well, they were right:

Nearly three dozen bills stalled on the Senate floor last month amid a personal clash between the two Senate leaders. Hollingsworth has implied that Steinberg reneged on earlier promises to strip funding from the state’s free tax filing system, Ready Return, and make changes to state sales tax law.

Steinberg denies ever making any promises about those issues to Hollingsworth. And Democrats did not make any changes to Ready Return or the single-sales factor issue this week.

So what changed?

In the end, it was a matter of politics. A bill to give tax credits to homebuyers, sponsored by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, was killed. In its place Wednesay, the identical language was amended into a new bill, SB 3x 37, authored by Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield. (CapitolWeekly 10/15/09)

Of all the things that can bring about compromise, it was the giveaway to the homebuilders.  While I don’t begrudge Anna Caballero her win, whether acknowledged or not, the homebuyers tax credit wasn’t so exciting. Of all the things that got blocked because of Intuit’s temper tantrum, the homebuyer’s tax credit was essentially a big giveaway to big homebuilders at the expense of regular Californians trying to sell their homes.

Here’s the quick story on this bill. Basically, it gives a tax credit in the amount of several thousand dollars for purchasers of new homes. Not homes that are being resold, but of new homes.  That’s all well and good for the home builders, but if you are trying to sell your (old/used) home you are now at a competitive disadvantage to the new homes.

At a time of economic peril, there just seem to be a lot better ways to stimulate the economy. Heck, you could probably drop dollar bills over the state from an airplane and get a better multiplier effect on that money.

One other question for our legislators, do real voters really care about who’s name is on what bill? No, they care about what the legislators did, and how they pushed the issues they cared about.  The legislators can still document their work on the bill and still discuss it on the campaign trail, and few voters are really going to look up who the author was.  Let’s try focusing on something that matters please?

Today’s Salinas Californian reports Anna Caballero has said she “may” enter the race to replace Jeff Denham should he be recalled:

Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, said Thursday that she may jump into the race to replace Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, if he is recalled by voters.

Caballero had indicated she wouldn’t enter the race, but said she’s reconsidering because of calls from Democratic activists in the San Joaquin Valley, part of the sprawling 12th Senate District.

“These are cold calls, from people that I don’t know,” she said.

It would be quite interesting to know who is making these calls. Caballero might well be a strong candidate – before taking her seat in the Assembly she was the Mayor of Salinas, and has a good organizing presence in the Salinas Valley. Of course, most of the district is over in the San Joaquin Valley – hence these calls.

Caballero’s profile is also VERY similar to the other potential candidate, former Assemblyman Simón Salinas:

Caballero joins Monterey County Supervisor Simón Salinas as a possible candidate. Salinas again said Thursday that he is considering whether to enter the contest, which will go before voters at the time of the June 3 primary.

“Frankly, it comes down to (whether) we can get enough resources to get our message out,” Salinas said. “It is such a big geographical area.”

The filing deadline for candidates in the hurry-up election is 5 p.m. Saturday.

As Randy Bayne explained yesterday, Salinas was believed to already be planning a run at Denham’s seat in the 2010 election – which, if successful, would let him stay in the seat until 2018. But if he took Denham’s place through the recall, he’d have to step down in 2014. Caballero, on the other hand, is only in her first term in the Assembly, and could presumably return there in 2014 if she chose.

Again, the filing deadline is Saturday at 5pm, and I’ll bring you updates as I get them.