Sunday, February 5, 2012 – 06:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, February 6, 2012 – 10:55 a.m.

San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Chairman James Ramos must be wanting a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in the worst way.

Since 2010, a whopping $592,000 has been funneled to two Ramos-controlled campaign committees.

By whom you ask?

Indian gambling interests.

An amount making up 82.41% of his total campaign war-chest raised.

For a candidate with many vulnerabilities, this falls into the category of major stupid

Ramos, a democrat, has been trying to distance himself from his title as Tribal chairman, and instead adopt the bait and switch title of businessman, hasn’t figured out that the already received money is now a landmine.

Throwing the Tribe’s money around the community in an effort to raise his profile likely isn’t enough to counteract the negatives.

Supervisor Neil Derry, the republican that Ramos is trying to unseat, has a twelve-point party registration advantage in the conservative Third District.

Ramos likely has a solid thirty-percent of the vote at best.

Sources say Ramos’ own internal polling shows as much.

The attempt at buying the seat combined with not paying various state income and property taxes is problematic.

The more of this type of ammo that Ramos provides Derry makes Ramos’ defeat less and less costly.

Some of the issues at hand already has Ramos’ supporters second guessing themselves.

Here is a more detailed look at Ramos’ casino-related campaign windfall.

.

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE RAMOS, RAMOS FAMILY, AND OTHER TRIBAL MEMBERS
DATE       CONTRIBUTOR                                      AMOUNT
02/10/10   JAMES RAMOS SR.                                  $   5,000
03/01/10   CARLA RODRIGUEZ                                  $   1,500
04/14/10   LYNN VALBUENA                                    $     500
09/22/10   CARLA RODRIGUEZ                                  $   2,500
05/10/11   RAMOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD COMMITTEE          $  50,000
06/13/11   VANESSA RAMOS                                    $   5,000
06/15/11   ROWENA RAMOS                                     $  10,000
06/16/11   JAMES RAMOS                                      $  50,000 (LOAN)
06/19/11   ALAINA MATTHEWS                                  $   5,000
06/19/11   THERESA RAMOS                                    $   5,000
06/22/11   SANDRA MARQUEZ                                   $   6,000
06/28/11   RAMOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD COMMITTEE          $ 150,000
09/06/11   DELORES FIELDS                                   $   1,000
11/14/11   KEN RAMIREZ                                      $  10,000
12/26/11   CARLA RODRIGUEZ                                  $  10,000
12/27/11   JAMES RAMOS                                      $  50,000 (LOAN)
SUB-TOTAL $ 376,500
.
INDIAN TRIBES
DATE       CONTRIBUTOR                                      AMOUNT
02/03/10   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  15,000
02/16/10   SOBOBA INDIAN TRIBE                              $   1,000
02/22/10   SANTA YNEZ INDIAN TRIBE                          $   5,000
03/04/10   ONEIDA INDIAN NATION                             $   5,000
03/19/10   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $   5,000
03/20/10   BARONA INDIAN TRIBE                              $   1,000
03/25/10   SYCUAN BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                   $   1,500
04/14/10   AGUA CALIENTE INDIAN TRIBE                       $     500
05/26/10   SHINGLE SPRINGS BAND OF MIWOK INDIANS            $     500
09/01/10   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $   5,000
09/22/10   ONEIDA INDIAN NATION                             $   5,000
09/27/10   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $   5,000
09/28/10   PALA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                     $   2,500
09/28/10   SANTA YNEZ INDIAN TRIBE                          $   1,000
03/30/11   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  15,000
05/10/11   SANTA YNEZ INDIAN TRIBE                          $  10,000
05/31/11   RINCON BAND OF LUISENO INDIANS                   $  10,000
06/16/11   SYCUAN BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                   $   2,500
06/19/11   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $  10,000
10/03/11   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  10,000
10/25/11   PALA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                     $   5,000
11/15/11   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $  10,000
11/18/11   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  10,000
11/18/11   SOBOBA INDIAN TRIBE                              $   5,000
11/18/11   YOCHA DEHE WINTON NATION                         $   5,000
12/12/11   SYCUAN BAND KUMEYAAY NATION                      $   5,000
12/14/11   AGUA CALIENTE BAND OF CAHUILLA INDIANS           $   2,500
12/14/11   SANTA YNEZ BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  10,000
12/15/11   SAN PASQUAL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS              $     500
12/27/11   29 PALMS BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                 $   1,000
SUB-TOTAL $ 164,500 . OTHER CALIFORNIA CASINOS AND GAMBLING ASSOCIATIONS
DATE       CONTRIBUTOR                                      AMOUNT
10/26/10   CALIFORNIA NATIONS INDIAN GAMING ASSN.           $    1,000
06/16/11   CALIFORNIA COMMERCE CLUB                         $   10,000
06/22/11   CALIFORNIA NATIONS INDIAN GAMING ASSN.           $    5,000
11/14/11   CALIFORNIA COMMERCE CLUB                         $   10,000
11/15/11   HAWAIIAN GARDENS CASINO                          $    5,000
11/18/11   HOLLYWOOD PARK RACETRACK AND CASINO              $    2,500
11/15/11   THE BICYCLE CASINO                               $    5,000
12/15/11   LAKE ELSINORE HOTEL AND CASINO                   $    2,500
12/22/11   CALIFORNIA NATIONS INDIAN GAMING ASSN.           $   10,000
SUB-TOTAL $ 51,000
.
TOTAL $ 592,000
.
Source: San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters

Supervisor Neil Derry left. San Manuel Tribal Chairman James Ramos right.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Published: 05 February 2012 07:09 PM

Fun time is over in the increasingly rough race between San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry and San Manuel tribal Chairman James Ramos for the 3rd District seat.

In a Derry campaign flier that was emailed to 11,000 residents this week, Derry accuses Ramos of links to “gang members … drug dealers … killers for hire.” It goes on to describe him as a “casino boss” and includes pictures of what is suggested to be a gang member, drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Dave Gilliard, a political consultant for Ramos, described the piece as “gutter” politics. “To call it desperate would be charitable,” he said.

Derry defended the flier as accurate and said the public deserves to know the truth about Ramos’ stewardship as chairman. As for the tone of the piece, he said, “I totally expect (Ramos) to go negative.”

The flier refers to a 2008 law enforcement investigation into criminal gang activity, including members of the Mexican Mafia, on the San Manuel reservation. Derry said crime continues to be a problem on the reservation, but Ramos says the reservation is a safe community.

Ramos, however, said he tackled the criminal element when he took over as chairman a few months after the criminal problems came to light. The tribe agreed to allow county sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors access to the reservation, he said, and held the tribe’s members to account in tribal court.

His campaign has cited endorsements from leaders in the law enforcement community, including District Attorney Mike Ramos, who is not related, Assistant Sheriff Bob Fonzi, and the police chiefs of Redlands, Yucaipa and Highland as a sign of his public safety credentials.

Pulaski Phil

When the date of a contentious congressional hearing coincides with the name of a popular movie, the film references come fast and furious.

Last week, several members of the House Oversight Committee couldn’t resist peppering their remarks with witty at least intended as such references to the fact that it was Groundhog Day.

In almost four hours of interrogation by the committee, Attorney General Eric Holder and Democratic lawmakers that jumped to his aid noted that he already had answered questions about the botched Operation Fast and Furious and that Thursday marked the sixth time he’d done so before Congress. Cue the references to the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, however, seemed a little fuzzy on the film. Addressing Holder, the Ohio Democrat suggested the embattled attorney general must feel like the lead character who kept reliving the same day — “Tom Hanks.”

Moments later, Kucinich, who had left the room, returned to correct the record, prompting this exchange with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, the panel’s chairman.

KUCINICH: “So I just want to make sure that you know. I thought that you may have felt like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day,” not Tom Hanks.

ISSA: I thank the gentleman. And for the record, it was 38 days in a row in which that it repeated itself for “Groundhog Day.”

KUCINICH: So we have 32 more of these to go?

ISSA: I hope not.

Endorsement envy

Democrats will gather in San Diego this weekend to consider party endorsements for the June 5 primary.

To read entire story, click here.

Carter

By Jim Sanders and Phillip Reese
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 – 7:10 am

With California billions behind on its budget and public services shrinking, the Assembly collectively tightened its belt last year – but not all of its members did.

Records released under court order show that Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez boosted the budgets of six members by tens of thousands of dollars apiece despite the fiscal emergency.

Member-by-member records lift the curtain, for the first time, on how often Pérez used his authority to add to lawmakers’ budgets, who benefited, and by what amounts.

Most Assembly members stayed within dollar limits set by Pérez; in fact, five legislators returned more than $150,000 apiece that they were authorized to spend, records show. But Assembly Republican Nathan Fletcher and Democrats Wilmer Amina Carter, Julia Brownley, Jim Beall, Sandré Swanson and Anthony Portantino saw their discretionary funding boosted by Pérez in a year when most state agencies were slashing costs.

Nearly every recipient of an augmentation from Pérez was a Democrat. The party’s members control the 80-person house and receive the most coveted posts and largest budgets. Republicans typically receive some aid from their caucus to fund staff.

Any extra money from Pérez went to the members’ committee or leadership coffers, not to their personal office budget of $263,000, making it difficult for the public to track how much was spent on personal aides.

Overall, the newly released records shed light on the extent to which legislators use committee funds for their own purposes: Of more than $17.5 million in committee funding last year, roughly $8.8 million was spent for committee staff and $8.7 million for office or district aides of their chairmen.

Totals are from Assembly data through mid-October and the house’s own projections of its spending through the Nov. 30 end of the legislative year.

Robin Swanson, Pérez’s spokeswoman, said that the Los Angeles Democrat “offsets any necessary augmentations by reducing Assembly spending overall.”

“He expects members of the Assembly to stay within their office budgets and act as conscientious stewards of public funds – and the overwhelming majority of them do,” Swanson said.

Collectively, the Assembly donated about $23 million, more than 15 percent of its $146.7 million budget, to assist other cash-strapped agencies last year.

Pérez sets member-by-member budgets and later weighs changes to them behind closed doors. They are not voted upon. The Assembly fought, unsuccessfully, to keep from releasing those records to the public in a lawsuit filed by The Bee and Los Angeles Times.

Portantino, the lone Democrat to vote last year against the state budget, was the only legislator accused by the speaker’s office of overspending. The La Cañada-Flintridge Democrat denies the claim, saying he was retaliated against for not toeing the party line on the budget.

Boosts to other lawmakers’ budgets were due to workload increases or other extenuating circumstances, Swanson said.

Moderate Republican wins

Fletcher, a moderate San Diego Republican, received a budget boost from Perez of $37,000 last summer, which he used to hire press aide Amy Thoma at $7,084 per month. Thoma previously had helped the lawmaker unveil his candidacy for San Diego mayor. She left the Capitol to join a GOP consulting firm this year and now serves as Fletcher’s deputy campaign manager.

Months after Thoma’s hiring, Fletcher, who often is courted by Democrats on tight budget-related votes, bucked most of his GOP caucus to help pass a controversial plan to raise about $1 billion in corporate taxes, mostly from out-of-state companies, and redirect that money toward tax breaks for California businesses and individuals. The plan later died in the Senate.

Assemblywoman Carter, D-Rialto, received a $50,000 boost from Perez that erased months of projected red ink without having to cut staff.

Beginning early in 2011, projections warned that Carter would be short money to bankroll her 13-person staff, which included a chief of staff making $116,856.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature settled on a hastily revised state budget last June – after Brown had vetoed legislators’ first version – and pronounced it to be balanced and timely.

“My colleagues and I have voted on a responsible budget,” Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, told constituents in a newsletter, adding, “While we have projected additional revenues, we have also identified further tough cuts if these revenues are not realized. We are charged with the responsibility to pass a balanced budget on time. Democratic lawmakers have done so.”

Dickinson wasn’t alone in crowing to constituents about the budget. But it wasn’t on time, nor was it balanced, as Capitol insiders suspected then and we know for certain seven months later.

The quickly revised budget hinged on a sudden, even miraculous, projection by Brown’s bean counters that the state would receive another $4 billion in revenue. But in December, they acknowledged that more than half of the windfall won’t show up, thus triggering some spending cuts, although not enough to offset the missing income.

If anything, the situation has deteriorated.

Last week, Controller John Chiang revealed that revenue is falling $2.6 billion short while spending is running $2.6 billion over budget. It means that this supposedly balanced budget will be somewhere between $4 billion and $5 billion in the red by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

It’s about half of the $9.2 billion deficit that Brown says his new budget will cover – but only if voters agree to temporary increases in sales and income taxes next fall.

To read entire column, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Many years of partisan wrangling over the state budget reached a climax in 2010 when public employee unions and Democratic politicians persuaded voters to pass Proposition 25, eliminating the two-thirds vote for budgets.

It gave the Legislature’s majority Democrats the power to pass budgets without having to garner Republican votes. But that’s not all it did.

Worried that voters might see it as a political power play, the measure’s sponsors added a political sugarplum, one declaring that if legislators didn’t pass a budget by June 15, the constitutional deadline, their salaries would be cut off.

They also included another proviso that extended the simple-majority vote to so-called “trailer bills,” measures supposedly needed to implement the budget.

This column and other critics suggested that the trailer bills could become political Christmas trees – ways for the majority party to bypass procedural rules and jam into law things that had nothing to do with the budget.

Although the Legislature has been in session for just a month, we’ve already seen two cases of how the Democrats are treating Proposition 25.

Last year, they used their newly won authority to pass a budget without Republican votes. When Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it, saying it was unbalanced, Democratic Controller John Chiang cut off legislators’ paychecks, citing Proposition 25.

Brown and legislators quickly cobbled together a new budget on the miraculous assumption that the state would get an extra $4 billion in revenue. Most of the miracle money didn’t show up, and the budget is about $5 billion in the red. The Legislature is now suing Chiang, claiming that he had no authority to enforce Proposition 25.

To read entire column, click here.

Neil Derry left. James Ramos right.

By Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/01/2012 07:16:08 PM PST

Document: James Ramos Flier

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry has launched an assault on the character of his major opponent, San Manuel tribal chairman James Ramos, in a campaign mailer tying Ramos to “gang members,” “drug dealers” and “killers for hire.”

The flier labeled Ramos a “Casino Boss” with ties to the Mexican Mafia. It was found plastered on hundreds of windshields outside Ramos’ campaign headquarters in Redlands on Tuesday night, where Ramos was hosting a campaign kickoff event at his headquarters, said Dave Gilliard, Ramos’ campaign manager.

In a statement Wednesday, Ramos
called Derry’s hit mailer a “false and pathetic attempt to smear me by my opponent and his campaign consultant.”

“I believe that voters want and deserve something better than these types of gutter politics,” Ramos said. He said he would run a positive campaign on real issues and the future of the county, and announced he had secured the endorsement of San Bernardino District Attorney Michael A. Ramos.

Derry stands by the flier. He said it was well sourced and the information is accurate.

“That’s what happened,” Derry said, referring to a case brought to the public’s attention in 2006, when police and DEA agents arrested dozens of people in a methamphetamine distribution ring orchestrated by the Mexican Mafia. Two San Manuel tribal members, siblings Stacy Barajas-Nunes and Erik Barajas, were implicated in a murder conspiracy plot involving members of the Mexican Mafia.

Information revealed in court documents and by former tribal employees showed that the San Manuel reservation had been infiltrated by the Mexican Mafia, whose members were believed to be extorting money from tribal members, who receive monthly stipends of roughly $100,000, generated from casino profits.

In an e-mail Tuesday, Derry’s campaign manager, Christopher Jones, said the Third Supervisorial District is a “conservative, law and order stronghold.”

To read entire story, click here.

BY JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 07:12 PM

SACRAMENTO — The major parties’ share of the Inland Southern California electorate dipped in 2011, new state figures show, with a significant increase in the percentage of voters who lack a party affiliation.

In February 2011, Riverside County was 41.6 percent Republican, 36.4 percent Democrat, and 17.3 percent decline-to-state. San Bernardino County was 38.4 percent Republican, 39 percent Democrat, and 18 percent decline-to-state.

As of Jan. 3, Riverside County was 40.9 percent Republican, 36.2 percent Democrat, and 18 percent decline-to-state. San Bernardino County was 37.2 percent Republican, 38.8 percent Democrat, and 19 percent decline-to-state, according to Tuesday’s registration report from the secretary of state’s office.

To read entire story, click here.

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 05:44 PM

Candidates for contested Inland House seats raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash at the end of 2011 as they jockeyed for position heading into the current election year.

Democrat Mark Takano jumped ahead of Republican John Tavaglione in the race for the Riverside-area’s open congressional district, according to newly filed campaign finance reports covering October, November and December.

Incumbent Reps. Mary Bono Mack, running for re-election in eastern Riverside County, and Joe Baca, in San Bernardino County’s west end, extended fundraising leads over their opponents.

Seven-term veteran Rep. Gary Miller has a $1 million head start as he prepares to take on a host of candidates hoping to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Lewis.

Fourth-quarter fundraising

Though Election Day is still nine months off, the reports filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission are seen as important indicators of candidates’ viability. Later in the cycle, campaign dollars are essential to buy advertising and hold events. But early fundraising is used to build momentum, said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report.

“Right now, it’s about establishing credibility, which will then help earn fundraising, help … get media coverage, get the national party’s attention,” Rothenberg said.

41st DISTRICT

With no incumbent in the mix, the race for the Riverside area’s new 41st Congressional District is expected to be among the most contentious in the region. Takano is a member of the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees, and Tavaglione is a Riverside County supervisor.

Before the current round of campaign finance reports, they had taken in about $160,000 apiece.

Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, Takano collected $125,472, and Tavaglione raised $87,345, the reports show.

“We feel confident that our strong fundraising support will continue and that we will have the resources necessary to win this election in November,” Takano said in a statement.

Tavaglione campaign consultant Jim Nygren, however, downplayed the significance.

“Supervisor Tavaglione’s far superior record of service in the district, vastly superior endorsements and far superior name ID will more than overcome Takano’s temporary fundraising lead,” Nygren said.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Gov. Jerry Brown is scaling back the state’s highly controversial bullet train project to keep it alive.

Just three months ago, his administration unveiled – with great fanfare – a revised “business plan” for building the north-south bullet train system to answer the embryonic project’s many critics.

The project would be slowed down and stretched out timewise with a new and supposedly more realistic cost structure, officials declared. It would be, California High-Speed Rail Authority chairman Tom Umberg said at the unveiling, “a new time, a new day and a new beginning.”

But the revised cost, about $100 billion or three times the original estimate, shocked many and raised questions about whether the state, which had only $9.95 billion in bond funds available, could raise the remainder from the federal government and private (or foreign government) investors.

The CHSRA’s own “peer review” committee issued a scathing analysis, saying that to begin construction without firm financing would be very risky, and the state auditor’s office echoed those sentiments.

Statewide polling indicated that Californians had turned against the project, and legislators whose votes were needed to appropriate construction balked.

Brown vigorously defended the project, adopting it as a symbol of California’s transformation to a green economy. But Umberg stepped down so that Brown could appoint his own chairman, longtime adviser Dan Richard, who had helped rewrite the business plan. And the operating head of the agency, Roelof van Ark, who had alienated some legislators, departed.

To read entire story, click here.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 – 12:30 p.m.

It’s only February and the first serious blow has been leveled in the race to represent San Bernardino County’s Third Supervisorial District.

Here is a just-released literature from the Supervisor Neil Derry re-election campaign: Ramos Casino-Boss

The first question coming to mind?

What was James Ramos thinking?

Ramos, the current millionaire chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, is seeking to oust incumbent Derry.

Today’s first salvo is a prime example as to why Ramos can outspend Derry five times over and it won’t do him any good.

Now recent reports of Ramos’ own supporters questioning his viability make even more sense.

The instant campaign hit piece only deals with Mexican Mafia infiltration of the San Manuel Reservation.

Just some of the other looming issues for Ramos include;

• Not paying taxes
• Body-guard escorts
• Conflicts of interest between the county and Tribal government
• His failed businesses
• His real opposition to proposed Barstow casino competition
• His immunity from county laws and regulations
• Being a life-long democrat in a highly conservative district.

Not to mention, that in his few recent public appearances, Ramos hasn’t displayed any cognitive grasp of county government issues.

Unless talking strictly about education and singing bird songs is the main prerequisite for sitting on the board.

Maybe at some point Ramos will figure out that trying to buy the race with his Tribe’s money is a non-starter.

Don’t get us wrong. All the recipients will gladly accept the dough and say thank you.

But that’s it.

Why? Because all the people involved can see it for what it is.

Pandering.

The politicians, who jumped to endorse Ramos, have to be wondering right about now.

At least this contest will be entertaining.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, second from left, earned a aisle seat to greet President Barack Obama before the State of the Union speech./AP

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Published: 29 January 2012 06:51 PM

They don’t call him “Working Joe” for nothing.

For at least the fourth consecutive year, U.S. Rep. Joe Baca outmaneuvered a host of his Democratic colleagues and worked himself into a coveted center aisle seat at last week’s State of the Union address. Baca, who was already in position several hours before the speech, again nabbed a primo spot and fought through the scrum of lawmakers to greet President Barack Obama on his way to the podium.

In years past, Baca has used the exchange to invite Obama to a round of golf or to shoot some hoops. But this year, the Rialto Democrat extended a book for the president to sign, which he did without hesitation.

The book: “All Labor Has Dignity,” from historian Michael K. Honey.

It’s a compilation of speeches given by Martin Luther King Jr. on the subject of economic justice and labor rights, presented as a reminder that the civil rights hero fought for economic rights for all people.

As it turned out, economic equality was the central thrust of Obama’s speech, in which he called upon the wealthy to pay a greater share of taxes. And just as King decried federal spending on the war in Vietnam while American cities struggled with blight and decay, Obama proposed putting half of the savings from ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward rebuilding the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges.

“It parallels the book,” Baca said, arguing that King’s words resonate more than ever amid the current economic turmoil.

Emotional honor

A day after emerging to rousing cheers at Tuesday’s speech, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., formally resigned her seat in Congress to continue her recovery from the wounds she suffered after being shot last year.

The occasion drew more than a few tears from those on both sides of the aisle, who honored her service on the House floor. Ahead of the ceremony, Giffords asked a handful of lawmakers to be at her side.

Among them was Inland Rep. Mary Bono Mack, who developed a friendship with Giffords over the years, though they hail from opposing parties.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

When a political party achieves dominance of any government, one expects that it would use its hegemony to enact its public policy agenda.

That’s the way democracy is supposed to work.

Using dominance to change the political system with the aim of perpetuating control is another matter. It fixes the game and undermines democracy.

The most obvious example is redrawing legislative and congressional districts to ensure that particular parties or politicians will win subsequent elections, a practice called gerry- mandering that was common in California until voters created an independent redistricting commission.

Gerrymandering, however, is not the only way dominant politicians attempt to predetermine election outcomes.

Commonly, for example, the Legislature places measures on the ballot and dictates the precise ways they are described – words that often shade the truth about the measures’ true effects to persuade voters to vote for something they might not otherwise enact.

That’s fixing the game.

Last year, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and a Legislature controlled by his party decreed that all initiative and referendum ballot measures appear on the November ballot, rather than both the November and the June primary elections, the practice for the last four decades.

Why? Everyone knows that it was to diminish chances that voters would pass a so-called “paycheck protection” measure that would eat into unions’ ability to gather campaign funds from public employees – money that almost always goes to Democrats.

To read entire column, click here.

Norma Torres

Assemblywoman Norma J. Torres
Created: 01/28/2012 06:06:11 AM PST

The state Supreme Court’s ruling which eliminated redevelopment agencies has created uncertainty for cities and counties engaged in redevelopment activities. Redevelopment has been used as a tool by many cities and counties to successfully revitalize communities. The court’s decision throws into question how cities and counties will pay for infrastructure, housing and retail projects in blighted communities.

Although I was not surprised by the court’s decision, I was disappointed. I voted for a two-part solution to offset the state’s budget gap while continuing redevelopment on a smaller, voluntary basis. Without the voluntary program communities will no longer have the tools redevelopment agencies offered for affordable housing production and economic development.

It seems counterintuitive in this down real estate market that there is a lack of affordable housing, but many people still pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing, which is the standard test of affordability. Incomes are down, unemployment is high, and what might have seemed like an affordable rent a few years ago does not anymore.

At the same time, two key sources of funding for affordable housing that have supported construction in the past are gone: voter-approved state bonds and redevelopment agencies’ Low-and Moderate-Income Housing Funds. Redevelopment produced close to $1 billion for affordable housing each year and a 2006 voter-approved bond contained $2.85 billion to support construction of affordable housing units. These sources of funding are gone and California needs multiple, real, and sustainable sources of funding for affordable housing to replace them.

For several years affordable housing advocates, legislators and others have discussed the need for a state-funded permanent source for affordable housing, the Holy Grail of affordable housing finance. We need a dedicated source of money that does not rely upon the health of the state general fund or voter-approval every four years to fund the pipeline of affordable housing projects.

To read entire column, click here.

By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

A California Supreme Court ruling Friday significantly raised Democratic Party prospects of gaining the supermajority needed in the state Senate to pass tax or fee increases.

The high court decided that Senate maps drawn recently by a 14-member citizens commission will be used for this year’s legislative elections, even if a pending referendum qualifies for the ballot.

The decision brought certainty for dozens of prospective Senate candidates awaiting final adoption of the maps as they begin their campaigns. And it offered the commission at least temporary validation that it performed its job as the voters intended.

Political analysts of both parties agree that the commission-drawn lines give Democrats a good chance of capturing the two seats necessary to give them a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate by December.

California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro told The Bee this week that retention of the new lines would make it “enormously difficult” to keep Democrats from a Senate supermajority.

“The political winds have been blowing against them in recent years, and unfavorable district lines make their position even worse,” said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College.

Tax increases and passage of some other items would require a two-thirds vote in the Assembly, too, and Democrats are not as confident about achieving that this year. Still, a supermajority in the upper house would significantly increase Democrats’ leverage in the Legislature.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he is not “taking a victory lap” over Friday’s ruling but that California would be better off if budget deficits could be eased by revenue increases as well as cost cutting.

“We’re going to strive very hard to gain the support of the people of the state of California – and when we do, we expect them to hold us accountable,” Steinberg said.

Republican Sens. Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo and Tony Strickland of Moorpark are targeted as the most vulnerable GOP incumbents under the new maps. Blakeslee is not expected to seek re-election and Strickland is eyeing a congressional seat.

Twenty of the Senate’s 40 seats are up for grabs this year.

The Supreme Court’s 73-page ruling concluded that maps drawn by the citizens commission were the most appropriate and least disruptive for use in this year’s legislative elections.

The issue came before the high court after a Republican-backed group, Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting, filed more than 711,000 signatures with county elections offices in a referendum to overturn the new Senate maps.

County elections officials face a Feb. 24 deadline for certifying FAIR’s referendum signatures.

To read entire story, click here.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
January 26, 2012 | 8:12 pm

Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday urged 1,500 Los Angeles political and business leaders to back his proposal for higher taxes and implored them to pressure lawmakers in Sacramento to overhaul the state’s pension system this year.

“This is a call to action” Brown told the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “We can’t sit around and wait.”

Just like his recent trips to Irvine and San Diego, Brown’s Chamber of Commerce visit was aimed at building business support for his initiative to raise levies on sales and upper incomes for the next five years.

Last week’s swing included visits to the Orange County Business Council and San Diego City Club, where Brown also implored business leaders to get behind his initiative. As he reaches out, the governor is tailoring his sales pitch with business-friendly talking points, including a reprise of his call to overhaul the state’s pension system.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Last Tuesday, the Public Policy Institute of California issued a new poll that found, among other things, just 17 percent of the state’s voters like the Legislature’s performance.

Simultaneously, the Legislature’s top leaders provided another reason for Californians to harbor such scorn.

Assembly Speaker John Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced that they would spend untold amounts of taxpayers’ money on high-priced lawyers to sue state Controller John Chiang over his decision to withhold legislators’ paychecks last year after they failed to enact a balanced budget.

Chiang was merely enforcing a new provision of the state constitution that voters enacted in 2010 – a change of budget law that the Democratic legislative leaders themselves had championed, along with their allies in public employee unions.

Proposition 25′s chief purpose was to eliminate the two-thirds legislative vote requirement on budgets, thereby allowing Democrats to pass budgets without Republicans. Concerned that voters would see that as a naked power grab, the measure’s sponsors included a sweetener: legislators’ pay would be docked if they didn’t balance the budget by June 15.

It was a campaign gimmick, and the measure’s sponsors never thought that it would actually be applied. After all, they assumed, the Legislature could pass some kind of budget by June 15 and pronounce it balanced to technically comply.

That’s exactly what the Legislature did, but Gov. Jerry Brown then vetoed the plan, declaring it unbalanced, and Chiang invoked Proposition 25 to cut off legislators’ pay.

The howling from the Capitol’s occupants was tellingly self-serving. How dare Chiang take the measure seriously, they complained; isn’t he a loyal Democrat?

To read entire column, click here.

Most of his appointments in the first year went to people who live in Northern California, but 20 Inland residents got posts

BY JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 25 January 2012 09:45 PM

SACRAMENTO — As Gov. Jerry Brown put his stamp on California government in the past year, his appointments leaned heavily toward the state’s less-populated northern half.

Since taking office in January 2011, Brown had made almost 580 appointments to administration jobs and state boards and commissions through last week. Of those, two-thirds listed residences in 10 Northern California counties, with a third, 194, from Sacramento County alone. Almost 70 percent are Democrats.

Fast-growing Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with a combined population of more than 4million, are home to 20 gubernatorial appointees so far. That includes several appointees to regional boards, which must be filled by residents of a particular geographic area.

Appointees give an area a voice in the state bureaucracy and can help shape policies on everything from medical licensing to fire-prevention fees on structures in rural areas. In the case of some high-profile boards, such as the California Transportation Commission or UC’s Board of Regents, getting a local appointed becomes a priority for some civic and political leaders.

Some officials point to a low number of applicants as part of the reason for the handful of Brown appointments from the Inland area. In addition, gubernatorial appointments traditionally have a political aspect. The Inland region leans Republican, and its legislative delegation is dominated by conservative GOP lawmakers.

“I wish there were more” appointees from the region, said Riverside City Fire Captain Tim Strack, who was named to the Seismic Safety Commission last summer by Brown. The background checks, interviews and other steps went on for months, he said. “It wasn’t a short process.”

State Sen. Bill Emmerson, who leads the Inland Southern California legislative caucus, said he has vouched for a few local residents seeking an appointment or reappointment by Brown.

Emmerson, R-Hemet, said he also senses that relatively few Inland residents are putting their names forward.

“I don’t know what that means,” Emmerson said. “I would certainly like more individuals to get more involved in the appointment process.”

Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said the governor is committed to appointing the most qualified and experienced people, and geographic diversity is a goal.

Westrup downplayed the apparent Northern California bent to the governor’s appointments. He said appointees’ residence is self-reported, and that some appointees who listed a Northern California residence could have roots in Southern California.

In addition, Westrup said it sometimes is hard to convince someone to take a full-time job with the state.

“We speak to incredibly qualified candidates in every corner of the state. But getting them to uproot their families, move hundreds of miles, take a pay cut in many cases, and move to Sacramento is not always possible,” Westrup said.

People who are interested in appointments can apply on the governor’s website, www.gov.ca.gov.

NORTH VS. SOUTH

Governors have about 3,000 slots they can fill. Political supporters, campaign staff and donors are traditional sources of appointees. Appointments also follow the recommendations of various business associations, unions and other interest groups.

Local civic leaders weigh in, as well. In the 1990s, then-Gov. Pete Wilson opened regional offices in Riverside and other cities that, in part, were supposed to help identify and recruit potential appointees and bring them to the attention of higher-ups in Sacramento. Brown closed those offices to save money.

It’s unclear who performs that role now. Strack and some other Brown appointees in the Inland area have strong ties to organized labor, which backed Brown in the 2010 campaign.

To read entire story, click here.

Details of the president’s annual speech to Congress came under harsh fire from members of the Inland region’s Republican delegation./AP

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 24 January 2012 09:18 PM

WASHINGTON — The central initiatives laid out in President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night seem tailored to address Inland Southern California’s largest problems: unemployment and the home foreclosure crisis.

Yet the details of his plan raised concerns from some area officials and came under harsh fire from members of the region’s predominantly Republican congressional delegation, signaling a contentious election year in Washington and a tough road ahead for the president’s agenda.

Rep. Ken Calvert described the speech as overtly political — more focused on his re-election campaign and bashing Republicans than policy measures that have a chance of passing the divided Congress.

“The guy can’t run on his record, so he’s got to run against us,” Calvert, R-Corona, said after the speech.

The region’s sole Democratic House member, Rep. Joe Baca, disputed the notion that the address was designed as a campaign speech, and lauded Obama for tackling issues that hit close to home for Inland residents.

“This is not about politics,” said Baca, D-Rialto. “It’s about what’s right for our country.”

The adversarial tone in the U.S. Capitol stood in stark contrast to last year’s address, which closely followed the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and was colored by calls for decorum and bipartisanship.

“It sure felt like there was a lot less enthusiasm,” said Rep. Mary Bono Mack, who was among several lawmakers who sat with members of the opposing party this year.

JOBS, HOUSING, ENERGY

Obama’s proposals to boost the nation’s workforce come as the Inland area struggles with a 12.2 percent unemployment rate, nearly four points higher than the national average.

But his plan to give tax incentives to firms that bring overseas jobs to the U.S., and use disincentives such as a new global minimum tax for multinational companies, to discourage outsourcing, is the wrong tactic, said Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs.

Bono Mack, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Commerce and Trade, said incentives for companies who in-source workers would ignore “home-grown” firms that never outsourced in the first place.

Obama, she said, “clearly doesn’t understand job creation and what it will take to bring the manufacturing industry back.”

To read entire story, click here.

California State Controller John Chiang

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
January 24, 2012 | 1:51 pm

Democratic lawmakers sued state Controller John Chiang on Tuesday seeking limits on the controller’s right to withhold lawmakers’ pay during a budget stalemate.

Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said in a joint statement Tuesday that the action is necessary to “clarify the constitutional role of the California state controller,’’ who withheld pay from lawmakers last year after determining they had not approved a balanced budget on time.

Under a law passed by voters in 2010, the controller has the right to dock lawmakers’ pay if a budget is not passed by the June 15 constitutional deadline. Last year, Democratic legislators approved a spending plan before the required date (no Republicans voted for it), but Chiang decided to withhold legislators’ paychecks anyway, arguing that the budget they passed was nearly $2 billion out of balance.

Democrats accused the controller of engaging in an illegal power grab, saying he had no authority to withhold their pay -– about $400 for each day after June 15 without a budget in place.

To read entire story, click here.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi needs a gain of 25 House seats.

Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Washington — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is predicting that Democrats will recapture the House in November, a move that could open the possibility of the San Francisco Democrat regaining the speakership and becoming the first politician to return to that office after a defeat since Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn in 1955.

Pelosi, 71, needs a net gain of 25 Democrats nationwide, a goal she calls her “Drive for 25.” She has predicted gains as large as 35, produced in part by a Democratic romp through California, where the redrawing of legislative districts by a nonpartisan citizens commission promises the biggest shakeup in the state’s congressional delegation in two decades, along with gains in Texas, New York, Illinois and Florida.

Independent analysts said Pelosi is dreaming. Unless, that is, the Republican presidential nominee, whoever it is, implodes.

A disaster at the top of the GOP ticket, analysts said, would hand President Obama down-ballot coattails he doesn’t appear to have at the moment. With the GOP primaries turning into a blood feud between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the possibility is becoming more tantalizing for Democrats.

“What Democrats really need is a poisonous, damaged Republican nominee who not only loses to Obama but causes harm down the ticket,” wrote Kyle Kondik, editor at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

As of now, Democrats stand to gain five to 12 seats, well short of the 25 they need to make Pelosi speaker again, said Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter.

“Democrats are most likely going to gain seats, just not the net gain of 25 they need to take the majority,” Gonzales said. “I don’t think we can rule it out, but it’s not the most probable scenario right now.”

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics, called Pelosi’s talk of gaining 35 seats “optimistic even for an optimist.” The only way that could happen, he said, would be for Obama to win as convincingly as he did in 2008.

Since then, Obama has been rebuked by a GOP landslide in the 2010 midterms, where Republicans netted 63 seats, a record since 1938.
Political radioactivity

Pelosi, the nation’s first female speaker and the nation’s highest-ranking female politician ever, was toppled after just two terms as speaker. Vilified by Republicans as a San Francisco liberal, Pelosi became a symbol of Democratic excess and is radioactive in marginal Democratic districts.

Surprising the Washington establishment by staying on after that defeat to lead Democrats in the minority, Pelosi has remained on the national stage but with sharply reduced visibility. This year’s focus will be on the presidential race, not Congress, and certainly not minority congressional leaders.

But if Democrats win a majority, analysts see no reason Pelosi should not lead the House again.

To read entire story, click here.

Looming retirements, especially of the Inland area’s Rep. Jerry Lewis, could leave the region without political heft for years

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 22 January 2012 08:39 PM

WASHINGTON — When Inland Rep. Jerry Lewis leaves office at the end of the year, he’ll take with him one attribute that none of his potential successors can promise to replicate: seniority.

With 33 years in Congress under his belt, Lewis, R-Redlands, is the longest-serving California House Republican in the institution’s history. And while his unparalleled acumen in steering funds to the region has been blunted by a ban on congressional earmarks, Lewis’ remains an influential member of the committee that controls federal spending.

Reps. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, and Wally Herger, R-Chico, who have served 13 terms apiece, also are stepping down. If 16-term Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, joins them in retirement, as has been widely rumored, California’s House delegation will lose almost a century — 98 years — of combined experience in an institution where seniority often equals power.

On the Democratic side, 10-term Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and five-term Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, are retiring and 10-term Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, is quitting to run for mayor there.

The departures likely will lessen the clout that the Inland area and California wield in Washington, experts and lawmakers said.

“There’s always a potential problem when you lose that much seniority,” said Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College politics professor who served on Lewis’ staff in the 1980s.

Congress always has given great weight to seniority. The chairmanships of the committees that oversee each sector of the federal government almost always go to the longest-serving member who hails from the majority party, while the most senior member of the minority party usually becomes the “ranking member.”

Chairmen and ranking members control the hiring and firing of staffers that help shape legislation. They also decide the make-up of subcommittees that fall within the full committee’s jurisdiction. Chairmen set the committee’s agendas, deciding which issues to take up, what hearings to hold and which bills their panel will consider.

When a committee approves a bill and sends it to the House floor, it is the chairmen and ranking members who decide who may debate its passage and for how many minutes they may speak.

POSITIONS OF POWER

Lewis’ influence as a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee has been well documented.

As a chairman of multiple subcommittees and, for six years, the panel’s top Republican, Lewis had a hand in each of the 13 bills that control spending on federal programs. From that position, he used earmarks — spending directives lawmakers slip into the spending bills — to guide hundreds of millions of dollars to projects in and around Inland Southern California.

Lewis often came under fire for the largesse he steered to the region. But he argued that it was his obligation to look out for a state that sends more money to Washington in taxes than it gets back in federal funding, and to ensure that that funding doesn’t all get swallowed up by powerful interests in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Upon regaining control of the House last year, Republicans imposed a moratorium on earmarking. They also took his mantle as top Republican appropriator, citing a term-limit rule. Still, as “chairman emeritus,” Lewis remains second-in-command on five of the panel’s subcommittees and remains heavily involved with committee business.

The halt of earmarks clearly diminishes his ability to direct money to specific projects in his home district. But he continues to influence spending decisions.

That was apparent last year when he, with help from Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, persuaded his colleagues to reinstate more than $200 million in funding that was stripped from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. Popular among many California officials, the program gives partial reimbursements to states for the costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants. Lewis is also a vocal advocate for funding for medical research and flood control projects, two areas in which the Inland area has traditionally sought and received federal dollars.

With Lewis gone, California’s voice on such issues will be softened.

To read entire story, click here.

Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley/The Press-Enterprise

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Published: 22 January 2012 07:52 PM

Workin’ It

When Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. visited Riverside last week, a lot of the discussion was about the jobs created by goods movement and related construction projects such as the Magnolia Avenue underpass.

Add Laurence Parker to the job-creation list. Parker, waving an American flag and dressed as the Statue of Liberty, crashed Boxer’s presser to get a little attention for Liberty Tax Service, which has an office on Magnolia just north of the underpass. Usually he just stands in front of the office to draw the attention of drivers, much like a sign-spinner.

Seeing a good thing, he ventured down to where television cameras had gathered. He receives a bonus, he said, if he gets some attention for the business. And it helps him keep his job as the face of the franchise.

Parker drew a shout-out from the senator, who came to town to tout federal funding for local overpass projects.

“While Lady Liberty is waving the flag, let me say this: We don’t have our liberty and freedom while we are stuck in traffic,” Boxer said.

Getting back to work

A little spinal fusion isn’t going to keep Assemblyman Paul Cook from missing out on legislative business or a competitive congressional race.

Cook, R-Yucca Valley, went under the knife Dec. 3 and had his spinal column fused in three places. The surgery was the second major operation on Cook’s back, which was peppered with shrapnel when the former Marine was wounded in Vietnam.

Cook, however, was in the Assembly when it reconvened Jan. 4, standing out in a large brace and neck collar. On Jan. 12, he announced he was running for the 8th Congressional District, which stretches from Yucaipa to beyond Mono Lake.

“I look like a goofball with the collar on. People kid me that I’m doing it so I don’t have to wear a tie,” Cook said.

His recuperation is going smoothly, Cook added, and he hopes to lose the brace soon. “I’m certainly not doing push-ups. You’ve just got to be patient,” he said.

Cook said he has been cleared for the coming campaign in a field that includes several other Republicans, including San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt.

“If the surgery had gone south, I wasn’t going to run for anything,” Cook said.

Momentum seen

To read entire column, click here.

Neil Nisperos and Benjamin Demers, Staff Writers
Created: 01/22/2012 06:22:41 PM PST

For two Rancho Cucamonga businessmen, the road to victory on Election Day in November got a tad easier in the wake of Rep. Jerry Lewis’ retirement earlier this month.

But before being able to represent the newly drawn 40th Assembly District, Republican Mike Morrell and Democrat Russ Warner will have to get past each other.

Morrell may have a tad more name recognition as the assemblyman represents the 63rd District after being elected in November 2010. He has offices in Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino and Redlands.

Warner though will be able to lean on his party holding a slight edge – 40 percent to 38 percent edge – over Republicans among registered voters in the 40th District, which extends from Rancho Cucamonga to part of the High Desert through San Bernardino and into Redlands.

“I look forward to a spirited campaign in 2012 between myself and incumbent Mike Morrell,” Warner said.

That Morrell and Warner will face off against each other is likely being greeted with a sense of relief by the candidates as well as their supporters.

Until Lewis, R-Redlands, retired Jan. 12, Morrell was expected to have his hands full against former state Senate GOP Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, in order to be elected to represent the 40th District.

Dutton, who has been a state lawmaker since 2002, decided last week that he would instead run for the 31st Congressional District.

“I think (we) were both relieved,” Morrell said about himself and Dutton. “A lot of people liked us both. I think the relief goes up and down the line.”

About a week ago, Warner decided to not run for the 31st District seat and set his sights on the 40th.

Warner would have faced an uphill battle in the 31st as several Democrats – Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, nonprofit founder Renea Wickman, educator Rita Ramirez-Dean and Justin Kim, a lawyer from Loma Linda – have expressed interest in running for the seat.

Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, also recently entered the fray in the 31st.

Warner said representatives from the state Democratic Party look at him as someone who will be able to work with Democrats as well as Republicans in Sacramento and do what’s best for California.

“Although Bob Dutton and I seldom agree on much politically, I recognize the senator’s ability to reach across party lines in the state Legislature and work beyond a rigid and extreme ideological agenda,” Warner said.

Warner’s platform on his campaign Website seems to indicate his willingness to be open to opinions not always echoed by his party. For example, he criticizes reckless spending by lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

To read entire story, click here.

Sacramento –Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to finally fix California’s finances relies on several dubious assumptions, including that voters approve his proposal to raise taxes in November and that the revenue from those come in at the level the administration projects.

But even if those assumptions prove true, the governor faces perhaps an even greater challenge: winning support from his fellow Democrats to pay off billions in debt accumulated through years of budget balancing gimmicks.

Brown has put a big target on what he has deemed “the wall of debt,” which amounts to $33.5 billion from skipped payments, internal loans and traditional borrowing used to balance the budget since 1985 with the bulk of that debt accumulated in the past decade, according to the Department of Finance.

The practices are the quintessential smoke-and-mirrors, kick-the-can-down-the-road tactics that have become staples of budgets and of public disdain in California. Under Brown’s budget plan, the state would take aggressive action, paying all of that debt back by 2016.

Doing so would mean forgoing immediate restoration of funding for social services, public health and other programs that lawmakers have slashed since the economy tanked in 2008. In this next budget year, the governor proposes repaying almost $6.9 billion of the debt even as he proposes cutting almost $1 billion from the state’s welfare program.

Democratic lawmakers, who hold large majorities in both houses of the Legislature, already are pushing back.
The budget ‘cliff’

Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, is chairwoman of the Assembly budget subcommittee overseeing funding for health and human services and said she understands the need to pay off debt.

“But that same commitment (the governor) has to the wall of debt I have to not creating a cliff that poor women and children are going to fall off of,” Mitchell said. “He has created a cliff in this budget.”

At a Senate budget hearing last week, the first legislative hearing on the governor’s budget proposal, several Democratic lawmakers questioned administration officials on the pace of paying back the debt in light of recent and proposed spending cuts.

“It seems to me that while paying down debt is extremely prudent, if we … pay off debt rather than provide services we are exacerbating our unemployment rate,” said state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa.

At the hearing, Michael Cohen, chief deputy director of the Department of Finance, told lawmakers that eliminating the wall of debt creates stability in state finances, which will help the economy and employment.

The goal is to “get to a path where we’re not having to propose and take drastic actions from one year to the next,” Cohen said.
Accumulated debt

Brown first used the “wall of debt” term last year in describing the accumulated borrowing that allowed lawmakers and past governors to claim they had balanced the budget. The largest piece of the wall is $10.4 billion in deferred payments to K-12 schools and community colleges.

Deferred payments are those promised in one year but then paid in the next, even as schools are told to spend as if they actually had the money. The deferrals have continued year after year, and today schools are receiving about 20 percent less than they should, forcing districts to borrow, dip into reserves or spend even less.

California also still owes more than $6 billion from traditional borrowing used to balance the budget under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with other billions in internal borrowing and delayed payments to Medi-Cal, CalPERS and local governments for unpaid mandates, among other things.

The wall of debt does not include items such as unfunded future pension obligations, which are not borrowing used to balance the budget.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Jerry Brown evidently does not want to join the nascent movement to overhaul – perhaps radically – California’s dysfunctional political structure.

“Contrary to those critics who fantasize that California is a failed state, I see unspent potential and incredible opportunity,” Brown said last week in his State of the State address to the Legislature, chastising “dystopian journalists (who) write stories about the impending decline of our economy, our culture and our politics.”

Implicitly, Brown is telling us that he and the Legislature can govern California effectively without making the structural changes that are often touted in books, op-ed articles and academic conferences, such as a unicameral Legislature, proportionate voting, or even a parliamentary system.

There’s a certain irony to that posture. Brown burst into state politics four decades ago as a sharp critic of the Capitol’s laggard, semi-corrupt ways and rode political reformism into the governorship in 1974. And demonstrably, the Capitol’s performance has deteriorated markedly since.

Notwithstanding his disinterest in structural political change, Brown is embarking on a noteworthy, and even commendable, agenda of governmental change – which is not the same thing – using chronic budget woes as leverage.

Last year, faced with a Supreme Court order to reduce prison overcrowding, Brown persuaded the Legislature to adopt what he called “realignment,” shifting low-level offenders who would otherwise go to prison into county jails and giving counties more operational authority over some health and welfare services – along with $6.3 billion to pay for it.

To read entire column, click here.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer

BY DUG BEGLEY
STAFF WRITER
dbegley@pe.com

Published: 18 January 2012 06:35 PM

Riverside’s Magnolia Avenue underpass served as the backdrop Wednesday for a push by Sen. Barbara Boxer to encourage more federal investment in local projects that create jobs, ease traffic and get trucks and trains to their destinations quicker.

“This is an example of what America should be doing now,” said Boxer, D-Calif., during a brief stop to tout the $53.1 million underpass project.

Boxer, chairwoman for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that last month approved a draft of a new federal transportation bill, said Washington officials need to focus on projects such as the Magnolia underpass that help freight flow without delaying local residents. The underpass lowers Magnolia beneath two sets of railroad tracks that previously clogged the crossing for more than two hours each day.

One lane of the underpass is open in each direction as workers finish the project. All of the lanes will open in the next three weeks, said Tom Boyd, the city’s interim public works director. The project was initially expected to open in August, but weather delayed construction in late 2010 and early 2011.

Despite the wait, officials said the underpass was a huge improvement for local drivers.

“This is the kind of key way that people get from one end of Riverside to another,” Mayor Ron Loveridge said.

In addition to reducing delays caused by passing trains, the underpass allows police cars, firetrucks and ambulances better access in the area around Riverside Plaza. Officials estimated the underpass will improve emergency response times in the area by three minutes.

To read entire story, click here.

CHINO HILLS – It was a celebration of his life rather than mourning for the late Sen. Ruben Ayala during his memorial service on Thursday.

More than 150 gathered in the multi-purpose room of Ruben S. Ayaya High School listening to multiple speakers describe Ayala as an “American first and Democrat second,” someone who lead by example, a citizen’s politician, a man of many accomplishments and “a giant among giants.”

But above all, Ayala was always described as someone who not only cared for his community but for his family.

“As long as the memory of Ruben remains, all of us are going to be a little stronger, a little braver and a lot prouder. Senator, we respect you, we thank you, and via con dios,” said Glenna Ramsay, who was Ayala High’s first principal when it opened its doors in 1990.

Ayala died Jan. 4 of natural causes at the Inland Christian Home in Ontario. He was 89.

A rosary service also was held Thursday at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church.

Both services were attended by family, friends, local and state officials.

Born and raised in Chino, Ayala graduated from Chino High School in 1941. After serving in the Marine Corps, he was elected to the Chino school board.

Ayala was also Chino’s first elected mayor in 1964 and was a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and for more than 20 years he served as a state senator.

When Ayala was elected to the Senate in 1974, he was the first Mexican-American to serve in the chamber since 1911.

In addition to Ayala High, parks and streets are also named in his honor and in 2005 Ayala wrote an autobiography, “Up From 2nd Street.”

More recently, he was recognized by members of the Chino Citizens Recognition Committee as the 2011 Hall of Fame Recipient.

The award was presented to his youngest son, Gary Ayala, at the Tuesday Chino City Council meeting.

“When I was teaching government (to seniors) at Chino High School he would come into my classroom and talk to the kids about what his daily duties were and Irene, his wife, would always be in the back of the room signing up kids to vote, that is if they could,” said Laurentine Gates, who met Ayala in 1965 when she was serving on an advisory board.

She said Ayala was a frequent to her classroom in the late 1970s.

To read entire story, click here.

Warner

Staff report
Created: 01/17/2012 10:11:29 AM PST

Russ Warner announced Monday he had dropped out of the race for Congressional District 31, and will instead run for State Assembly District 40 against Republican Mike Morrell.

Now that he will not be competing against Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar for Congress, Warner has endorsed Aguilar for that seat. Aguilar has also endorsed Warner for Assembly.

Over the weekend both Warner and Aguilar received endorsements from the Fontana Democratic Club.

Republican legislative leaders rolled out their response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2012 State of the State address Tuesday, slamming the Democratic governor for telling Californians that the”sky will fall” without higher taxes.

“Today Governor Brown shared his vision for California for the year ahead,” Assembly GOP leader Connie Conway says in a video. “Republicans were eager to hear his ideas for the many challenges facing our state. Unfortunately, the governor’s vision is centered around one thing: higher taxes.”

The only thing is Brown hasn’t shared that vision yet.

A pre-taped video of Conway and Senate GOP leader Bob Huff responding to Brown’s address was posted online today via the Senate Republican Caucus’ Vimeo channel, more than 16 hours before Brown is scheduled to deliver the address.

Brown’s office, which has been mum on what the governor plans to discuss, wasn’t too impressed by the Republicans’ preview.

“Zzzz,” tweeted Brown spokesman Gil Duran, “Republicans post tired talking points in taped ‘pre-sponse’ to a speech that has not yet been given.”

To read entire story, click here.

Canan Tasci, Staff Writer
Created: 01/17/2012 12:41:37 PM PST

CHINO HILLS – Services have been finalized for former state Sen. Ruben Ayala.

The rosary service has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, 14085 Peyton Drive, Chino Hills.

The memorial service for Ayala will be that same day at 4 p.m. at Ayala High School’s multipurpose room, 14255 Peyton Drive, Chino Hills.

Ayala, who also served on the Chino City Council and San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, died Jan. 4 at 89.

He was Chino’s first elected mayor in 1964 and was a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, and for more than 20 years he served as a state senator.

When Ayala was elected to the Senate in 1974, he was the first Mexican-American to serve in the chamber since 1911.

Ayala died at the Inland Christian Home in Ontario.

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