Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney, talks with reporters in Sacramento about the tax measure she’s backing.(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Wyatt Buchanan
Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Sacramento –Supporters of two ballot initiatives that would raise taxes to fund public education and other services said on Monday they will not back down from those efforts, upending Gov. Jerry Brown’s crusade to clear the November ballot of any competing tax measures.

Backers of the so-called “Millionaires Tax” officially began a signature-gathering effort Monday, while the wealthy proponent of another measure, speaking to the California State PTA in Sacramento, pledged that she would spend millions to get her initiative on the ballot.

Those actions could significantly undermine Brown’s efforts, as voters are known to reject all tax measures when faced with multiple initiatives. Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney from Southern California whose family is worth billions, rejected the notion that she or others should show deference to Brown by letting his tax measure be the only one on November’s ballot.

“I don’t think we’d have a very good functioning democracy if we always just did what one person at the top wanted,” Munger told reporters after presenting her plan to members of the state PTA, which has endorsed the measure. She received an extended standing ovation after her remarks.

She added that, “In fact, one of the reasons we have democracy is because that old method, which is to just do what the king says, led to some very bad decisions over time.”

Under Munger’s plan, called “Our Children, Our Future,” the income tax for everyone in California would increase, though with the largest increases on the highest wage earners. She estimates the proposal would generate $10 billion a year that would be dedicated solely to education, with criminal penalties if lawmakers try to adjust that. It would expire after 12 years.

Another version would dedicate some of the money to pay back the state’s debt for the first few years, and Munger said backers have yet to decide which to pursue. Munger has been the sole large contributor to the effort so far, giving $800,000, according to the secretary of state.
‘Millionaires tax’

The other measure, for which proponents started a signature-gathering effort Monday, would increase income taxes on people who earn more than $1 million a year in California. Backers estimate that would generate about $9.5 billion annually, with the bulk dedicated to education. Health services and public safety would get some of the new revenue as well. It has no expiration date.

That measure, “The Millionaires Tax of 2012,” is supported by the California Federation of Teachers, the Courage Campaign, the California Nurses Association and others. Leaders of the effort, along with Munger on her initiative, said they had not personally heard from the governor with a pitch to end their efforts.

Both also expressed confidence that conventional wisdom is wrong and that one or more tax measures could pass even with multiple initiatives on the ballot.

“We’re not concerned that there will be multiple measures on the ballot,” said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, adding that he had confidence voters would “be able to decide which makes sense for them.”

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Gov. Jerry Brown’s campaign to balance the state budget with new income and sales taxes took a double hit Monday.

Brown has been describing his temporary sales and income tax increases as necessary to protect schools and public safety. But a new report on school finance from the Legislature’s budget analyst, Mac Taylor, makes it clear that even were Brown’s taxes to be increased, his budget would continue to reduce California’s per-pupil spending. Virtually all of the school money in the package would just pay schools what the state already owes them.

Meanwhile, Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney, declared that she intends to spend whatever is necessary to place her own $10 billion-a-year income tax increase just for schools on the same November ballot, saying it would boost per-pupil spending by an average of more than $1,500 per year.

Brown has made no secret of his desire to have the only tax boost on the ballot, fearing that multiple measures would confuse voters and perhaps lead them to reject all. He persuaded the Think Long Committee for California to suspend its complex tax reform campaign, but Munger spurned entreaties from the Brown camp to do likewise.

Munger took a couple of indirect shots at Brown’s $7 billion-per-year measure during a speech in Sacramento to state PTA leaders, who pledged to become her field army. She told reporters later that she hadn’t talked directly to Brown about the conflicting proposals, but refused to say whether she had talked to Brown’s wife, Anne.

To read entire story, click here.

A proposal by Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) probably won’t make her many friends among her colleagues. She wants to reduce the Legislature to part-time status and cut its pay from $95,000 annually to $1,500 a month.

Grove is one of the organizers of an initiative that was approved Monday to begin circulating petitions toward qualifying for the ballot. The constitutional amendment would limit regular legislative sessions to 30 days each January and 60 days starting each May. In odd-numbered years, the legislative sessions would be devoted to budget issues.

In addition to slashing lawmakers’ pay, the measure would limit employment while they are in office. State financial officials say it could cut lawmakers’ salaries, travel and living expenses and staff costs by tens of millions of dollars annually.

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.

By Peter Hecht
phecht@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 – 7:18 am

A proposed ballot initiative aimed for the November elections begs a key question looming over California’s medical marijuana industry: Can stricter state regulation keep the federal government from shutting it down?

Dispensaries, medical marijuana growers and a powerful union local are rallying behind an initiative that would regulate California’s $1.5 billion pot trade.

They predict they will be able to raise $2 million from medical marijuana businesses and drug policy groups to qualify the measure for the November ballot. A drive to gather a required half-million valid voter signatures could begin this week after Attorney General Kamala Harris completes a legal summary and petitions are certified by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

California’s medical marijuana economy is mostly governed by local governments, often with conflicting rules. The proposed initiative, the “Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act,” would largely put the state in charge.

It would establish a medical marijuana enforcement bureau in the Department of Consumer Affairs. A commission – with majority representation from the medical cannabis community – would oversee the enforcement bureau, license dispensaries and marijuana cultivators, and set standards for the pot trade.

The effort is a political compromise by wary factions.

The “Emerald Growers Association” from the Humboldt and Mendocino counties pot country signed on after initiative backers rejected a model based on the dispensary-run pot growing centers used in Colorado. The group wanted assurances that rural outdoor pot cultivators wouldn’t be cut out of the market by urban indoor growers.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 5, which two years ago backed the Proposition 19 effort to legalize marijuana for recreational use, signed on to the new initiative after deciding it was the best option to protect union jobs in the pot industry.

The effort also includes Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based advocacy group for medical cannabis users that stayed out of the Proposition 19 fight.

After a yearlong effort to update California’s medical marijuana rules, they came together in the wake of a sweeping federal crackdown on marijuana dispensaries that includes criminal prosecutions and property seizures.

Local zoning enforcement efforts and the looming threat of federal action have closed 100 marijuana dispensaries in Sacramento County. Since October, the number of dispensaries statewide has fallen from 1,200 to 900.

“We lost half of our membership in California,” said Dan Rush, whose United Food & Commercial Workers Local 5 has unionized more than 800 medical marijuana workers.

The state’s four U.S. attorneys say they don’t take issue with the 1996 California law permitting sale and use of marijuana for medical needs. But they assail California’s loosely defined rules allowing medical pot users to share marijuana in nonprofit networks. They say the industry has been “hijacked by profiteers” running pot stores that are likely illegal under both state and federal law.

“The crackdown motivated a lot of people to believe we really needed to clarify state law,” said Dale Gieringer, state director for the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. “The situation has been vague and chaotic. The feds were using that as an excuse to come in and trample all around.”

‘Unregulated free-for-all’

Sacramento U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said in October that federal authorities were taking action as pot stores flourished in California in “a virtually unregulated free-for-all.” But federal authorities have not spelled out what they will tolerate.

Advocates say they hope formal oversight would be an elixir against federal intervention, pointing to Colorado.

Until recently, Colorado avoided friction over its medical pot market, which unlike California’s is for-profit and heavily regulated. That state requires video surveillance of marijuana transactions and shipments, state licensing of marijuana workers and registration of medical pot users.

None of that is included in the proposed California initiative. Backers of the measure, which could open the door to for-profit marijuana sales in California, say they want to leave many details for the Legislature and medical cannabis commission to decide.

The initiative would impose a 2.5 percent tax and licensing fees on medical marijuana businesses to fund state regulation. It would require cities and counties to allow one marijuana store for each 50,000 residents and prevent local governments from banning dispensaries without voter approval.

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.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
February 3, 2012 | 11:28 am

Gov. Jerry Brown has courted a coalition of business and labor groups to back his November initiative that would raise taxes on sales and upper incomes. Now, some on the left are lashing out at the governor’s plan, and his early donors, reaffirming their intent to place a competing tax measure on the ballot this fall.

The governor has said repeatedly he wants his initiative to be the only tax-increase proposal before voters in November. But thus far, he has been unable to get some of his fellow Democrats to step aside.

Civil rights attorney Molly Munger continues to fund her proposal to hike income taxes across the board to raise more money for schools. Another initiative backed by the California Federation of Teachers, which would raise taxes on upper incomes exclusively, received new public backing from the California Nurses Assn. this week, and backers of that plan blasted Brown’s proposal in an email to supporters.

To read entire story, click here.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
February 3, 2012 | 2:46 pm

A veteran attorney for the state’s political watchdog agency has been named acting executive director, addressing concern by some good-government activists that the position had long been vacant.

John W. Wallace, who has been the state Fair Political Practices Commission’s assistant general counsel, was approved by the panel to serve as its top staffer on an interim basis without any increase in pay.

“He is someone who is very well respected and knows a lot about the Political Reform Act,” commission Chairwoman Ann Ravel said on Friday.

Ravel had been under pressure from groups including California Common Cause to fill the post, which is required by state statute, ever since former Executive Director Roman Porter left in October. Initially, Ravel divided up the duties of the post between herself and other senior staffers.

To read entire story, click here.

By Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 02/02/2012 05:36:15 PM PST

Fundraising data for Rep. David Dreier, D-San Dimas, from the last quarter of last year suggests he’s likely to retire this year, according to local political experts.

The Federal Election Commission database reports Dreier collected only $10,160 in campaign contributions in the period from October to December. The figure is paltry compared with the $207,450 received in the same period in 2003, and the $137,600 in 2009.

By comparison, fourth-quarter contribution figures for other Inland Empire politicians show much larger campaign funds. Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, received $138,039; Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea, $122,933; and $53,159 for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who is not running for re-election. State Sen.

Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Montclair, who is running against Baca for the 35th District seat, has already raised $77,984.

If Dreier were to run again, he should have started raising funds much earlier, said Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney. Dreier, who was first elected to the House in 1980, had traditionally been among the top election fund-raisers in Congress.

The data, Pitney said, suggests Dreier will not seek another term.

Due to redistricting, his San Dimas residence is now in a district with only 28 percent of the registered voters as Republicans.

“He has great fund-raising ability and if he were to run again he could probably raise a lot in a very short period of time, but that would be an unusual way to go about it,” said Pitney.

“Most members of Congress don’t go about it that way.”

To read entire story, 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.

By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B

By lowering its investment forecast by another quarter point, CalSTRS made a bow toward economic reality – but also may have complicated efforts to shore up its finances.

The teachers’ retirement board agreed Thursday to reduce CalSTRS’ official investment forecast to 7.5 percent, down from 7.75 percent. It was the second cut in 14 months, after the $144 billion fund left the forecast untouched for 15 years.

In a volatile investment climate, following a year in which CalSTRS’ portfolio earned just 2.3 percent, board members took their consultants’ advice and went with the lower number.

“I think it’s best that we be conservative,” said Terry McGuire, representing board member and state Controller John Chiang.

The board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System voted 9-1 to reduce the forecast. The lone dissent came from Pedro Reyes of the Department of Finance. The higher forecast “is not unreasonable,” he argued. “Let’s stay where we are right now, (and) visit this in another year.”

By cutting investment projections, the board instantly ballooned CalSTRS’ funding gap – the estimated shortfall of assets available to meet the pension fund’s long-term needs. The gap will grow by nearly $6 billion, or roughly 10 percent.

That could create problems in the Legislature, which must OK changes in how CalSTRS is funded.

CalSTRS gets around $5.6 billion a year from the state, school districts and teachers. The pension fund had already calculated that it needed another $4 billion a year to eventually get healthy. With the lower investment forecast, those needs grow by another $500 million a year.

While CalSTRS is pushing for more money, many Republicans want to erase funding shortfalls for public pensions by reducing benefits. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown wants to give newly hired employees a combination traditional pension and a 401(k)-style program.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/03/4235828/calstrs-gap-rises-as-return-forecast.html#mi_rss=Business#storylink=cpy

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
February 2, 2012

A “millionaires tax” initiative spearheaded by the California Federation of Teachers and the Courage Campaign received petition language today, as well as backing from the powerful California Nurses Association.

CFT spokesman Fred Glass said his group expects to begin collecting signatures Monday now that state Attorney General Kamala Harris has issued official petition language today. Harris titled the measure “Tax To Benefit Public Schools, Social Services, Public Safety, And Road Maintenance.”

The CFT/Courage plan would raise taxes by three percentage points on income above $1 million and five percentage points on income above $2 million. State fiscal analysts say the proposal would generate $4 billion to $6 billion annually, with a $6 billion to $9.5 billion windfall in the 2012-13 fiscal year because the plan would capture 18 months of taxes.

The plan is competing with Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative, which would raise income taxes on earners starting at $250,000 for single filers, as well as increase the statewide sales tax by a half-cent.

To read entire story, click here.

Gov. Jerry Brown laid out a detailed plan to alter California’s state and local public retirement systems on Thursday – and immediately drew fire from his core labor constituency.

The details delivered to the Legislature on Thursday generally tracked with an outline he unveiled in October. Representatives of a union coalition hoped to negotiate what they consider a less severe package. On Thursday, they said they felt blindsided.

“To launch this bomb in the early stages of the legislative season can only be counterproductive,” said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the union coalition Californians for Retirement Security. “The timing and severity of this was quite a surprise.”

Because the package of proposals amends the state constitution, it needs support from two-thirds of lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled Senate and Assembly to be put on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The centerpiece of Brown’s plan ends traditional pensions for state and local government employees hired July 1, 2013, and later. Employers would be offered “hybrid” plans that combine a smaller guaranteed payout with a more volatile 401(k)-type component.

“I think there’s a lot of really good stuff in the proposal,” said retired state Finance Director Mike Genest, who is now aligned with California Pension Reform, a group that is raising money for its own ballot measure.

While the unions and some experts have warned that hybrid pensions would devastate retiree security, Genest said that the idea is fair because “at least some of the risk is shared with the employee.”

Brown’s plan aims to replace 75 percent of an employee’s income assuming 30 years of service and a retirement age of 57 for public safety employees. Other workers would reach full retirement at 67 after serving 35 years.

To read entire story, click here.

State government payroll increased by half a billion dollars last year, even as California cut thousands of state worker jobs, according to a Bee analysis of new data from the Controller’s Office.

The payroll increase added about $140 million in wages to the Sacramento economy in 2011, contributing to a budding recovery.

The trend is largely due to a shift away from worker furloughs and toward layoffs and hiring freezes. Absent furloughs, most state workers got a full paycheck for the first time in years during 2011, plus some step raises and other union-negotiated bumps.

“Payroll would have grown a lot faster if those (job) reductions hadn’t taken place,” said Michael Shires, a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University.

State payroll eats a large chunk of the state’s budget – almost $18 billion in 2011. During recent lean times, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and current Gov. Jerry Brown have tried to keep payroll in check, but have taken different approaches.

Through much of 2009 and 2010, the Schwarzenegger administration required workers to take three unpaid furlough days a month, dubbed “Furlough Fridays.” That program ended in late 2010, though many workers still had to take one unpaid furlough day a month last year.

The furloughs cut state worker pay by more than $1 billion from 2008 to 2010. But, despite threats of layoffs and hiring freezes, Schwarzenegger never substantially reduced the number of full-time state workers.

The opposite happened during the first year of Brown’s administration: The number of full-time state workers fell but total payroll rose 3 percent.

With the demise of Furlough Fridays, roughly 80 percent of state workers made more money during 2011 than during 2010. The end of furloughs, combined with other raises, increased the pay for those who earned more by an average of 10 percent.

But the number of full-time state workers fell by 7,500, or 4 percent, during 2011. Most of that was due to the Brown administration’s enforcement of a hiring freeze, though layoff notices became more common at the end of the year.

Among large state agencies, the biggest payroll increases came at the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Mental Health’s payroll rose almost $50 million in 2011 to about $840 million. The department employed the two highest-paid state workers in California last year, not counting the University of California, which has many highly paid medical specialists.

Mohammad Safi, a senior psychiatrist at the Salinas Valley Prison psychiatric program, earned $803,000 in 2011. Gertrudis Agcaoili, a staff psychiatrist at Napa State Hospital, earned $772,000 last year.

Beth Willon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health, said psychiatrists earn healthy salaries in the private sector, and that the state must remain competitive. State law mandates constant monitoring of patients, she said, and “Dr. Safi’s pay reflects many hours of work after hours, on holidays and on weekends.”

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.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
January 31, 2012 | 11:59 am

California is running out of cash, the state controller warned in a letter to lawmakers Tuesday.

Controller John Chiang said lawmakers need to scrape together $3.3 billion by March — assuming the state’s financial situation doesn’t get any worse.

By Feb. 29, the state is expected to dip below its “safety cushion” of $2.5 billion. Then, in a little more than a week, it will burn through all its cash and drop $730 million into the red, Chiang said.

He urged the state to delay some payments, borrow more money and shift cash among various funds.

To read entire story, click here.

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

Gov. Jerry Brown is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for his tax campaign from California Indian tribes at the same time many tribes are seeking to renegotiate lucrative gambling compacts with him.

The Democratic governor, who proposes increasing the state sales tax and income taxes on California’s highest earners, is considered more accommodating of tribal interests than his predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his administration is in compact talks “on various levels” with 15 to 20 tribes, Brown’s tribal negotiator, Jacob Appelsmith, said Tuesday.

Any compacts Brown signs could significantly affect a gambling industry that generates more than $7 billion annually and millions of dollars in payments to the state.

More than nine months ahead of the November tax election, a handful of tribes have contributed more than $300,000 to Brown’s tax campaign, a quarter of the $1.2 million Brown on Tuesday reported raising in 2011.

Tribes donated $925,000 to Brown’s gubernatorial effort in 2010, and they contributed more than $200,000 last year to two charter schools he started in Oakland.

Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said there is “no connection between any sort of donations and decision-making on this issue or others.”

David Quintana, a lobbyist for the California Tribal Business Alliance, is among several tribal representatives who said tribes are donating to Brown’s tax campaign because they think additional tax revenue will improve the state’s financial condition.

It could also improve tribes’ standing in future compact negotiations, relieving the state of historically “enormous pressure to try to extract more money” from wealthy tribes, said Jeff Cummins, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno.

Brown was a regular supporter of tribal interests when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, and Quintana said some tribes were “absolutely” waiting for Schwarzenegger to leave office before considering compact renegotiations.

“You had one of the worst governors for tribes of all time,” Quintana said. “Then you have a person who is the best governor for tribal governments since himself in the late 1970s.”

In one closely watched negotiation, Brown is in talks with a San Diego-area tribe that brawled with Schwarzenegger over payments to the state, resulting in a court ruling last year that Schwarzenegger overstepped when he demanded general fund payments from the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians in exchange for casino approvals.

State finance officials said at the time that the ruling would not affect $360.5 million in general fund payments this year from Indian tribes with existing gambling compacts, and the administration has said it is not obligated to renegotiate the general fund provisions of those agreements.

To read entire

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.

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
January 31, 2012

Rural and urban school districts in California that make heavy use of buses appear safe — for now.

State lawmakers are fast-tracking legislation that would transform a $248 million midyear school bus cut into a general-purpose reduction that hits each K-12 district evenly. The Assembly Budget Committee passed Senate Bill 81 with bipartisan support Tuesday, while an aide to Gov. Jerry Brown testified that the governor supports the proposal.

But Brown still wants to eliminate specific funding for buses in his 2012-13 budget, along with removing earmarks for a variety of other K-12 programs. He instead proposes a new block grant funding system for schools, out of which he suggests districts could fund bus service if they choose.

In Tuesday’s hearing, Republicans and Democrats representing rural areas joined together to lobby for SB 81, which only applies for the remainder of this school year. The bus cut was triggered when state forecasters determined last month that California would fall $2.2 billion short of a $4 billion tax revenue bump that Brown and lawmakers assumed in the 2011-12 state budget.

“It’s a catastrophic problem in my district and in many other rural parts of California,” said Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, who represents the North Coast area. “Eliminating the school bus system creates dangerous situations for many children in California, but for my district it means it would be impossible for many children, if not most children in some districts, to attend school at all.”

To read entire story, click here.

A bill requiring more prominent disclosure of political donors stalled in the California Assembly on Tuesday.

Under the proposal, television advertisements would include three seconds of a black screen listing the top donors supporting the message. Similar disclosure would be required on print advertisements or campaign mailers.

“The public is frustrated and fed up with wealthy donors who manipulate elections through anonymous campaign messages,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica), in a statement. “Voters deserve to know clearly who are behind the ads.”

Because modifying the state’s Political Reform Act requires a two-thirds vote, 52 yes votes weren’t enough to pass Brownley’s bill. Twenty-six lawmakers voted against the bill. One Republican voted for the bill; the rest voted against it.

To read entire story, click here.

By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B

CalSTRS is thinking of cutting its investment forecast for the second time in barely a year, a move that acknowledges the increased financial strain on the pension fund.

The teachers’ retirement board on Thursday will consider a recommendation from its actuarial consultant to cut the forecast by a quarter point, to 7.5 percent.

The consultant, Milliman Inc., told the board the current forecast “exceeds the expected long-term return.”

Pension funds are reluctant to adjust their investment forecasts. After months of hand-wringing, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System cut its forecast by a quarter point in December 2010 – the first adjustment in 15 years.

Now it might do so again, just a week after CalSTRS revealed that its earnings for calendar 2011 came to just 2.3 percent.

The timing is coincidental, pension officials said. The latest recommendation is part of a typical review that takes place every four years, said Ed Derman, CalSTRS’ deputy chief executive.

What happened in 2010 was unusual, and was a reaction to the extraordinary losses suffered in the 2008 market crash, he said.

To read entire story, click here.

By PE Politics
January 30, 2012 3:08 PM

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near San Bernardino has hired back its longtime Sacramento lobbyist, Frank Molina, with whom it parted ways last March amid an investigation by the state’s political ethics agency.

The wealthy gaming tribe last week reported hiring Molina’s firm, Strategic Solutions Advisors, according to Capitol Morning Report. The tribe also hired K Street Consulting.

To read entire brief, click here.

Would it be churlish to say that the much-ballyhooed Think Long Committee for California fell short on fortitude?

Or merely accurate?

Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen created the committee and invited a Who’s Who of California’s political, civic and economic upper crust – including two former governors, one former chief justice and two former secretaries of state – to become members.

It issued a “Blueprint to Renew California” that advocated major changes in how government is organized and financed, to be put before voters this year.

Berggruen, the committee and the plan received loads of mostly positive media attention – including much outside California – because it appeared to be the first potentially viable effort at structural reform to cure the state’s political dysfunction. But one segment would have been an extensive overhaul of California’s cockeyed taxation system, and it interfered politically with Gov. Jerry Brown’s relatively modest proposal for a temporary hike in income and sales taxes.

Brown doesn’t want competing tax measures on the November ballot, fearing that voters could be confused and reject them all. He and his allies pressured the Think Long Committee to back off and it did.

Instead, Think Long is endorsing some relatively minor, incremental changes in governance, such as a two-year budget cycle, proposed by California Forward, another blue-ribbon civic group.

Briefly put, an organization whose declared goal was to rise above politics-as-usual and improve governance succumbed to politics-as-usual.

To read entire story, click here.

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye lost a round over Judicial Council power

The state’s top judge lost a political battle Monday when the state Assembly voted to shift key budget decisions from the state Judicial Council that she heads to local trial courts, some of which have complained about the panel’s handling of money.

The legislation, which next goes to the Senate for consideration, was vigorously opposed by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who is also the chairwoman of the Judicial Council. The council said the bill is an “inappropriate intrusion into the fundamental governance of the judicial branch.”

But AB 1208 was supported by a dissident group known as the Alliance of California Judges, which said too much power has been centralized with the statewide court bureaucracy to the detriment of local court operations.

The measure by Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier) would give local trial courts power to decide how to spend their share of funding to pay for court operations. Calderon said his measure is needed because some courtrooms have had to close in the face of budget cuts imposed by the Judicial Council at the same time that the panel diverted more than $70 million to a problem-plagued computer modernization program that has gone over budget.

To read entire story, click here.

A state senator who is running for secretary of state is urging Gov. Jerry Brown to take over California’s beleaguered online campaign finance database, which was down for most of last month.

In a letter last week, Alex Padilla, a Sylmar Democrat who has formed a campaign committee for a 2014 secretary of state campaign, asked Brown to take “immediate action to ensure the integrity of the 2012 election.”

Padilla pointed out that the Cal-Access database — based on creaky, decade-old code that predated Facebook — crashed in late November, also taking down the state’s voter registration database, CalVoter.

That prevented local election officials from registering new voters or verifying signatures on petitions to place questions on the 2012 ballot.

To read entire story, click here.

Understaffed, overwhelmed, Riverside and San Bernardino county officials say the verdict is few options on further cuts

RICHARD K. De ATLEY/Staff

RICHARD K. De ATLEY
STAFF WRITER
rdeatley@pe.com

Published: 29 January 2012 07:33 PM

Like passengers on a plane with half the engines snuffed, Inland court officials can only wait and watch as Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget for next year fiscal year moves through the state’s political turbulence.

After four years of cuts reduced the statewide court budget by nearly $653 million — losses passed on to the state’s 58 superior courts, including $5.7 million slashed for Riverside County and $6.1 million for San Bernardino County courts for the current fiscal year — Brown has no further cuts proposed in his new budget.

But there’s a catch: Brown’s budget is based on his tax package getting approved. If it doesn’t, an additional $125 million in cuts to the courts will be imposed.

And court officials have expressed ambivalence about Brown’s proposed revenue plan of increasing fees and fines to raise $50 million.

“We do have money problems but the fees and fines are getting to be a problem for folks who are coming in for civil cases and family law cases,” said San Bernardino County Court Executive Officer Stephen H. Nash in a phone interview. “We do appreciate the governor’s support for new money, but we are not excited about higher fees.”

The interest in court funding is especially keen in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where courts for years have been seriously understaffed as the counties’ populations each soared past 2 million during the past decade.

The state Judicial Council funds county courts based on the number of judicial officers, not population.

Riverside County has 76 judicial positions, including judges and commissioners, but a recent workload assessment report that was assigned by the state Judicial Council said it should have 150.

San Bernardino has 86 judges and commissioners combined, and likewise needs 150. The two courts have the highest caseloads-per-judge in the state for large population counties.

Another round of deep cuts could overwhelm their systems.

‘KEEP THE COURTS OPEN’

“The goal is to keep the courts open,” Riverside County Court Executive Officer Sherri Carter said. “We really want to do that without furloughs or layoffs because we don’t have the staff to do the work we have now.”

Riverside County officials fear a return to the backlogged court struggles of a few years ago, when civil cases sat unheard and a strike force of 12 judges was dispatched to the county to handle its longest-pending criminal cases.

Riverside County has depended for years on assigned judges — retired jurists sent by the state Administrative Office of the Courts to counties that need extra help with their case workload.

While the state pays the assigned judges’ salaries, the local courts have to pay for their courtroom personnel. And there is no extra staff in the clerk’s office to handle the work generated by the assigned judges.

Carter said the cost to the courts is “in the millions.”

Riverside County Superior Court has already reduced the number of assigned judges from 22 a day to 15, “and that just keeps our heads above water,” Riverside County Presiding Judge Sherrill Ellsworth said.

But “if we are looking under rocks” to save money, further cuts in the assigned judges program would have to be considered, she said.

Also threatened are the collaborative courts, in which prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers and social workers cooperate in programs designed to help selected defendants return to productive roles in society.

Veterans, domestic violence cases, and drug offenders are among the specialized courts.

“We have done a good job addressing those issues and being a full-service court,” Ellsworth said, but all of it is threatened by further substantial cuts, she said.

To read entire story, click here.

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.

Hoping to restore jail funding to San Bernardino County, an Inland Empire assemblyman introduced a bill on Friday that could potentially bring $16 million to county coffers.

Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucaipa, introduced AB 1556, which would direct jail funding to the county – funding that was not made available when the Adelanto Detention Center expansion project broke ground last year.

Cook was optimistic about the bill while acknowledging the uphill battle against other Sacramento leaders.

“We’ll do the best we can,” Cook said. “And if I get a bloody nose, so be it.”

In 2007, lawmakers allocated $1.2 billion for county jail construction projects. According to Joshua Candelario, deputy legislative director for San Bernardino County, Adelanto was at the top of the list to receive funding for its $111 million expansion project.

At the time, the local match, or the county’s contribution to the project, was 25 percent. However, lawmakers last year modified the local match requirement and signed a law that calls on counties to contribute 10 percent.

The new law does not apply to county jail projects already under way. In other words, Adelanto does not benefit from the lower match.

“Because the county played by the rules of the game, we should not be punished,” Cook said. “It’s just not right. We’re going to make a ruckus about it.”

To read entire story, click here.

By Howard Mintz hmintz@mercurynews.com
Posted: 01/30/2012 06:56:26 AM PST
Updated: 01/30/2012 07:31:17 AM PST

With a crucial vote looming Monday, a conflict that has shaken California’s judiciary reaches a critical stage when the Assembly considers legislation that would strip control of most of the court system’s purse strings from a central bureaucracy and turn it over to the Legislature and local trial judges.

The yearlong battle over control of the court system’s $3 billion budget reached a boiling point this week as Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye began a campaign to kill the legislation sponsored by Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, the Assembly’s ranking Democrat.

The Assembly must vote on Monday, otherwise the legislation will die for at least the remainder of this year.

Calderon’s bill, backed by labor groups and a splinter organization of the state’s judges, would largely scrap a 15-year-old state law that centralized court supervision and budget authority among California’s 58 trial courts.

The struggle for power over local court budgets could shape how judges deal with everything from how they pay for legal services for the poor to setting filing fees for lawsuits for years to come.

The legislation exposes a rare public rift within California’s sprawling judiciary, which has been rife with infighting over how hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts are being spread through the nation’s largest state court system.

The primary target of critics of the current system has been the Administrative Office of the Courts, the court bureaucracy, and the Judicial Council, chaired by the chief justice and the policy arm of the court system.

The Bay Area’s trial courts are an example of the division.

The presiding judges of 44 of the trial courts signed onto a letter this month opposing the legislation, but there was a mix in the Bay Area.

Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties signed the letter, but Alameda, San Mateo and San Francisco did not. The latter counties are among those forced to shrink staff dramatically and shorten public hours at clerk’s offices to close budget gaps.

In an interview this week with the Mercury News editorial board, Cantil-Sakauye warned that Calderon’s legislation would be a disaster for most trial courts, producing unfair results for many counties and injecting politics into funding for the judiciary. She noted that Los Angeles Superior Court, which backs the change, would be able to veto important statewide legal programs with scant support from other counties.

“What we lose is uniformity,” the chief justice said. “We abdicate decision making about the policies of the judicial branch, the nonpolitical branch, to the Legislature.”

To read entire story, click here.

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
January 29, 2012

The California Teachers Association officially agreed Sunday to back Gov. Jerry Brown’s multibillion-dollar tax plan, which should provide the governor hefty financial support for his fall campaign.

The union represents 325,000 teachers and education workers, and it is a heavy hitter in state politics. Brown is gathering signatures for a November initiative to raise sales taxes by a half-cent and income taxes on high income earners. He has structured his budget so that schools would face a $2.4 billion program cut in 2012-13 if voters reject his proposal, which he says is equal to three weeks off the school year.

The Democratic governor now has support from the state’s two most powerful public employee unions in CTA and the Service Employees International Union State Council. SEIU has not made its support public, but CTA President Dean E. Vogel told his members on Saturday that “SEIU State Council has already taken a support position,” according to a text of his speech.

SEIU spokesman Michael Cox said Sunday his organization has not taken a public position. But sources besides Vogel confirmed SEIU has privately agreed to support Brown. The governor has been working for weeks to convince other tax proponents to step aside, knowing that voters are less inclined to support any tax plan if faced with multiple options.

To read entire story, click here.