Wednesday, May 23, 2012 – 09:45 a.m.

More independent money is continuing to flow into the race to represent the 8th Congressional District this week.

The Spirit of Democracy America PAC threw another expenditure of $16,655 in support of Assembly Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley).

The committees second expenditure this week.

The Jobs Opportunity and Freedom PAC also spent another $23,115 in support of County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt (R-Wrightwood).

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 22 May 2012 06:56 PM

A high-stakes showdown with national implications is brewing in the San Bernardino Valley, where six candidates are vying to represent California’s newly drawn 31st Congressional District.

No House race in the country on the regular 2012 election schedule has attracted more outside spending than the 31st, which stretches from Redlands to Rancho Cucamonga and includes San Bernardino, Loma Linda, Grand Terrace, Colton and parts of Fontana and Rialto. Special interests have pumped more than $900,000 into the race.

Democratic Party leaders in Washington see the seat as key in their quest to win back control of the House, and Republicans say they are resolved to stop them.

“It’s a must-win for Democrats,” said David Wasserman, an analyst specializing in House races for the Cook Political Report. “It’s not as critical a hold for Republicans, but they’d like to keep it.”

Two Republicans are running for the seat: Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, and state Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga. On the Democratic side, there are four candidates: Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, Loma Linda attorney Justin Kim, nonprofit founder Renea Wickman and retired educator Rita Ramirez-Dean.

Under California’s new primary system, the top two vote-getters will advance past the June 5 primary, regardless of their party affiliation.

THE NARRATIVE

Reps. Joe Baca and Jerry Lewis, who together have represented the San Bernardino Valley for more than a decade, both reside in the 31st district. But neither is running for re-election there.

After California’s redistricting commission drew new political lines last summer, Baca, D-Rialto, opted to run in the adjacent and more solidly Democratic 35th district. In January, Lewis, R-Redlands, announced plans to step away from politics at the end of the year.

Lewis’ departure created an opening for Miller, whose home district had been redrawn. He quickly jumped into the race, saying he planned to move to Rancho Cucamonga anyway.

Dutton, who will be termed out of the state Senate, also announced a bid for the seat, creating an intra-GOP tussle. Dutton has the advantage of living in the district, and voters there are used to seeing his name on the ballot.

Miller, meanwhile, has a large fundraising advantage and won endorsements from both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the state Republican Party, thanks in part to his status as an incumbent.

Both candidates have also received support from Super-PACs and other outside groups that have injected large sums of money into the race. While state and federal law sets limits on contributions to candidates, Super-PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts through independent expenditures.

The National Realtors Association has spent more than $700,000 on TV ads, polling, consulting and other services in support of Miller through its congressional fund and political action committee. A Super-PAC known as Inland Taxpayers for Jobs has spent more than $50,000 in support of Dutton.

To read entire story, click here.

Kristina Hernandez, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/22/2012 08:55:18 PM PDT

MENTONE – The economy and possible tax increases under Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration were two hot topics Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro addressed Tuesday night at the Mill Creek Cattle Co.

The talk was part of the party’s bus stop tour to address voters in other counties throughout the state and answer their questions and concerns about government on a state and local level.

Del Beccaro was joined on stage by KTIE 590 personalities Lou Desmond and Heidi Harris as the discussion was broadcast simultaneously on the station.

The chairman started the discussion by addressing the two proposed tax increases on the June 5 ballot. He believes that the current job market has caused such a huge budget deficit because there are no jobs available to those who could be paying taxes or sales taxes the state desperately needs.

“We have so many people not working and they’re not part of the system anymore,” he said. “So we have these deficits because Jerry Brown does not have an idea to bring back jobs to California.”

Del Beccaro blamed over-taxing and over-regulation from the state government why the demand for jobs will not return to the state. Another factor is that, home values which have been “destroyed.”

Del Beccaro said it was important for him to leave Sacramento and travel the state to hear from concerned voters whose voices are not being heard up north and he was tired of hearing the voices of only politicians. Many in the audience shook their heads in agreement.

Terry Klenske, owner of Dalton Trucking, addressed Del Beccaro and the audience by answering questions about his business, and jobs that have been affected.

He purchased the company in 1977 as a hobby with three trucks on his fleet. Today, he has 250 employees and 140 trucks.

He talked about how the passing of Assembly Bill 32 hurt his business when regulations were put in place regulating cement manufacturing.

To read entire story, click here.

Nestande

By PE Politics
May 22, 2012 12:15 PM

Calling for an “honest conversation” about spending cuts, Assemblyman Brian Nestande and others Tuesday proposed a constitutional amendment to prohibit lawmakers from deferring scheduled payments to schools from one fiscal year to another.

The state has built up more than $10 billion in school-funding deferrals as lawmakers try to avoid permanent general-fund cuts.

But critics say the deferred money has scrambled district finances and costs them hundreds of millions of dollars in interest on borrowed money to pay their bills until the state money arrives.

“It’s really the largest shell in the shell game” of a state budget, Nestande, R-Palm Desert, said at a Capitol news conference. “Deferrals are just avoiding the tough decisions.”

Joining Nestande was Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, and other deferral critics, including Sharon Scott Dow, a representative of the Advancement Project. The group is led by wealthy civil rights attorney Molly Munger, who has spent more than $8.2 million to qualify an initiative that would raise income taxes to increase funding for schools..

Nestande and Olson did not say what should be cut to pay down the school deferrals. They ruled out raising taxes to generate more money for schools, notwithstanding their co-press conferee.

To read entire story, click here.

Sacramento — California’s public schools could see as much as a month of classroom time slashed from the calendar if voters reject a plan to raise taxes in November.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed giving school districts the option of cutting up to 15 days from the school year if voters reject his proposed income and sales tax initiative. The significantly shortened year would help offset a multibillion-dollar automatic midyear cut that would be implemented upon rejection of the taxes.

Districts statewide already have the option of cutting five days from the 180-day school calendar in order to reduce costs, and the proposal for three more weeks would be in addition to that. Public schools would take the biggest hit if the taxes fail, as nearly $5.5 billion out of the $6 billion in automatic cuts would come from their budgets under the governor’s plan.

Brown on Tuesday noted that the Legislature would ultimately decide what the so-called “trigger cuts” would entail, but he said that giving schools such an option is the only way to deal with the uncertainty.

“I’m doing the only thing that can be done, and that is assume the taxes and put in the trigger cuts,” Brown said after making a pitch for his tax plan to a gathering of the California Chamber of Commerce. “Is it the best way? It’s the only way that I can see going forward.”
Opposition to cuts

Polls of state voters in recent months have shown overwhelming opposition to the governor’s proposal for automatic spending cuts.

Education leaders said there are myriad problems with the proposal, including that Brown would want school districts to bargain with teachers unions to make such a reduction. That would result in districts having to make vast concessions for the unions to agree to what essentially would be a one-month reduction in pay, said Jill Wynns, president of the California School Boards Association.

“I don’t know what we would have to give, but … I guarantee in the future people would say, ‘How could that have gotten into the contract?’ ” Wynns said.

Shortening the school year any more would put the state and its students at a significant disadvantage for learning, and Californians would be fooling themselves to think otherwise, she said.

“From my point of view this is a huge game of pretend. We’re pretending you can have a world-class public school system without paying for it, and that’s just wrong. It’s a lie,” she said.

The Legislature first allowed school districts to shorten the 180-day year by five days as part of the February 2009 budget agreement, when the state was on the brink of financial collapse. Districts have the option of doing that until the 2014-15 school year.

In the current school year, 35 percent of school districts statewide have reduced their calendars between one and five days, according to a report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office. As part of the budget deal last year, the Legislature gave districts the option of reducing this school year by an additional seven days, but no districts took that option, according to the analyst.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 23, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

As the state budget’s deficit widens, Gov. Jerry Brown is being thrust into a three-front political battle.

He must not only persuade voters to pass his sales and income tax package, but, implicitly, persuade them to reject a rival tax measure just for schools.

Meanwhile, Brown is pressing liberal Democratic legislators to ignore their political DNA by making deeper cuts in health and welfare programs, not only to close the deficit but to bolster appeals to voters for new taxes.

“It’s not easy,” Brown told hundreds of business and civic figures gathered Tuesday in Sacramento for the annual Host Breakfast.

“We’re getting there,” Brown continued. “We’re making the cuts. But we also need the revenues.”

Brown had been cultivating business groups to support his original tax plan, but they cooled when he shifted gears to satisfy rivals on the left, reducing the sales tax element and sharply boosting income taxes on high-income taxpayers, including many attendees at Tuesday’s event.

Despite Brown’s assertion, cuts in welfare benefits, medical care for the poor, child care, developmental disability services, and in-home care for the aged and disabled are a tough sell among liberal legislators who support those services.

Brown’s new budget counts on those reductions to narrow the deficit by more than $1.5 billion but legislative leaders have said that softening their impact is their highest priority, characterizing them as “life-and-death” issues.

Past efforts to make cuts in those areas have been difficult. Most involve federal funds as well as the state’s money, and some have run afoul of Washington’s unwillingness to grant waivers, while others have been blocked in court.

To read entire column, click here.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 – 08:30 a.m.

Another Super-PAC committee has weighed in on the hotly-contested 8th Congressional District.

This time the beneficiary is Assemblyman Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley).

The Spirit of Democracy America PAC has reported to the Federal Election Commission that it has spent $17,137 for campaign literature mailings supporting Cook.

The consultant handling the production is Temple McNally Associates, Inc.

The only other candidate in the race to receive outside help is San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt.

By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, May. 22, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

One week after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed slicing state workers’ pay by 5 percent, the Democratic governor and legislators find themselves targeted for a “share the pain” salary cut.

Members of California’s Citizens Compensation Commission said Monday that a pay-cut proposal for statewide officeholders will be on the table when the panel meets May 31.

Commissioner John Stites II said he supports a 5 percent cut for elected officeholders, from the governor to lawmakers.

“I definitely think they should take the same hit – at least,” Stites said. “Whatever happens to the people who work for you, whatever conditions they live under, it’s incumbent upon you to live under those same conditions.”

Brown projects a $15.7 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and has proposed to bridge the gap with tax increases and program cuts, including a shift to a 38-hour, four-day workweek for state workers.

When he unveiled his revised proposal last week, Brown said his administration “would do more than what we ask state employees to do,” suggesting he and others would voluntarily take pay cuts.

Stites and other commissioners said they have no idea whether a pay cut would pass the seven-member panel of gubernatorial appointees.

Commission Chairman Tom Dalzell said he supports the notion of shared sacrifice, but that it would be premature to cut elected officials’ pay this year when the fate of Brown’s 5 percent wage cut for state workers has not been decided.

“It’s putting the cart before the horse,” Dalzell said.

The pay commission, created by voter passage of Proposition 112 in 1990, is responsible for determining compensation for all statewide elected officials. Salaries for California’s elected officials range from $173,987 for Brown to $95,291 for legislators.

The panel chopped officeholders’ pay and state contributions to their medical, dental and other benefits by 18 percent in 2009.

Legislators have taken additional hits to their compensation the past three years, with elimination of a Capitol car-lease program and a cut in lawmakers’ living expenses from $173 to $142 per day.

Commissioner Charles Murray stopped short Monday of committing himself to a new pay cut for officeholders. But they, too, should feel pain from this year’s belt-tightening, he said.

“Even though the legislators don’t consider themselves state workers, we do,” Murray said.

Commissioner Scott Somers was noncommittal about whether he would vote yes at the panel’s meeting next week at Sacramento City Hall. Somers said he supports the concept of shared pain but does not think elected officials should automatically be slapped with an equal cut any time state worker pay is reduced.

To read entire story, click here.

Four months after a California assemblyman was cited and released for carrying a gun into an airport, the Assembly passed legislation today that would require offenders to be taken into custody in such situations.

Democratic Assemblywoman Norma Torres said her Assembly Bill 2182 did not stem from the January incident involving Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, which occurred at an Ontario airport on the first day of this year’s legislative session.

“This issue is about protecting the public,” Torres said of her bill.

With Republicans opposed, the Assembly voted 46-25 to approve Torres’ bill. Donnelly voted no on the bill but did not speak during floor debate today. AB 2182 now goes to the Senate.

Peace officers currently make the decision to take an offender into custody or to issue a citation based on an evaluation of risk to the public, such as prior criminal record and whether the suspect is a gang member.

To read entire story, click here.

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Published: 20 May 2012 07:52 PM

You know that old political joke, “Vote early, vote often”?

Yeah, Riverside City Councilman Mike Gardner’s heard it. And he’s been hearing it more lately, after his first mailer in his mayoral campaign assured people their vote counts … on June 4. (The election is June 5.)

“That’s a typo,” was the age-old explanation Gardner gave when reached Wednesday. “I signed off on (the mailer) and didn’t see it.”

He’s been kidded by a few people, he said, but hey, these things happen — there’s even another minor typo/grammatical error in the mailer.

And actually, as Gardner pointed out, it is possible to vote early — and many people are. In Riverside, 48,308 voters have been issued mail ballots for this election, according to assistant county registrar Rebecca Spencer — that’s 40 percent of the 118,473 registered voters. (As of May 16, the registrar has received 315 ballots back.)

Early voting also will be offered from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 1-3 at the Galleria at Tyler in Riverside. Gardner said he’ll send out at least one more mailer before the election. Which is June 5, by the way.

BALLOT STATEMENTS CHANGED

Some San Bernardino County candidates have had their ballot statements toned down in order to comply with state election law.

County Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello said his office has been strict about enforcing a provision of the law that does not allow candidates to make disparaging comments about other candidates in their ballot statements. Under election law, ballot statements are supposed to include only information about a candidate’s own background and qualifications, he said.

Fourteen candidates, including those running for three congressional seats, three Assembly seats and the 1st District supervisorial race, had parts of their statements edited to remove such references.

All of the candidates were informed of the changes before the voter guides were sent out earlier this month. They were not allowed to make any changes themselves.

“None of the candidates were happy about it, but every candidate understood our position and appreciated the consistency of our position,” Scarpello said.

To read entire column, click here.

Published: 20 May 2012 05:38 PM

In San Bernardino County’s safely Democratic 47th Assembly District, Joe Baca Jr. wants to return to the job he held for a single term several years ago.

And in the county’s safely Republican 33rd Assembly District, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly is trying to avoid becoming a one-term lawmaker himself.

Opposing Baca Jr. and Donnelly are a mix of elected officials, business owners and others running on the June 5 ballot. The districts’ strong partisan leanings and new, top-two primary system make it possible that the November elections will be a repeat of the primary campaigns.

The redrawn 47th Assembly District closely resembles the current 62nd Assembly District and includes Rialto, Colton, Fontana and part of San Bernardino. The new district, though, picks up Grand Terrace, drops the area around San Bernardino International Airport and reaches north to Devore.

Baca Jr., the son of Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, represented the 62nd from 2004 through 2006, when he lost the Democratic primary for state Senate. He successfully ran later that year for the Rialto City Council, where he still serves.

In his candidate questionnaire for The Press-Enterprise, Baca Jr. said his top priorities as a lawmaker would be to encourage the creation of jobs through repealing “overly burdensome” regulations, increasing funding for community colleges, and approving public-works projects.

Newspaper publisher Cheryl Brown, of Rialto, a fellow Democrat, is Baca’s main rival. Brown is backed by the lawmakers who represented the area in the Assembly before and after Baca Jr.: John Longville and Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto.

Fixing the state’s chronically imbalanced budget is paramount, Brown said in her candidate questionnaire for The Press-Enterprise. She said she also wants to attract businesses and improve education and health care in the district.

Also running for the 47th are two Republicans, Thelma E. Beach, of Grand Terrace, a retiree, and Jeane Ensley, of Rialto, a retired fraud investigator.

To read entire story, click here.

Neil.Nisperos and Benjamin Demers, Staff Writers
Created: 05/20/2012 07:05:00 AM PDT

Donna Lowe will have her work cut out for her if she wants to represent the newly redrawn 41st Assembly District.

The Claremont resident and Tea Party supporter will be going up against three well-connected and better-funded Democrats – Pasadena Councilman Chris Holden, South Pasadena Mayor Michael Cacciotti and businesswoman Victoria Rusnak.

Lowe will also have to make sure GOP voters don’t cast ballots for Republican Ed Colton, who has experience as a business executive.

Lowe said the way to garner those votes is by bringing attention to the state’s economic business climate.

“People are moving out of the state, it is simply because of California’s insatiable thirst for spending and not being able to curtail its spending even during these hard economic times,” Lowe said.

“What we need to concentrate on doing is repealing a lot of the business regulations that make it unstable for businesses to relocate or start here.”

Lowe is an information technology manager for Safenet, Inc. She is the founder of the Claremont Conservatives Tea Party and a former Mountain View Republican Club board member. She has the support of the state GOP and lawmakers such as Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Hesperia.

The 41st Assembly District includes Upland, Claremont, La Verne and San Dimas as well as much of the southern San Gabriel Mountains and into Pasadena. Democrats hold a 43 percent to 34 percent edge over Republicans among registered voters.

The strong Democratic district, though, won’t be the only hurdle facing Lowe.

In a campaign finance report for January to March, Lowe had about $15,000 in her war chest. It put her available campaign contributions well behind the three Democrats.

At the conclusion of the January to March period, Cacciotti had about $46,000 and Holden had about $97,000.

Those figures though were no match to money that Rusnak had in hand – $232,000.

In recent weeks, residents in the 41st Assembly District have seen their mailboxes peppered by advertisements touting Rusnak. The Rusnak name will ring a bell with any car-conscientious voter in the region. She is the chief operating officer and president of the Pasadena-based Rusnak Auto Group.

While running as a Democrat, Rusnak’s campaign is also touting an anti-Sacramento sentiment. Her ads have splashed phrases such as “Results. Not Politics” and “Spending alone won’t improve our schools. We need to spend smarter.”

“I’m running because I think our state is in crisis. We need people from the private sector to participate in the Legislative process and bring a sense of reality to Sacramento,” Rusnak said.

Rusnak, a former environmental attorney, said she would not vote for any government program that does not have a previously identified revenue source.

The Democratic-dominated Legislature may be pleased if they see Holden make his way up north. The former mayor of Pasadena is the choice of the Democratic Party as well as the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

Holden’s campaign has highlighted his work in supporting the expansion of the Metro Gold Line to Pasadena. The work, his campaign says, has created jobs and helped businesses.

The Gold Line will expand into more cities in the foothills in coming years. For Holden, the foothills isn’t quite far enough. The commercial real estate consultant wants to see the line go all the way to LA/Ontario International Airport.

“I think one of the important projects we can continue to support is the completion of the Goldline out to Ontario airport,” Holden said. “It goes beyond a regional transportation project. It becomes a real job stimulator for the region.”

To read entire story, click here.

Sacramento– Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget proposal attempts to close a formidable $15.7 billion deficit, but the real debate at the Capitol in the next few weeks probably will be over how to cut just a fraction of the big amount.

That’s because about $2 billion in the governor’s budget represents permanent reductions in spending on state welfare, child care and other programs that Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly have pledged to protect.

Brown’s other budget proposals might be more controversial with the Legislature if the state weren’t facing such a large shortfall. Those include one-time solutions such as his proposal to seize almost $300 million from the national mortgage settlement that Attorney General Kamala Harris hoped to use to help distressed mortgage payers stay in their homes.

Some of Brown’s other reductions, like delaying the repayment of some loans, won’t cause a stir at all. The Legislature, which can pass a budget by a majority vote, has just under four weeks to approve a spending plan to cover the deficit by the June 15 deadline.

The scope of the dilemma faced by Democratic lawmakers and the governor was reflected in comments made by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, last week as he sought to reframe the situation by comparing it with the huge deficits of the past several years.

“I’m going to stop referring to this as a crisis,” Steinberg said. “It’s a problem.”

Not that the haggling on the relatively small permanent cuts will be easy. Both Brown and Steinberg predicted difficult negotiations, though Steinberg said, “I’m not looking for a big public fight here.”
4 touchy proposals

There are four main proposals over which Democrats and the governor are most likely to butt heads.

Those include proposed cuts to CalWORKS, the state’s welfare-to-work program; cuts to Cal Grants, which provides financial aid for low-income college students; reductions in state support for child care; and reductions to the In-Home Supportive Services program for the blind, elderly and disabled.

Brown has proposed $1.85 billion in reductions to those programs, including:

– An $880 million cut to CalWORKS by reducing from four years to two years the amount of time adults can receive welfare payments if they do not meet specific requirements for work activities.

– A $292 million cut to Cal Grants by increasing the minimum grade point average for students to qualify and reducing grants for students attending private or for-profit colleges and universities.

– A $425.5 million cut in the funding the state gives families to subsidize child care expenses, resulting in the loss of 29,600 child care slots.

– A $224.5 million cut to In-Home Supportive Services through a 7 percent reduction in hours for providers and by eliminating some services for people who are in a shared living arrangement.

To read entire story, click here.

BY JIM MILLER AND BEN GOAD
STAFF WRITERS
jmiller@pe.com | bgoad@pe.com

Published: 19 May 2012 06:16 PM

Fueled by new political boundaries and court rulings, campaign committees representing special interests have revved up spending this election cycle, and much of that largesse is focused on Inland Southern California candidates.

Independent expenditures committees, known nationally as super-PACs, have been a fixture of legislative and statewide elections in California since 2001. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision brought the same type of unlimited spending to federal contests, from president to Congress.

While state and federal law sets limits on contributions to candidates, super-PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money through independent expenditures. Super-PACs are prohibited from coordinating their efforts with candidates or their campaigns.

As of Friday, May 18, independent groups’ spending this year in California congressional and state contests totals at least $5.5 million, according to government filings. That’s on top of millions of dollars that state and federal candidates have poured into races from their own campaign coffers.

Last year’s redistricting process created several competitive congressional, state Senate and Assembly districts in the region that are drawing big money from special interests.

Through mid-Friday, San Bernardino County’s 31st Congressional District had more than $818,000 in super-PAC spending, the most of any House race in the nation in the regular 2012 election cycle, according to federal records.

The spending was dominated by the National Association of Realtors, which has shelled out more than $709,000 to support the candidacy of Rep. Gary Miller. The money went for polling, consulting, mailers and advertising.

Scott Reiter, the group’s political director, pointed to Miller’s background in real estate and development and record as an advocate for housing in Congress, where he serves on the Financial Services Committee and has worked to protect the mortgage interest tax deduction and tax credits for homebuyers.

“He’s a longtime supporter of homeownership, and he’s got a tough race so we wanted to help,” Reiter said.

Miller, R-Diamond Bar, is running in a new district representing much of the San Bernardino Valley. The five other candidates include state Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, a Democrat.

With at least three serious candidates competing for two spots in the general election, Reiter said the group, which usually focuses on November, thought it best to help Miller in his primary race. The fact that the group’s spending put the 31st above the other 434 congressional districts in terms of outside money is probably just a temporary situation, he said.

“I just think it’s a matter of timing,” Reiter said. “I would suspect you’ll be seeing a lot more from other groups very shortly.”

Other independent groups have spent money to help Dutton and Aguilar.

“Me and some friends of Bob Dutton wanted to help out … beyond what the law says we can give directly to candidates,” said former Inland lawmaker Bill Leonard, who helped organize the pro-Dutton Inland Empire Taxpayers for Jobs.

The group has spent about $50,000, records show. The money has come from several Inland donors, including Dutton’s father, Ted.

Leonard said the super-PAC was conceived as a way to help Dutton hold his own against Miller, a seven-term incumbent whose campaign committee had $1.2 million in cash on hand as of March 30.

“That was our hope and expectation a few months ago. But I didn’t expect the large amounts of Washington-interest money coming in. We’re kind of being swamped,” he said.

A super-PAC called Restoring Our Community has given more than $60,000 to Aguilar’s campaign. The identities of the donors have not been reported.

The only super-PAC spending on Inland congressional races outside the 31st took place in the High Desert’s 8th Congressional District, where the Jobs Opportunity and Freedom Political Action Committee has spent more than $30,000 on behalf of San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, a Republican.

SENATE CONTEST

In Riverside County, a vaguely named independent expenditure committee with unclear sources of money has injected itself into the 31st Senate District race.

To read entire story, click here.

Neil Nisperos and Benjamin Demers, Staff Writers
Created: 05/19/2012 07:08:49 AM PDT

Democrats Cheryl Brown and Joe Baca, Jr. could easily be considered the favorites to make it though June’s primary for Assembly District 47 and face each other in November.

The have name recognition in local communities.

They have funding from significant donors.

They have support from high-profile politicians.

But first, they will have to get by two Republicans, including a 95-year-old woman intent on helping her peers.

People who are lucky enough to reach their ninth decade might be grateful to take it easy. For Thelma Beach, she wants to take a seat in Sacramento.

“Age is a just a number. The years are just numbers,” Beach said. “Grant you, I don’t have the strength or stamina when I retired or when I was working but I’m up at 4 in the morning hitting the desk and the paperwork, catching up on all of the mail that I get.”

Beach’s platform centers on helping out fellow senior citizens. Recent budget adjustments have included cuts to public services that help the elderly such as in-home support care.

If elected, Beach said she would steer more public funds towards programs that would provide better care for the elderly.

The Grand Terrace resident was a senior administrative staff analyst and budget chief for the New York City Department of Corrections. She is for strict immigration control as well as improving the state’s school systems.

Beach and fellow Republican Jeane Ensley are running for office in an overwhelmingly Democratic – 50 percent to 28 percent – district.

District 47 includes Rialto, Bloomington, Colton, Grand Terrace and parts of Fontana.

Ensley, who is a retired fraud investigator for a credit card company, echoes a familiar Republican platform: The state has too many business regulations.

“In San Bernardino County, a lot of our tax base comes from mining,” Easley said. “There are so many restrictions – we are not allowed to mine as much as we use to and that would be a great source of income.”

Easley has slammed Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which mandates that the level of emissions of greenhouse gases must return by 2020 to levels last seen in 1998. She said the environmental law hinder job creation and forces business out of the state.

To read entire story, click here.

Legislative Democrats aren’t organizing a bake sale just yet, but they say they will desperately search for cash in the coming weeks to avoid the most severe cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Saying the state’s budget deficit has risen from $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion, the Democratic governor has proposed more cuts to programs that serve the state’s poorest residents.

Brown has described it as a “day of reckoning” and wants his fellow Democrats to slash as much as possible before he asks voters to hike taxes on sales and high-income earners in November.

But Democrats signaled immediately that they plan to block some of the deepest cuts to welfare, child care and college scholarships for low-income students.

“We will scour the cupboards, look behind the pots and underneath the cushions, doing everything we can do to see if there’s some opportunity to reduce the extent to which we have to make these cuts,” said Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento.

Democratic lawmakers say they have cut enough in the wake of the recession and that Brown’s proposals would result in homelessness, even death.

“To me, a cut that you know may result in the difference between life and death, and a cut that will increase homelessness, it’s our obligation to avoid those cuts,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, referring to proposed cuts in welfare grants.

Several Democrats said they want to “buy out” Brown’s cuts with creative ideas but offered few specifics. In the past, that has meant one-time accounting maneuvers, fund shifts and inventive changes that often fall short.

The governor insists the cuts are necessary to solve California’s budget problem not just this year, but in future years. Told that Democrats want to “buy out” his cuts, Brown responded, “With other cuts?”

“The key to true budget balance (is) ongoing cuts, and they are the most difficult, but also absolutely indispensable,” Brown said.

Besides his need to balance the budget, the governor has ample political motivation to persuade Democrats to approve as many cuts as possible, said Dan Schnur, a former GOP consultant who serves as director of the University of Southern California’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics.

“Brown seems to understand the voters don’t trust state government with their money, so he’s been trying to find a way, whether through pension reform or cuts in these areas, to regain some fiscal credibility with them,” he said.

Since 2007-08, lawmakers have cut monthly grants and reduced the time limit in the state’s welfare-to-work program, CalWORKs. The maximum grant for a family of three fell from $723 to $638 a month. Adults cannot receive benefits after four years, rather than five.

The state has slashed child care for low-income parents by imposing stricter income-eligibility requirements and cutting funding to child care providers.

California still has a disproportionate share of the nation’s welfare cases, because of the state’s demographics – a large share of younger, poorer residents – and the state provides aid for children after their parents exhaust eligibility.

But Democrats say cuts have been too fast and too severe. Brown now proposes to revamp the CalWORKs program by cutting off aid after two years rather than four for parents who do not seek work, training or education. The plan would save $880 million.

“We recognize that we’re going to have to make some cuts,” said Sen. Curren Price, D-Inglewood. “But we think these areas have already been cut to the bone. And so we’re going to be looking for ways to increase revenues. Taxes are certainly one way. Taking a look at some other loopholes, seeing how we can shift funds around.”

To read entire story, click here.

Saturday, May 19, 2012 – 11:00 a.m.

USPS delivery of campaign mail improves

Something must have happened at the USPS earlier this week.

The delivery of campaign mail changed from roughly five to six days to a much improved time frame of two to three days.

Hotly contested congressional races likely caused the change in mindset.

Facebook IPO not so hot after all

The long awaited initial stock offering of Facebook was a flop Friday. The shares had to be support by the offerings underwriters to keep the price from falling below the initial sale price of $38.

The weak reception is not a good sign for markets going forward.

Some candidates mustering up campaign mail in CD 8

8th Congressional District candidates Phil Liberatore, Brad Mitzelfelt, Ryan McEachron and Paul Cook have managed to get out campaign mail in the race to head to Washington D.C.

Nothing from the remainder of the vast field of candidates.

Cook might want to have a word with his consultant though.

His mail is being addressed to individual voters instead of households. A much costlier approach.

By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2012

SACRAMENTO — California’s budget deficit may be more than $1 billion larger than even Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest estimate, the Legislature’s financial advisor said Friday.

Brown announced last weekend that the deficit had swelled from $9.2 billion to almost $16 billion. But the nonpartisan legislative analyst’s office said there may be less money available than the governor assumed, possibly increasing the budget gap to at least $17 billion.

The bulk of the difference lies in questions over money from defunct local redevelopment agencies. Brown wants to use $1.4 billion in leftover assets to help plug the budget gap, and the state expects to collect property tax money that used to fund the agencies.

However, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor’s review said there’s “considerable uncertainty” about that sum and expects it to be much lower, raising the deficit by $900 million.

Taylor said money may be siphoned off before it reaches the state because of the defunct redevelopment agencies’ previous obligations, such as construction projects or bond payments. Lawsuits over the dissolution of the agencies could further complicate the problem.

Before the state knows exactly how much money is available, Taylor said, “we have to do audits and checks.”

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Brown’s Department of Finance, said the administration is crafting legislation that would allow the state to collect the redevelopment money it wants to balance the budget. The legislation will be considered by lawmakers along with the rest of the budget.

The budget gap could widen further if Taylor’s estimates about tax revenue are correct. He expects the state to collect $392 million less in taxes in the upcoming fiscal year than Brown predicts.

Taylor called that a “rounding error” — just 4% less than Brown’s $95.7-billion estimate — and said the governor’s proposal appears reasonable otherwise.

Still, the usual vagaries of California’s economy make it difficult to map out a spending plan. The state relies heavily on income tax revenue to fill its coffers, and tax receipts have been unpredictable.

To read entire story, click here.

The pile-on was in full effect within hours of Gov. Jerry Brown’s announcement this week that California’s budget deficit had grown to $15.7 billion, with The Week giving its national audience a summary of the Golden State’s financial affairs.

“California’s financial apocalypse,” the magazine offered. “A concise guide.”

Fox News played the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Californication,” and host Greg Gutfeld proclaimed Brown captain of “the Titanic that is California, a state so broke it may ask Greece for a loan.”

On Friday, the Democratic governor slapped back on national TV.

“This is not Europe,” Brown told Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning.” “This is still the Wild West, and we’re going to prove to the rest of this country and the world that we know how to do it.”

For Brown – and California – it may be a tough sell.

Though no part of the country was immune from the effects of the recession, California’s latest deficit projection comes as many other states begin to climb out of their own budget sloughs.

Fewer state budget deficits are being projected than in recent years, the National Conference of State Legislatures said in a report this month, with revenue in most states meeting or exceeding expectations.

“This is good news for state lawmakers who have closed more than $500 billion in budget gaps over the previous four fiscal years,” the report said.

As budget officials elsewhere were describing their financial situations as “cautiously optimistic” or “stable,” the Conference of State Legislatures said, California lawmakers “continue to cope with the state’s multibillion (dollar) gap between projected revenues and anticipated expenditures.”

On Friday, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said California’s deficit may be even larger than Brown’s latest projection, perhaps higher than $17 billion. Though state revenue is growing, the amount is less than officials hoped.

Brown’s revised deficit estimate, released Monday, already was 70 percent greater than he projected in January. In an interview taped Thursday, Rose asked him, “What happened?”

“Very simple,” Brown said. “We’re not fortunetellers. We don’t have clairvoyance.”

On the East Coast, pundits noticed.

The Wall Street Journal chided with the headline “California Ugly.” Even with state tax collections ticking up nationally last year, the newspaper scolded, “California can’t seem to keep up despite one of the highest tax rates in the land.”

In a fall survey of states, the National Governors Association and National Association of State Budget Officers found the overall condition of states improving since the height of the recession. Even so, spending nationwide remains hampered by rising health care and education expenses, among other costs, the report said.

To read entire story, click here.

Outgoing Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) left. Former San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Chairman James Ramos right.

Friday, May 18, 2012 – 10:00 a.m.

The sauce pan is simmering in the race for San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor.

The three-way race consisting of Supervisor Neil Derry, Former Twenty-Nine Palms City Councilman Jim Bagley and Former San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Chairman James Ramos is heating up heading into the home stretch to the June 5th primary.

If no candidate receives fifty percent, the top two contenders will face a November runoff.

Four years ago Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), District Attorney Michael Ramos and then-Sheriff Gary Penrod all recorded radio spots and automated dialer messages supporting Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, a republican.

The result? Hansberger lost to Derry, who is also a republican.

Lewis was reportedly bitter over his friend Hansberger’s loss and has been privately disparaging Derry, non-stop, since his election to the board.

Well it looks as if Third District voters are being treated to more of the same.

However this time the support is being bestowed upon Ramos, a lifelong democrat.

Automated dialer calls with a message from, the republican-in-name-only, Lewis have started peppering republican voters.

Somehow someone, likely Lewis, must feel he has sway with voters.

An arrogant assumption to make.

But it appears republicans are growing irritated as they learn Lewis is backing a democrat.

As many voters can recall. This is the same Jerry Lewis who;

• Spent his entire campaign war chest defending himself from an FBI probe into earmarks and influence peddling.
• Couldn’t regain the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee after republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.
• Led the charge in accelerating the growth in U.S. debt, by way of out of control spending under his previous appropriations chairmanship.
• Is retiring because of uncertainty surrounding his reelection potential.

And now Lewis is trying to shove a democrat down the throats of republicans.

The House leadership must be glad to see this guy leave.

But you never know. Lewis may be looking for a job at the casino.

Another bottle of scotch sounds more appropriate right about now.

By Howard Mintz
hmintz@mercurynews.com
Posted: 05/18/2012 05:41:38 AM PDT
Updated: 05/18/2012 05:42:00 AM PDT

California’s judges will now have to post all their financial disclosure information in cyberspace.

In a unanimous decision, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission on Thursday approved a rule that requires California’s more than 1,700 judges to post their disclosure forms on the Internet, despite objections from judicial leaders that it could jeopardize their privacy and security.

The FPPC decided to impose the 2-year-old rule on judges that already had been applied to the rest of the state’s elected officials.

To read entire story, click here.

From the Southland to the Bay Area, California’s housing market showed strength last month as median prices rose and sales outperformed the same month last year.

The Golden State’s median home price popped 6% in April to $264,000, according to real estate information firm DataQuick of San Diego. The median is the point at which half the homes in the state sold for more and half for less.

In Southern California and the Bay Area, the share of home sales that were foreclosures declined significantly, which economists see as key because sales of those homes tend to drag prices down.

“It appears that the market is taking a step in the direction of normalization, but only a step,” DataQuick President John Walsh said. “The mortgage market is critical, as is market mix and the receding importance of foreclosure resales.”

To read entire story, click here.

By Ed Mendel
Thursday, May 17, 2012

The CalPERS board yesterday raised the annual state payment for state worker pensions $213 million to a total of $3.7 billion, rejecting Gov. Brown’s request for a bigger increase to avoid a “loan” costing “$145.9 million over the next 20 years.”

Unions asked the board to spread out higher pension costs mainly caused by a lower investment earnings forecast. Paying part of the new rate over two decades, instead of the full amount now, makes an extra $149 million available for worker pay and other programs next fiscal year.

Although the amount of money may be relatively small, compared to the $16 billion state budget deficit revealed this week, the issue is the big one facing public pensions.

Like former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who also unsuccessfully urged CalPERS to adopt higher state rates, Brown is asking the Legislature to enact cost-cutting pension reforms.

Painful increases in annual employer pension costs might increase public pressure for pension reform. But paying more now to avoid higher costs later also reflects the view that pensions are seriously underfunded.

Most pension funds expect to get about two-thirds of their revenue from investment earnings, not annual employer or employee contributions, and critics say the earnings forecasts are too optimistic.

Alarm grew when a deep economic recession, and a stock market crash in 2008, punched a big hole in pension investment funds. The CalPERS investment portfolio, still well below its peak of $260 million in 2007, was valued at $229.4 billion Tuesday.

CalPERS state worker plans were on average 70 percent funded last June 30 with an “unfunded liability” of $38.5 billion. That’s the shortfall in projected assets needed to pay for pensions over the next 30 years.

The state has a much larger debt for retiree health care promised current state workers over the next 30 years — $62 billion according to an actuarial report done for state Controller John Chiang.

There is no dispute about whether strong investment returns will help close the retiree health care funding gap. Legislation by former Assemblyman Dave Elder, D-Long Beach, created a retiree health care fund two decades ago.

But lawmakers chose not to put money in the fund. Now state worker retiree health care is a pay-as-you-go plan, up more than 60 percent in the last five years and costing the state general fund about $1.5 billion in the current fiscal year ending June 30.

Pension and other retirement costs are still a relatively small part of the current state budget, which is expected to spend $87 billion from the general fund and $34 billion from special funds for health, transportation and other programs.

The state is paying CalPERS $3.5 billion ($1.9 billion general fund), retiree health care $1.5 billion, California State Teachers Retirement System $1.3 billion, Social Security $500 million and Medicare $240 million.

In contrast, cities spend most of their budget on personnel, not on a range of programs like the state, and some cities are already overwhelmed. San Jose spends 20 percent of its general fund on retirement, an argument for a pension reform on its June ballot.

The state could have a much bigger pension problem if CalSTRS was properly funded, not to mention retiree health. Officials estimate that CalSTRS needs an additional $3.25 billion a year to be fully funded in 30 years.

Unlike the California Public Employees Retirement System and most public pensions, CalSTRS lacks the power to set annual contribution rates that must be paid by employers, needing legislation instead.

CalSTRS, about 69 percent funded, has been seeking a rate increase for five years. It’s offered legislators a half dozen scenarios that begin to phase in a rate increase in 2016, only one of which is projected to get CalSTRS to 100 percent funding.

The power of CalPERS to give the governor and the Legislature an annual bill that must be paid can be a friction point. In the dispute over paying off part of the new rate increase over 20 years, board members said they were giving lawmakers an option.

To read entire column, click here.

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 16, 2012

A political committee that Service Employees International Union California created to support moderate Republican candidates for the Legislature reported its first expenditure of the 2012 election Wednesday, dropping more than $15,000 on mail pieces opposing Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly’s bid for re-election.

Donnelly, a conservative first-term assemblyman known for his vocal opposition to illegal immigration, is facing Republican Bill Jahn, the mayor of Big Bear, and Democrat John Coffey on the June 5 ballot in the 33rd Assembly District.

To read entire story, click here.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 – 10:30 a.m.

The National Association of Realtors is approaching the $750,000 mark in its independent expenditure campaign supporting Congressman Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) according to current filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Both of the Association’s Super-PAC committees, the National Association of Realtors Congressional Fund and National Association of Realtors Political Action Committee, have collectively deployed the money.

Sources say the Realtors association will spend upwards of $1 million for Miller.

Congressman Joe Baca left. State Senator Gloria Negrete-McLeod right.

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 15 May 2012 06:03 PM

Neither U.S. Rep. Joe Baca nor state Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod has had trouble getting elected in San Bernardino County, where the Democratic stalwarts have held public office for a combined 50 years.

Now Baca, D-Rialto, and Negrete McLeod, D-Chino, are set to do battle in territory both have represented before: California’s newly drawn 35th Congressional District.

The Green Party’s Anthony Vieyra of Pomona also is running for the seat, which covers Ontario, Chino and Pomona, as well as parts of Fontana and Rialto.

With greater name recognition and significant war chests, Baca and Negrete McLeod are considered front-runners in the race. And both could wind up in November’s general election, thanks to California’s new primary system, under which the top two vote-getters advance — even if they belong to the same party.

Baca’s Rialto home was drawn into the adjacent and less Democratic 31st Congressional District when the state’s redistricting panel created new political lines last summer. But there are no rules prohibiting him from running in a district where he doesn’t live and, since no other member of Congress resides in the 35th, Baca chose to run there instead.

Baca, whose current district includes about 60 percent of the 35th, touts his tenure in Washington in telling voters what separates him among candidates.

“As the incumbent running in the 35th Congressional District, I have the seniority and experience necessary to achieve important victories for families in the Inland Empire,” Baca wrote in his responses to a questionnaire The Press-Enterprise asked candidates to complete.

Baca said that, as a member of the fiscally moderate “Blue Dog” congressional caucus, he is able to forge agreements with GOP lawmakers in Congress. He noted occasions when he worked with Republican members of the Inland area’s congressional delegation on transportation, public safety and water projects.

Negrete McLeod also pointed to what she describes as a record of bipartisanship during her 12 years in the Legislature. She noted that, unlike Baca, she lives in the 35th.

To read entire story, click here.

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 15, 2012

As Standard & Poors urged lawmakers Tuesday to pursue “credible” budget solutions to bridge the state’s $16 billion deficit, the ratings agency did not approve of Senate leader Darrell Steinberg’s idea to forego a reserve this year.

In the report, S&P suggested it could lower the state’s ratings outlook or even impose a downgrade if lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown don’t pursue real solutions that bolster the state’s cash situation this summer. The state still has a “positive” outlook but an A- credit rating, which rates lowest in the nation.

Brown built a $1.05 billion reserve into his $91.4 billion general fund budget for 2012-13. Steinberg said yesterday that one idea was to use that money instead on public programs.

To read entire story, click here.

By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 16, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 16, 2012 – 6:26 am

One day after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed sweeping changes to state government work schedules, many employees were still deciphering what it means for them.

Brown wants to move most of California’s 214,000 workers to four-day workweeks and 9.5-hour shifts starting July 1. The change would reduce state workers’ hours and pay by 5 percent each month and cut state payroll by about $839 million, $401 million of it from the deficit-ridden general fund. Many departments would be closed on Fridays, some on Mondays.

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions from reader emails and comments on sacbee.com:

>So now what?

Marty Morgenstern, the Brown administration’s Labor and Economic Development Agency secretary, said the state will meet with departments and labor union officials to hammer out the particulars.

Look for those talks to heat up immediately, because Brown wants the new arrangements in place in time for the July 1 start of the 2012-13 fiscal year.

>Are the unions going for it?

It’s difficult to make a blanket characterization: A dozen unions represent 181,000 state workers divided into 21 bargaining units who perform thousands of different jobs.

But it’s clear that labor had a hand in shaping the proposal. For example, Brown’s budget also calls for cutting back on outside contracts for services such as janitorial and security work and computer technology consultants.

SEIU Local 1000, the largest state worker union, has argued for years that California pays too much for those kinds of vendor service contracts. Of course, ending that outsourcing would mean more jobs for state employees who are covered by the union.

By giving SEIU what it wants, it raises the likelihood that the 95,000-member union will go along with Brown’s furlough plan and make it harder for the other smaller unions to resist.

>State workers are all under contract right now. Doesn’t this violate those agreements?

Brown says he wants to honor the bargaining process, but that doesn’t mean that the contracts would need to be reopened. The changes could be enacted through short side-letter agreements that focus on the scheduling changes and nothing else.

>How long would the state run on the four-day schedule and cut employees’ pay?

Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer said the arrangement “could extend beyond the 2012-13 year.” That’s a detail that the administration needs to hammer out with the unions.

>What leverage does Brown have?

The governor could lay off employees, but that seems a stretch, given that the state already has shed 15,000 positions in 2012-13 and Brown anticipates cutting another 11,000 in the coming fiscal year. The layoff process is cumbersome, too, and Brown needs savings quickly to plug a $15.7 billion deficit.

Brown’s hand could be strengthened if Democratic legislators signal they’re willing to use their authority to circumvent labor contracts and impose pay cuts or furloughs if the unions don’t cooperate.

>Would Democrats really do that to their friends in organized labor?

Under severe budget pressure in 2009, the Legislature erased two paid state holidays and changed overtime rules without the unions’ consent. Nearly two years ago, the threat of legislative action on pension reform prodded labor leaders to compromise with then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

>Would union members vote on the schedule changes? What’s the Legislature’s role?

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Wednesday, May. 16, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Poker players often use the phrase “betting on the come” to describe a willingness, if instincts and odds indicate, to wager big on the hope that they will draw winning cards.

That’s a perfectly valid tactic when one is playing with one’s own money and therefore bearing the risk.

But is it appropriate for California politicians to bet on the come by approving many billions of dollars in spending on very shaky assumptions that the money will be there when it’s needed to pay the bills?

Risk was the underlying theme of two hearings in the Capitol on Tuesday.

One dealt with Gov. Jerry Brown’s newly revised budget, which assumes that voters will approve new taxes, and the other with the Brown-sponsored bullet train project, which assumes that the federal government will finance completion once it’s started.

Brown and his minions respond to doubts about those assumptions with assurances that if the taxes are not approved or the feds don’t provide bullet train money, they’ll have coping mechanisms that mitigate the risk.

He proposes “triggers” that would automatically cut spending if taxes are rejected, and to simply halt construction if the bullet train lacks financing. But those are fail-safe mechanisms only on paper, not in realpolitik terms.

Under Brown’s budget, the schools would suffer nearly all of the spending cuts were taxes to be rejected. He’s clearly doing that to push voters toward his tax plan, since schools are the single most popular category of state spending, but it’s very unclear that the very powerful education lobby and Democratic legislators would be willing to make that gamble.

To read entire story, click here.

By Judy Lin, Associated Press Writer
Posted: 05/15/2012 09:21:09 PM PDT
Updated: 05/15/2012 09:22:38 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown is pleading with Californians to raise their taxes as part of his solution for solving the state’s budget deficit, but it’s uncertain whether voters will be in an accepting mood come November.

Polls show voters want more money for schools but don’t want to tax themselves to pay for it. They continue to be pessimistic about the economy in a state with one of the highest jobless rates in the nation. And they distrust the Legislature, which oversees the budget.

Brown is facing a tough environment after announcing over the weekend that the state’s deficit had risen to $15.7 billion, much larger than he said a few months ago, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in Pomona.

“When the governor says devastating things are going to happen, people will say, `Look, you said the shortfall was going to be a lot smaller than it was. You were wrong then; why should we believe you now?”‘ Pitney said. “The governor is facing a trust deficit as well as a fiscal deficit.”

On Tuesday, the Democratic governor defended his plan to raise the statewide sales tax and seek higher income taxes on the wealthy, warning of deep cuts that include a school year shortened by as much as three weeks if voters reject his taxes.

He said it was not a scare tactic but rather the stark reality of a state that is not taking in enough tax revenue to cover its expenses. His administration projected that California’s economy will continue to recover at a modest pace but housing and unemployment continue to be a drag.

To read entire story, click here.