[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The California State Assembly will hold its first hearing of the special session on water tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. in the largest hearing room available. The Senate has postponed tomorrow's hearing solely for personal scheduling reasons, we are told. The Senate hearing will now take place on Monday at 1:00 p.m. unless the time changes at the call of the chair.

Meanwhile, the water war of words is going strong as the Associated Press has reported that, "Assembly Republicans said Wednesday that they will reject any plan to improve the state's water supplies unless it includes funding for new dams." This has drawn sharp rebukes from Assembly and Senate Democrats. Shades of the budget impasse?

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bob Campbell
Member of the California State Assembly, 1980-1996

I know that many of you who will be reading this article will do so with one of the above thoughts in mind, which scenario is the right one? I suppose that how you, the citizen and taxpayer, view what took place in Sacramento these past two months will depend upon several things: your general political perspective, your knowledge about how the system works, your political persuasion, and whether or not you were personally affected by the delay in passing a budget on time.

You may also be swayed by your sense of American Democracy and what results it was designed to produce. To understand just what happened in California’s recent budget deadlock, I believe it is essential to recognize that when our forbearers designed the US and State of California Constitution’s, they emphatically believed in three separate but co equal branches of government (Executive, Legislative and Judicial); the operative word being co-equal.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Governor Schwarzenegger has canceled trips to England and India in case he needs to call a special legislative session to addresshealth care, water storage, and redistricting, according to the SacBee. These issues, which the Governor identifies as among his toppriorities, have been delayed due to the budget impasse.

High temperatures are expected to continue into the Labor Day weekend, including in the Los Angeles area, whereincreased use of electricity has strained power grids and causedoutages, reports the San Jose Merc. Utilities are supplying recordamounts of energy, mostly due to increased use of air conditioning.

One third of California’s schools failed to meet benchmarksset by the No Child Left Behind program this year, according to the SanJose Merc. California schools also showed little improvement on thestate’s Academic Performance Index. The SF Chron further highlights the failure of 37 schools in the Bay Area.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Since the California Republican Party has oddly decided to attack Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez just two days after the GOP dropped its seven-week stranglehold on the state budget (a friendly reminder: the state Assembly passed the budget on July 20th), we figured we would remind the CRP of what those in the reality-based world are saying:

"'The Senate Republicans received a big shot of courage,' said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and former speech writer for Republican Gov. Pete Wilson in the '90s. 'But is that really a smart long-term strategy for a minority party, just being an obstructionist, just-say-no party? The answer is no.'" (Mike Zapler, "Budget impasse likely to recur next year given projected deficit," San Jose Mercury News, 8/23/07) 

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by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

The negotiations over health care reform have begun in earnest again. Arnold stated yesterday that he would not support the Democratic plan AB8 for two reasons. He will not sign legislation that does not require Californians to have insurance (individual mandate) and relies on just a payroll fee for financing coverage. Arnold favors his proposal, which would require hospitals and doctors to bear part of the fiscal responsibility for expanding access to health care.

Here is the thing, his plan just isn't politically viable in the legislature. By most indications, requiring doctors and hospitals to pay would necessitate a tax. Passing a tax increase requires a 2/3rds support in the legislature. There is absolutely no way that you could get even a single Republican to vote for it, especially in the wake of the budget impasse (not that anyone thought it was possible before). The only way for it actually make it into law would be a ballot initiative. LAT:

"The governor -- with all due respect, and I love him because he's a good friend of mine -- he has to start operating in the same world that I'm operating in, which is the real world," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles).

"In the real world that I live in, I can control and manage a simple majority bill," Nuñez said -- one that does not require GOP support as a tax would.

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by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Ok. The budget is done. Now to pivot on to the next big debate: health care reform. It has been put on the back-burner while the Senate Republicans threw their temper tantrum. Now it should emerge as the main topic of discussion, a place it held prior to the budget impasse. Here is the latest on what has been going on.

AB8, the Democratic plan, has been undergoing some work under the hood. Several amendments will hopefully be made to increase the affordability of health care, among those include a prescription dug purchasing pool that will have about 3-4 million participants. That will make it 2-3x larger than CalPERS. There is also talk of creating a public insurance program that everyone will be able to participate in. This is similar to a few of the Democratic presidential contenders plans to ensure there is an affordable option for health insurance for all residents. These amendments will be considered in hearings over the next few weeks.

Remember that AB8 is designed to pass on a majority vote and land on the governor's desk. It will not be subject to a two-thirds vote and thus will not require any Republican support. Arnold's plan, which never came together as detailed legislation would require a 2/3rds vote.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]