[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Dan Bacher

The three State Senators who have led Democratic negotiations with Republicans over a potential new water bond sent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, "The Fish Terminator," a strongly worded letter today asking him to hold off his plans for peripheral canal. Since the Governor proclaimed his support for a peripheral canal last June, he's been doing everything he can to push through this environmentally destructive pork barrel fiasco to benefit subsidized corporate agribusiness and developers at the expense of fish, the environment and the northern California economy.

"It was reported to us that last Friday, a resources agency official stated in a public meeting on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan that the administration is preparing an executive order directing to begin environmental and engineering documents for a canal facility despite the fact that the budget request has not been acted upon and the request contends that no staff currently are available for that purpose," said the letter, signed by Senators Don Perata, Mike Machado and Darrell Steinberg.

The administrations pursuit of the controversial project makes it difficult to negotiate seriously on a comprehensive new plan to meet California’s future water needs, according to the letter.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• LAO Agrees that Health Reform Can Pencil Out, but Overstates Risk
• Analysis Spotlights What LAO Neglected

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California

The Senate Health Committee is scheduled to vote this afternoon on the comprehensive health reform measure, AB x1 1, negotiated by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The bill would dramatically reform the health care system through multiple efforts, including by significantly expanding public health programs, ensuring that employers contribute to their worker’s health coverage, and stopping insurers for denying people for “pre-existing conditions.”

NEW ANALYSIS: As California state Senators consider their vote, new information and analyses are coming out that provide more benefits and assurances for California consumers, taxpayers, and the state general fund.

A new analysis by Health Access California agrees with the Legislative Analyst’s Office’s verification of the ability for health reform, as proposed in AB x1 1, to pencil out for five years without any impact on the general fund. However, the Health Access analysis spotlights information where the LAO has:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

There have been particularly galling misstatements of fact and exaggerations about the actions of California Attorney General Jerry Brown in enforcing California's environmental laws, the latest sticking point in the fog of war that the cabal of 14 Republican California State Senators is using as their excuse in not providing the single vote needed to pass our overdue state budget. We'll deal with the facts on what Brown is doing, but first, let's look at the larger picture.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

There is an overarching lesson to be learned from the attempt by Republican California State Senators to change California's basic environmental law and using the leverage of a state budget stalemate they are causing to do so.

On the surface, these Senators are trying to link it to the budget--California's laundry list appropriating money for the various activities of state government. They say that changes in a 1970 law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) are needed to spend bond money for construction of transportation projects and other items the voters approved money for in last year's bond measures. There is ample reason to dispute this contention, and we've had articles on these pages that refute this claim.

But, if you probe just a bit deeper, you see that there is a much larger picture: Large developers want to build massive housing projects and to be able to do these unfettered by complying with California law and to have the lawyer we have elected, Attorney General Jerry Brown, be able to enforce the law through the courts.

But this ploy goes even deeper and involves disrespect for the basic rule of law and our system of government. It goes beyond Jerry Brown and the particulars of the moment.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

by jsw [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Blog Roundup is on the flip; hopefully I made the email distribution cutoff. Went through 500 posts in 35 minutes.

As always, if I missed something, let me know in comments.

by jsw [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Blog Roundup is on the flip; hopefully I made the email distribution cutoff. Went through 500 posts in 35 minutes.

As always, if I missed something, let me know in comments.