by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Since Dave Cogdill has taken over as Senate Minority Leader, the Senate Minority has been sending out missives on one policy area or another on a weekly (ish) basis.  Today's was another doozy, this time on the identification requirement for voting:

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by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

California Senate President pro Tem Don Perata issued a statement and took questions from reporters shortly after 5 p.m. today on the steps to the state Capitol. The Sacramento Bee has an article on this with a few more details. Sacramento sources indicated last week that the polling for the race was not too favorable for the recall succeeding.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

It's going to be a long summer—and fall, for that matter— asthe rubber hits the road on this year's budget. The Sacramento Beereports that Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto (left)has reiterated that tax hikes are off the table for his caucus,although he gives some token acknowledgment to closing loopholes.

The San Francisco Chronicle seems to think there is a debate over Proposition 98, but it seems to us that when Pete Wilson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dianne Feinstein and the Sierra Club agree a proposition is bad news, it's probably bad news. It is interesting to note that even inBerkeley, the property owners association supports 98, which would gutrent control and most affordable housing projects.

The city of Vallejo became the first municipality in history to file for bankruptcy, despite last minute pleas from Solano County legislators Pat Wigginsand Noreen Evans, the Oakland Tribune reports. Things had gotten sobad, and the options so limited, that there was hardly a choice.

There's more... 

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Robert Cruickshank

Here in the dog days of April, as the state awaits the governor's May Revise, frustration seems to be setting in over the budget. The real political battles will begin in earnest after the May Revise, but the jockeying for position has been going on for some time, including in the state's media. Unsurprisingly, the media wants to spin the budget crisis as a failure of all Sacramento politicians, when in fact the current impasse is the responsibility of one group alone: the Republicans.

As an article in yesterday's Sac Bee would have us believe, there is "scant support for budget changes." But a deeper look shows that while Democrats have already proposed budget fixes, such as closing the yacht loophole and creating an oil severance tax (as exists in nearly every other state), it is the Republicans alone that have blocked meaningful budget action.

And why have they done so? Republicans want us to believe that any revenue solution is economically damaging. From the Bee:

“However, Sen. Dave Cogdill of Modesto, the GOP's incoming leader, said the state should not take away credits at a time when the economy is struggling.