[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez will outline a compromise package today that includes redistricting reform, a budget-time fundraising ban, and a revised attempt at tweaking term limits.

The redistricting component features an independent 17-member "hybrid" commission. No legislators will serve on the panel, with the majority picked randomly from a screened pool with no legislative influence and eight others picked by legislative leaders. Unlike the Voters First initiative that may appear on the November ballot, this proposal requires diversity in every step of the process and puts the Voting Rights Act first and foremost among the criteria in selecting districts. There's also a host of transparency and public input provisions.

The term limits provision is similar to Prop 93, but excludes the provisions that protected many incumbents that drew criticism. It reduces the maximum amount of time a person can serve in the Legislature from 14 years to 12 years, allowing  a legislator to serve all their time in one house.

There's also a fundraising blackout period prohibiting campaign contributions to legislators and the Governor from May 15th until the budget is enacted.

The proposal will be included in two pieces of legislation: ACA 1, which includes the bulk of the proposal, and AB 3069, which contains a statutory provision relating to the new redistricting commission.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

At the heart of any discussion of the state’s budget deficit lies funding for public education. In the late 1980’s, California’s voters determined that at least 40% of the state’s general fund revenues should be used to back up local property taxes – limited by 1978’s Proposition 13.

That means any cuts in state spending that exclude k-12 funding will fall upon the remaining 60% of the general fund. That means huge cuts in higher education, corrections, and health/welfare spending. To avoid these cuts, which could mean the early release of felons from state prisons, the GOP looks to cut public education – then to claim that the cuts won’t matter.

GOP leader Mike Villines is specific: “We can get more money in the classrooms without raising the deficit” (or raising taxes).

Villines would do this by shifting money from urban school districts to rural and suburban seats. Or, should we call them “Republican” school districts.

While the courts restrained the legislature’s natural desire to provide more money to districts represented by the majority, the use of mandates and categorical aid has at least let the urban school districts grab the lion’s share of funding to deal with their lion’s share of the problem.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

If you thought it was just California Republicans who can't rub two nickels together, you'd be wrong. That also seems to be the case in the nation's capital.
 
There's a nice story on Politico.com today about the troubles of national Republicans in raising money featuring our own Southern California Congressman Darrell Issa. There's a huge fundraising dinner slated for March 12 for Congressional Republicans that Issa needs to raise $7.5 million for. But the money isn't coming in, leading GOP Leader Jim Boehner to say Republican members need to "get off your ass."

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Even the conservative U.S. Supreme Court has sided -- for now -- with the City of San Francisco's requirement that employers chip in to provide health care. Republicans in the legislature, egged on by uber-right San Diego Union Tribune blogger Chris Reed, had said that any employer requirement was in violation of federal law. GOP Leader Mike Villines even called for hearings on it as part of their attack on the Democratic health care bill, AB 1x.
 
But the Supreme Court has derailed an attempt by San Francisco restaurant owners to stop the program in the tracks. Read the Chronicle story for details.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Of course it is scheduled the same day as the Republicans are scheduled to be down in San Diego, but Assembly Speaker Nunez insists that they are running up against a deadline. SacBee:

But despite the GOP lawmakers’ plans to be hundreds of miles away, Nunez’s office says the speaker won’t reschedule the vote.

“The dates are driven by the secretary of state’s deadline for putting a measure on the November 2008 ballot,” said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Núñez. “We don’t have much of a choice. Deadlines are deadlines.”

Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines says he has spoken with Núñez, who told Villines he would “try to accommodate” but didn’t promise to push back session from Dec. 5, when both the Senate and Assembly GOP caucus will be in San Diego.

This does not mean that there is a deal. That would need to be agreed to before a vote can take place. With the dearth of information coming out about any movement on the legislation itself this qualifies as news, small it may be.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Both the Assembly and Senate GOP caucuses will be meeting in San Diego on Dec. 5 to talk about how to block progress strategy for the coming year. Well, Speaker Fabian Nunez has a different plan for that date. Specifically, he's scheduled a vote on the Democrats' health care plan for that day:

When Assembly Speaker Fabian N??ez postponed a floor session on health care until early December, he rescheduled the vote for the day the Assembly Republican caucus is slated to be in San Diego for its annual policy retreat.
***
Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines says he has spoken with N??ez, who told Villines he would "try to accommodate" but didn't promise to push back session from Dec. 5, when both the Senate and Assembly GOP caucus will be in San Diego. (SacBee CapAlert Latest 11.27.07)

I wouldn't expect the Assembly Republicans to miss the vote on account of the cancellation fees, but I suppose nobody is weeping at the Speaker's office over those lost deposits at the posh, non-union, digs the Republicans are surely meeting at.  But at any rate, the vote on 12/5 is far from a certainty, as the Governator hasn't given any plan (other than his 0-vote plan) his stamp of approval. But, it's likely the last opportunity for any plan to get on the February ballot.