by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Color me confused, but what of consequence did the Republicans in the Senate get out of their month long hold out on the budget, other than the $700 million in blue line cuts? That was offered right at the beginning of the impasse. What they accomplished at the end might actually backfire on them. The Republicans wanted to try and restrict the ability of Jerry Brown to go after polluters. What they won in the end was a two year gap where the transportation bond projects cannot be slowed due to greenhouse gas emission concerns, and a few other minor things. The fact that it was not threatened in the first place seems to be of little consequence to the Republicans. Steve Mavigilio has all of the wonky goodness.

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by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Here are a few numbers and quotes about the direct impacts of the missing budget, which is now 48 days late. (stats from Myers)

34,585 that is the number of invoices CalTrans estimates are pass due, totaling $8.1 million they owe to a bunch of small and large businesses.
$17 million the amount the CHP owes
unknown the total amount of late fees that the state is racking up, not exactly fiscally prudent. (CalTrans alone has $278,000 in penalties)
$2.5 billion the total amount of infrastructure bonds that the state cannot sell without a budget. The delay means that projects will be pushed back, for without the money, they cannot build.
#3 by Monday that will be the ranking of this impasse on the all time list of late budgets in California.

P.S. Dan Walter's makes no sense today. He starts out talking about the fact that one of the big holdups in the budget is the Republican Senators insistence on banning Attorney General Jerry Brown from blocking local governments over global warming. Then the rest of the column is about the long standing battle between business interests and liberal groups. It seems like he really wanted to write conflict story and tried, but failed to connect it to the budget. Maybe the editors chopped out something...

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The California Field Poll has just released a survey taken earlier this month that has some seemingly inconsistent but curious findings that bear scrutiny and attention.

Registered Voters Feel This is a Serious Problem

Perhaps the most significant finding is that a pretty hefty number of registered voters, 81% feel that this impasse is either a "very serious" (43%) or "somewhat serious" problem versus 17% who say it is "not serious." Even considering the margin of error (4.5%), more Democrats view the situation as serious (84% to 15%) than Republicans (80% to 20%).

For those who are paying a lot of attention, the numbers are astronomical--74% view it as "very serious" and 17% as somewhat serious, combining to 91%, with only 9% not viewing it as serious. Not surprisingly, the numbers are lower for those who are paying "little or no" attention to the budget crisis, but even there, 36% describe it as "very serious" and another 42% as somewhat serious" combining to 78% whereas only 19% of this group feels it is "not serious."

But Most Are Not Giving This Great Attention

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Shocking right, that the GOP would go after the most vulnerable Californians in their quest to reach their distorted ideas of "fiscal responsibility". They have used this impasse to target the programs they dislike the most. LAT:

After holding up the state budget nearly a month past deadline, Senate Republicans offered Tuesday to end the impasse if Democrats would move tens of thousands of poor families off welfare and make dozens of additional program cuts.

The Republicans will present their proposed state budget before the full Senate today. It would cut numerous programs Democrats hold dear, including the elimination of an institute for labor studies at the University of California. The budget plan includes nearly $1 billion in spending reductions beyond those in the bipartisan plan approved by the Assembly on Friday.

How's that for a lede? It's good to see the Times resting the blame squarely on the Republicans shoulders. They are the ones causing this impasse. It took a long time for them to actually come forward with their proposal for ending this thing. I can't say that I am surprised that the Republicans would also target the UC Berkeley labor center. They have wanted to eliminate it for years and are now inventing a budget crises so they can call for it to be closed.