[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Assembly Democrats, led by Speaker Fabian Nunez, are calling for a special legislative session to address the growing foreclosure crisis. The Speaker and the Assembly Democrats have introduced a package of bills designed to stem the rising tide of foreclosures and keep the problem from happening again in the future. As we learn in this Assembly Web Report the Center for Responsible Lending says nearly 180,000 California homes will be lost to foreclosure from the 826,900 sub-prime loans made in 2005-2006 alone. Thousands of families are suffering and California could lose nearly $3 billion in property tax revenue.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By John Affeldt, Jim Keddy, Solomon Rivera, and Corina Vasaure

Now is the time to develop a roadmap for education funding in California. Our state needs a comprehensive, multi-year plan that prepares all students to succeed in college and our 21st century workforce and that difficult, but all-important work needs to start with this next legislative session.

Although the recently released report from Legislative Analyst Office presents a grim short-term fiscal outlook, the longer view is much more positive. In fact, the LAO projects that between 2009-10 and 2012-13, “K-14 education is projected to benefit from about $7 billion in ongoing funding above baseline costs that could go toward reform.” (“California’s Fiscal Outlook: LAO Projections 2007-08 through 2012-13,” Legislative Analyst Office (November 2007), p. 39.) Given these projections, now is the ideal time for the Legislature and the Governor to begin enacting comprehensive finance reform. Unless we put all schools on track to receive sufficient, equitable and predictable funding, it is unlikely we will ever see the system-wide reforms needed to ensure success for all California students.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Key bills and issues we’ve been following during the past week and beyond

By Hannah Beth Jackson

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Key bills and issues we’ve been following during the past week and beyond

By Hannah Beth Jackson

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Michael Russo
Health Care Advocate and Staff Attorney
California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG)

Governor Schwarzenegger called 2007 the year of health care reform back in January, but most of the action’s been saved for the last few months. After a summer spent on budget wrangling and with little time to spare before adjournment, the legislature quickly passed a reform bill. But the bill – called AB 8 – didn’t satisfy the Governor. He called a special legislative session on health care reform, vetoed the legislature’s bill, and last month released legislative language on his plan. Then on Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Perata replied with their own proposal for reform.

That’s a lot of back-and-forth, but the legislatures’ proposal puts us very close to a deal.

The Speaker’s plan goes a long way towards meeting the governor in the middle, while still containing costs, expanding coverage, and helping consumers get a fair shake when buying insurance.

When he vetoed AB 8, the Governor cited two specific issues: the bill didn’t attempt to cover all Californians, and he argued that it didn’t spread out the costs of reform fairly enough, and imposed too high a burden on businesses.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Nick Rahaim
Executive Assistant
California First Amendment Coalition

The 2007 legislative session started with a host of promising bills that would have created more transparency and would have reversed recent judicial and Attorney General opinions permitting excessive secrecy. There were some successes and some disappointments. The major disappointment was the failure to overturn the 2006 state Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, which effectively sealed all police disciplinary records. The major success was legislation creating more oversight and accountability for the UC Regents’ and CSU Trustees’ executive pay committees.

Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Senator Gloria Romero (D-Santa Monica) introduced AB 1393 and SB 1019, respectively. These bills attempted to overturn the Copley Press decision that closed police disciplinary records to the pubic. With the police union’s full political weight against the bills, they never emerged from committee. The battle is not over, however. Both bills are likely to be considered again in the next legislative session.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Key bills and issues we’ve been following during the past week and beyond

By Hannah Beth Jackson