IN JULY I REPORTED how the last-minute impasse staged by Senate Republicans to derail stopgap measures already approved by the Assembly added $7 billion to the state's deficit.

Now it has been widely reported that the recalcitrant "Just Say No" crowd, including our own State Sen. Tony Strickland has just added to the pain our cities will feel as the state takes $2 billion in property tax revenues away from local governments  to balance its own budget. These gaps will leave cities scrambling to plug holes they thought they had already filled in their own budget-balancing woes this year.

While the state is obligated to pay the money back in 2013 through provisions in 2004's Prop. 1A, most local officials I talk to don't really believe it will happen. 

So cities and counties were counting on Senate Bill 67 to pass in the whirlwind of the last legislative session which ended Sept. 11. This was "cleanup" legislation which would allow a consortium made up of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties to accept the state's IOUs for the borrowed property tax and issues bonds to local governments to make up for the loss.

But this legislation, along with other bills which required a 2/3 passage, got hung up in a political snit over several unrelated matters, including a vote sought by Republicans on behalf of Intuit, the makers of Turbo Tax, to deny tax preparation services to low-income people through a program called ReadyReturn. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat and the Los Angeles Times took Strickland to task for his part in this scheme. Strickland has accepted $1 million in campaign cash from Intuit, the Times pointed out. And this OpEd piece points out just how wrong Intuit is in pursuing this matter.

Also lost in this power play by the No Crowd was money for battered women's shelters, federal money for swine flu preparations and a bill allowing the state to renegotiate letters of credit with banks, saving the state about $850 million this year.

Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, was the only one to break from his party and vote for the measures. "At the end of the day we were sent to Sacramento to govern, not play politics," he told the Lompoc Record.

BY THE WAY: If you are looking for more Republican non-responsiveness, look no further than Mike Stoker, Tony Strickland's aide and big-time polluter Greka Energy's spokesperson, who is running for the 35th Assembly District seat along with Susan Jordan and Das Williams. I watched him in action at a forum put together at a Gold Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce breakfast last week by The Paladin Principle, Republican Assembly District 37 candidate Jeff Gorell's firm. The press was of course alerted to this breakfast forum, attended by 18 people. 

Stoker's idea of debating is apparently interrupting and shouting over his opponent's voice. He isn't much of a listener.

THAT'S THE STATED MOTTO of the National Women's Political Caucus, a group I've taken a leadership role in this year. This shouldn't surprise anyone as I haven't been shy about my support for certain female candidates here.

But we haven't done particularly well in California in our stated goal our goal of 50-50 by 2020: 50 percent women and 50 percent men in government by the year 2020, the 100th anniversary of the right to vote for women. In fact, we actually lost ground in the state legislature last year.

While we have two female U.S. senators, other NWPC-supported candidates only hold 12 out of 40 seats in the State Senate, 16 out of 80 in the State Assembly and 1 out of 6 in statewide office (Secretary of State Debra Bowen). Our candidates hold 18 out of 50 state seats in the House of Representatives. We hope to do better in the next few years.

What I love the most about NWPC is that it is multi-partisan. It is the only group of its kind devoted to recruiting, training and promoting female candidates who are supportive of women's issues, regardless of party.

We have a couple of networking events coming up which I'd like to mention here. If you're interested in coming, send an email to this address.

The first is a meet-and-greet with 35th District Assembly Candidate Susan Jordan on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at Marie Callender's, 1295 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura. Jordan is an accomplished businesswoman turned environmental activist from Santa Barbara who, as a senior partner in a top New York-based market research and consulting firm had clients ranging from Russian President Boris Yeltsin to Westinghouse and HBO to California Gov. Pete Wilson and New York Senator Patrick Moynihan. She is running in what will likely be a hotly contested Democratic primary race in June of 2010 against Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, who is known in Ventura for his anti-Wal-Mart activities.

We also have our most popular event coming up May 9 in Ojai, "Politics, Tea and Thee." It's an elegant afternoon of tea, good food and conversation. Confirmed for the event are city council members Roseann Mikos of Moorpark, Maricela Morales of Port Hueneme, Irene Pinkard of Oxnard, and Ventura Mayor Christy Weir who will participate in a panel discussion on the challenges facing our municipalities today.

Many more events will be scheduled throughout the year. Our local caucus is a wonderful group of smart, talented women -- and a few men, too! Check back here for more events.