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.

I THINK IT'S APPARENT to most Democrats in California that after six years of a Republican actor as governor, it's time to elect a qualified candidate from among our own ranks in 2010. But please forgive me if I'm underwhelmed by our choices right now.

The indefatigable Jerry Brown hasn't even officially declared yet and has already raised seven times as much money as his nearest Democratic competitor, Gavin Newsom, a likeable but flawed candidate.

On the short list of alternates often mentioned is Jackie Speier, a dynamic freshman Congresswoman from San Mateo. So when I was recently invited to hear her speak at a luncheon hosted by the Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County, I happily accepted.

With a friendly nature, indomitable spirit and ambition to spare, the popular Speier spent 18 years in Sacramento in both the Assembly and the Senate and was elected with 75 percent of the vote last fall to the 12th Congressional District. She lost a primary contest for lieutenant governor in 2006 by a very narrow margin to John Garamendi.

Few in the mostly female audience disagreed with her assessment that we need more women in public office. "The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world," Speier said, quoting Charles Malik, former president of the United Nations.

But while California has two female senators, currently only 17 percent of the U.S. House is female. And giving up her House seat to run for governor would be a "difficult" decision, she said.

But we urgently need someone who isn't afraid to stand up to the special interests, Speier maintained. "I won't support anyone who won't take on the prison guards union."

That's a pretty fearless statement considering the California Correctional Peace Officers Association is one of the most powerful unions in the state and has funded many an independent expenditure attack on candidates who cross them.

But Speier is well known for her courage. While a young staffer to Congressman Leo Ryan in 1978, she was part of the delegation ambushed in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple. She was shot five times, left for dead and waited 22 hours for medical attention. Congressman Ryan and four others were murdered. The next day, more than 900 members of the cult committed suicide.

In 1993, Speier's first husband died in a car crash while she was pregnant with their second child.

AND SO, IN COMPARISON, political obstacles seem far less formidable. She's been a prolific legislator with more than 300 bills signed into law, many focusing on consumer protection issues and financial reform, and she chaired the state Senate committee investigating fraud in state government. On her first day in Congress, she delivered a gutsy but rousing speech against the Iraq war.

Speier recently held a town hall forum on health care in her district which was peaceful. "There is no point in pursuing health care reform without a public option," she said. What would she do to fix California politics? Get rid of term limits (which give us a perpetual crop of rookies) or limit each legislator to 12 years, jettison the two-thirds vote needed to pass a budget and bring on open primaries (which will encourage moderates).

So perhaps instead of a fake action hero for governor, we've found a real one.

Go Jackie!

JIM WUNDERMAN has saddled himself with quite a challenge: fixing a state that The Economist magazine called "ungovernable." Wunderman and his group Repair California want to rewrite a state constitution that has previously been amended 512 times into a bloated, contradictory mess.

California's governance process has followed a parallel evolution and now that the economy has tanked, all the nasty underpinnings are sticking out for the world to see. Ventura County Star Sacramento Bureau Chief Timm Herdt, a panelist at the Repair California event held Monday at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, said he has watched one too many deals made in the wee hours of all-night budget sessions in the legislature: "Now they only have one trick in their book and that's sleep deprivation."

A Bay area businessman, Wunderman says he has been joined in his efforts by a cross section of political groups like Common Cause, The New America Foundation, The Courage Campaign, Orange County Lincoln Club and Joint Venture - Silicon Valley Networks. Others are coming on board.

With so much contributing to the state's dysfunction, agreeing on what to fix may take some doing. For example, the Commission on the 21st Century Economy is currently locked in a partisan battle on tax reform. But Wunderman outlined the following possible issues for a state constitutional convention:

• Eliminating the 2/3 requirement to pass a budget (but not necessarily the 2/3 to pass a tax increase.) California is the only state to require a 2/3 vote for both.
  
• Revising the fiscal inequities which exist between Sacramento and local governments because of Prop. 13. "They didn't exactly intend for what's happened to happen," Wunderman said of the drain on funds for cities and counties.
• Election reform. "It's a special-interest controlled mob up in Sacramento right now. ... The short terms in the Assembly have given it rookie-league status so they operate at the behest of special interests and staff, the only ones who have experience."
• Reforming the ballot initiative process. "It wasn't intended to become what it's become. It's been taken over by special interests." Initiatives of the future could have sunset clauses and a requirement to reveal economic impact.
• Requiring performance measures for established programs.
  

THE CURRENT SYSTEM SPECIFIES that the legislature must call for a Constitutional Convention. But Repair California wants to bypass them and go directly to the voters with it. Once the Attorney General's Office issues titles and summaries for a proposed ballot measure, the group has only 150 days to gather 800,000 signatures to qualify it for the November 2010 ballot. The convention would take place in 2011 and the delegates' reform package would be voted on in November of 2012. 

How would the citizen-delegates be chosen? Herb Gooch, a political science professor at CLU, told me he thought they should be selected by Assembly district with all potential candidates voted on by the public.

While seasoned Sacramento hands like Herdt believe special-interest lawsuits will torpedo these efforts, the folks behind Repair California remain optimistic. If the packed room on Monday was any indication, the will is there.

"The people have the power to change this and nothing can stop them," Wunderman said.

THERE'S AN EXPRESSION called "Hawaiian Time" which loosely means you get around to it when you can. It's the laid-back attitude of the island of Kauai which I just spent the last nine days visiting. So in the aloha spirit, please forgive my week-late commentary on last week's state budget vote. Also in the Kauai spirit, I dedicate this blog to the island's unofficial birds: the wild chickens that roam loose everywhere on the island.

My fellow Democrats in the state legislature: with some notable exceptions, you generally lack spinal columns. How is it possible that the majority party with all public polling on its side kowtowed to the minority Republicans and our governor in slashing billions to schools, children's health insurance, state parks, the elderly, sick and disabled?

Why, when recent polling showed that over 70 percent of voters, across party lines, supported a cigarette and tobacco tax increase that could generate $1.2 billion a year, did you discard the idea? (We are number 32 in the nation in such fees. Forty-six other states have raised their cigarette tax rate a collective total of 93 times since California last raised its tax in 1998.)

Why, when other polling showed that 73 percent supported oil extraction fees like every other oil-drilling state has, did you also discount that plan? These fees could generate $1.3 billion a year.

Big Tobacco and Big Oil have spent millions fighting these ideas and you let them win.

Why did you instead agree to let the state borrow or take billions away from our cities and counties, leaving local governments to further cut their own decimated budgets? The City of Ventura alone will lose an estimated $2.76 million this fiscal year to Sacramento's budget debacle, according to a calculation tool provided by the Sacramento Bee. These grabs are sure to trigger lawsuits.

Another tip: Our unions want to save jobs, too. Bring everyone to the table to talk and don't let wedge issues like public employee pension reform be used as last-minute ammo by our governor in the next budget talks.

AND NOW FOR THE EXCEPTIONS:  Kudos to State Sen. Fran Pavley, (D-Agoura Hills) who refused to vote for the raid on local gas taxes which would cut street repairs to cities, according to Star reporter Timm Herdt. The Assembly fought that one back, too. Pavley also voted no on over $334 million in reductions in state spending for developmental services.

More no votes from Democratic Senators Gil Cedillo, Lou Correa, Mark DeSaulnier, and Leland Yee on the main budget bill forced perennial Republican no voters Sam Aanestad, Roy Ashburn, Dennis Hollingsworth, Bob Huff, George Runner, and Tony Strickland into voting yes. This time around they won't be able to issue hypocritical press releases afterward saying they didn't actually vote for these cuts.

And hooray for our local Assembly member Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) who stood up to the governor's sneaky plan to override the State Lands Commission's denial of the first new offshore drilling deal in state waters in 40 years. Irregardless of what you believe about oil drilling, bypassing long-established procedures and public decisions in a hurried budget deal is wrong.

"I think it should be very troubling to the public that a decision that was made through a public process in the light of day can be overturned by a few leaders behind closed doors," Victoria Rome, deputy California advocacy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council said. Nava, who is running for State Attorney General, gathered the support of more than 60 environmental groups, editorial writers and the state Democratic Party in defeating the oil deal.

These Democrats with guts will continue to have my vote.

AS I REPORTED back in March, it didn't take long for "renewable energy businessman" Sen. Tony Strickland to dodge a vote on a renewable energy bill. That bill, SB 14, would require investor-owned utilities to receive one-third of their power from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Well he's gone and done it again.

This time he failed to vote in committee on AB 920, a bill which would provide incentives for customers to use wind or solar energy systems. According to the proposed legislation by Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael): 

The author believes this will encourage homeowners and businesses to conserve more electricity (and thus have more surplus power they can sell to the utility) and will allow property owners to install the maximum number of solar panels on their home.

Our Republican state senator justified his "renewable energy" ballot designation during his campaign against Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson by his partnership in a wave energy company formed around the same time he decided to run in a green-leaning district. And here's a quote straight off his web page:

"I am working with Democrats and Republicans to transition California to a renewable, more energy efficient economy to jumpstart the economy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve the environment, and lower energy prices."
-Senator Tony Strickland

So why then would Strickland take a walk on two important renewable energy bills? When questioning why politicians do what they do it is always wise to find out who supports or opposes a particular bill. 

AB 920 and SB 14 are opposed by Pacific Gas & Electric, which donated $1,250 to Tony Strickland's state senate campaign, $5,600 to Strickland's controller's race and $5,000 to his 2002 Assembly race, according to the very handy online site followthemoney.org.

Strickland's wife, Assembly member Audra Strickland, just plain voted against AB 920, so I will give her some credit for not being dodgy. I would ideally like to give Tony some credit, too, for his package of renewable energy legislation introduced a few months ago, which largely consisted of tax credits, continuing his no-revenue mantra.

But he is not consistent in backing renewable energy legislation, especially that opposed by his donors, and this highlights his credibility problem.

IN A BIT OF RELATED NEWS: According to the Mendocino Beacon it would seem Strickland's fledging wave energy company GreenWave, which is still in the preliminary permit phase and hasn't done much of anything yet, is one of the few left standing with proposed projects off the California coast.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company  and California Wave Energy Partners recently pulled projects, according to the Beacon. GreenWave's application has riled the locals up there with "more interveners and more people commenting than any other hydrokinetic project in the nation," the Beacon writes.

OUR GOVERNOR'S game of chicken with the legislature not only sunk us billions of dollars deeper in debt last week, it caused one of the nation's top rating agencies, Fitch, to downgrade its rating on California's long-term bonds yesterday to "BBB," two notches above junk status.

This means the state will likely be forced to pay even higher interest rates when borrowing money. Also yesterday, a group of leading banks announced they'll only accept the state-issued IOUs through Friday.

Add this to the governor's proposal to throw nearly a million children off health insurance rolls, close state parks, lay off more teachers, shut down CalWORKS, and rescind grants to college students.

All this trauma would keep most people in charge of the world's eighth largest economy up at night, but not our governor. In a recent interview in New York Times Magazine, Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed at peace with the bedlam going on around him.

Schwarzenegger reclined deeply in his chair, lighted an eight-inch cigar and declared himself "perfectly fine," despite the fiscal debacle and personal heartsickness all around him. "Someone else might walk out of here every day depressed, but I don't walk out of here depressed," Schwarzenegger said. Whatever happens, "I will sit down in my Jacuzzi tonight," he said. "I'm going to lay back with a stogie."

I've run out of words to express my annoyance with this man. So tonight I'm letting Photoshop tell the story.

I received this missive from State Democratic Party Chair John Burton just a few moments ago. I think it's important enough to share verbatim:

Please join me in thanking Assembly and Senate Democrats for passing a common-sense budget before the fiscal year ends tomorrow.

Late last night, Assembly Democrats passed a spending plan that minimizes the cruel cuts advocated by the governor by raising $2 billion in new revenue. Just a few minutes ago, Senate Democrats followed suit, passing a plan that requires Big Tobacco and Big Oil to share in the state budget sacrifice.

Speaker Karen Bass, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and their caucuses should be commended for standing firm against the governor's Draconian cuts.

In order to pass the plan, legislative leaders structured it to require a majority vote. That's because Republicans have repeatedly refused to provide the handful of votes necessary to pass the plan with two-thirds support.

Disappointingly, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto the Democrats' budget plan, preferring to play a game of chicken with the budget. He and Legislative Republicans would rather strip health care from nearly one million children and close 220 state parks than ask corporate special interests to pay their fair share.

Now, the onus is on the governor and Republican lawmakers to explain to Californians why they would rather drive the state over a cliff than agree to a budget with a mix of cuts and new revenue.

Please, call Governor Schwarzenegger's office today at (916) 445-2841 or (213) 897-0322. Ask the governor to sign this budget plan, which minimizes the cuts by sharing the sacrifice.

Peace and friendship,

John Burton

IT'S A NIGHTMARE that is likely playing over and over in the heads of tourism bureau directors in beach towns around California: how many visitor dollars will go away if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger really shuts down our state parks?

In seaside getaways all along the coast, the lure of the ocean draws tourists and their money, but the parking lots and campgrounds at most state-run beaches will be padlocked in a year if the governor's proposal to close more than 80 percent of our state park system is approved. This will save the state $143 million and will likely put businesses dependent on visitors to state parks under water.

According to the California Travel Industry Association, studies have shown that every $1 that funds the state park system returns $2.35 to the General Fund, largely through economic activity in communities surrounding state parks. This is an estimated $350 million.

Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau Director Jim Luttjohann is finding the possible closures sort of surreal. "It's so huge it's almost unfathomable," he said. He just returned from a state conference on tourism where the mood was very somber. Schwarzenegger, who was scheduled to attend, didn't show up. Other pressing matters kept him elsewhere, his staff explained.

For beachfront hotel owners on state lands, the prospect of fenced-off dunes must seem ludicrous. Luttjohann pointed to one Ventura hotel's positioning near San Buenaventura State Beach, one of those on the closure list.

"We would have a beachside hotel where guests couldn't go to the beach."

ACCORDING TO THE GOVERNOR'S PROPOSAL, in July of 2010, 223 of our 279 state parks will be fenced off and closed to the public. In Ventura County and neighboring areas that would mean the closure of the popular San Buenaventura State Beach, Carpinteria State Beach, Emma Wood State Beach, El Capitan State Beach, Gaviota State Park, Leo Carrillo State Park, Malibu Creek State Park, Malibu Lagoon State Beach, McGrath State Beach, Refugio State Beach, Point Mugu State Park and Will Rogers State Historical Park.

It will also close access to the majestic beauty of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz area and Anza-Borrego near San Diego, among many other treasured spots.

But closing a state park doesn't necessarily mean people will stay out, Luttjohan pointed out. There will be issues of safety with no lifeguards available in beach areas, no public restroom facilities and no maintenance. Vagrants could easily set up camp and the area will quickly become blighted.

Closures will force more beachgoers to neighborhoods with beach access unaffected by the budget cuts. Pierpoint Beach in Ventura could see an influx of visitors and beach lanes clogged by parked cars.

BUT THERE IS A SOLUTION. It's just not popular with the minority Republicans, who are against all new fees and taxes, even ones which could keep our state's tourism industry from taking a huge hit. Today the Senate Republicans voted against this plan despite polling done last year showing 74 percent of respondents in favor.

A $15 surcharge on vehicle license fees has been proposed which would allow anyone with a California license plate free day-use to our parks. (For example, the $8 entrance fee to San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura would be waived.) This would generate enough to keep all our state parks open with enough left over to pay off debt on past park bonds. But it needs a 2/3 vote by both houses of the legislature to pass.

Go visit a state park today while you can. Take a long walk on the beach or in the woods and ask yourself: is this something I want to live without? And how long do we let a stubborn minority ruin the state for the rest of us without offering any of their own solutions?

IN A MOVE THAT WILL SURPRISE absolutely nobody, State Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) voted in committee last week against a proposal to tack a tax on cigarettes to raise about $1.2 billion annually for the state's ailing general fund.

He also recently voted against two measures, SB 602 and SB 603, which would make it harder for minors to buy cigarettes.

The senator joined two other Republicans in voting no on SB 600, despite the fact that polls, such as one conducted after the May vote and another done in April by Field Research Inc. say an overwhelming majority of state residents favor an increase in tobacco taxes and don't want to see drastic cuts to health-care programs for low-income and disabled residents and children.

In the last 10 years, tobacco companies have spent millions in California to keep taxes on tobacco products here among the lowest in the nation. Strickland alone has been the recipient of a whopping $91,550 in tobacco contributions since he entered politics.

According to tobacco-facts.net, California's tobacco tax rate of 87 cents per pack is 32nd in the nation. Rhode Island is No. 1 with $3.46 a pack. Some city governments in other areas of the U.S. have imposed their own taxes as well.

The bill, co authored by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has earmarked the revenue to go toward the general fund, lung cancer research, tobacco cessation and control, school-based anti-smoking programs and tobacco enforcement efforts.  SB 600 is sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.

Besides generating much-needed revenue, the bill is expected to discourage smoking among youth, according to a press release issued by Padilla.

"California needs to do more to keep tobacco away from kids," Padilla said.  "With every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, youth smoking is reduced by about seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by about four percent. Raising the tobacco tax reduces youth smoking," he added.

The bill's co-sponsor, the American Cancer Society, argues that the increase is long overdue and since California's last tobacco tax increase, 44 states have increased their tobacco taxes. The American Heart Association, also a co-sponsor, argues that this bill will help reduce heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer in the United States.

Assemblymember Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) has introduced a similar bill, AB 89.

STRICKLAND HAS A LONG HISTORY of siding with Big Tobacco on legislation, especially when it comes to sales of tobacco products to minors. Beyond the recent votes against bills to curb youth smoking, while in the Assembly he voted against allowing the Department of Health Services to conduct stings on businesses selling tobacco to minors. It passed into law anyway. He also voted against restricting non face-to-face sales of cigarettes. The measure was signed into law by Schwarzenegger.

In May, he voted against SB 4 which prohibits smoking on any state coastal beach or state park unit, except in adjacent parking lots.

The Ventura County Republican Party has been well funded by tobacco dollars as well, with $50,000 deposited into its account in May of 2008 by Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris.

Other county tobacco donations include $28,650 for Assembly member Audra Strickland (R-Moorpark), $20,900 for Assembly member Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita), and $18,900 for Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster). None of the current Democratic legislators have accepted tobacco money.

Watch to see how all these politicians vote when the bills come before them.

SB 600 is opposed by California Chamber of Commerce, California Black Chamber of Commerce, the Black Chamber of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the California Taxpayers Assn. and the Neighborhood Market Assn. All these groups have received tobacco contributions, according to tobacco-facts.net.

Of the two senators who sided with Strickland in the Senate Health Committee, both have also accepted tobacco money. Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) accepted $26,800 and Sen. Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) took $10,100.

UPDATE: Today Tony Strickland finally added his name to the list of senators willing to take a pay cut. For a look at the list, go here. IN MORE INTERESTING NEWS: It looks like State Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster), who represents the cities of Fillmore, Santa Paula and Piru, has gotten himself into a bit of hot water. Read the story in the Sacramento Bee here.

REPUBLICAN PUNDITS would like you to believe that the defeat of Prop. 1A was all about taxes. Democrats will tell you that the dysfunction leading up to the defeat of the propositions is all about the two-thirds requirement to pass a budget.

But it's more complicated than that.

Researcher David Binder's recent widely quoted poll shows an electorate which was in no mood to sign off on the labyrinthine measures but had no taste for the draconian cuts which are in our future, either. Of the 1,008 voters surveyed, 603 voted in the special election and 405 did not. Of those respondents, only 36 percent of those who voted wanted a cuts-only budget. Of those who did not vote, only 24 percent preferred such a scenario.

Polling by the Public Policy Institute of California also supports this notion.

But what Binder's poll really proved is that the voters overwhelmingly considered the special election a failure of the legislature and the governor to do what they were elected to do.

BUT WHY IS THAT? Most Democrats I talk to put the blame squarely on the aforementioned two-thirds dilemma. But this requirement has been in place since 1933. What has changed? Research shows that over the years the two parties have grown farther and farther apart in ideology, making it difficult to reach the sort of compromise needed to pass a supermajority budget on time.

Adding to the blockade, last year most of the state's Republican legislators signed Grover Norquist's "No Tax Pledge," and ostracized those who broke ranks in February.

While good legislation gets passed every week in Sacramento with bipartisan cooperation, it is the highly publicized budget battles which paint a picture of total dysfunction and linger in the voters' minds.

MOST OF US BELIEVE in a system of checks and balances. But what do you do when one party will not compromise in budget negotiations? Democrats tried an end-run budget last January which didn't need a two-thirds approval. The governor vetoed it.

So now the talk is of a Constitutional Convention with the hope of reducing the majority needed to pass a budget to 55 percent. We are only one of three states which requires the two-thirds. The Republican "my way or the highway" mentality may just end up depriving them of the only power they have.

And this is unfortunate because undoing the two-thirds will not help foster the spirit of bipartisanship, the ultimate goal of our legislative process.

"California's day of reckoning is here," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in his address today. "We have 14 days to act before the state runs out of money."

Fat chance.