August 12, 2008
Schwarzenegger sues state controller over pay-cut order
SACRAMENTO -- The Schwarzenegger administration Monday sued state Controller John Chiang in an effort to force him to comply with the governor's order that the pay of most state workers be dropped to the federal minimum wage until a state budget is enacted.

July 26, 2008
Governor, controller clash on pay-cut plan
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he must temporarily cut the pay of 200,000 state workers to prevent a state cash crisis, but some believe it is a political move to pressure the Legislature to enact an overdue budget.

May 23, 2008
Schwarzenegger's budget gamble
The governor's plan to borrow against future lottery earnings relies on Californians acting recklessly with their money.

May 5, 2008
New twist to old issue of 'taking' of property
SACRAMENTO - Dueling initiatives on the statewide ballot June 3 are being framed as a showdown over government's power to seize private property, but the outcome could turn on the underlying issue of rent control.

March 23, 2008
California budget cutters look at tax breaks
State leaders are battling over how to solve the budget, with Democrats pushing to increase revenue and GOP lawmakers advocating only cuts. The governor and lawmakers have yet to embrace a specific tax break, but both sides are analyzing the possibilities.

March 22, 2008
High-speed rail backers hope adding private investors to bond measure will avoid delays
Democratic lawmakers have agreed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's request to include public-private partnerships for a high-speed train that could travel from either San Francisco or Sacramento to Los Angeles in 2 1/2 hours.

California seeks new ways to recover unpaid taxes
As California struggles to bridge an estimated $8 billion budget deficit, it just so happens that's about the same amount the Legislative Analyst's Office estimates the state loses annually in uncollected taxes.

February 26, 2008
OPINION
"Even Reagan raised taxes"
Past governors boosted rates drastically during recessions; Schwarzenegger should do the same
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined the anti-tax Republicans in the Legislature -- that is, all of them -- in declaring, "You can't tax your way" out of the state's budget deficit problem. But, in fact, you can. California governors have been doing that for the last 40 years, and the most spectacularly successful were Republicans -- Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson.

February 25, 2008
LOS ANGELES TIMES EDITORIAL
"Channeling Mulholland"
The Times launches an editorial series on water and water policy in California and around the world
Our state's breathtaking natural beauty, envied easygoing lifestyle and booming economy -- the California dream chronicled and immortalized by our resident historian, Kevin Starr -- depend on an ambitiously conceived network of aqueducts, pumps, dams and pipes that will literally run dry if we don't invest heavily to change the way we use, capture, store and distribute water.

Speaker race is a Capitol brawl
With Fabian Nunez termed out, 10 Democrats are politicking for the Assembly's biggest prize.

DAN WALTERS
"Shake-up looming in Capitol"
Voter rejection of Proposition 93, a measure that would have eased legislative term limits, touched off an immediate scramble for power in the Capitol.

February 24, 2008
Ready for the Capitol's big stage
SACRAMENTO - Sacramento hasn't seen a leader like Modesto's Dave Cogdill in a quite some time: Cogdill, who became the Senate minority leader this week, is neither a glad-hander nor a political acrobat intoxicated by the art of the deal.

DANIEL WEINTRAUB
"Budget crisis puts the governor at a turning point"
Schwarzenegger might be proud of his leadership in the fight against global warming and pleased with his program to rebuild California's infrastructure. But unless he attacks the state's fiscal mess with the same gusto he applied to those issues, he will leave his successor with the same kind of problem he inherited. History will judge him to be, for the most part, a failure.

February 23, 2008
Villaraigosa's cousin vies for Assembly seat
The labor organizer and relative of the Los Angeles mayor is up against other candidates with political ties for the seat being vacated by Speaker Fabian Nunez.

February 22, 2008
SAC BEE EDITORIAL
"Analyst offers a sensible alternative on budget"
Targeted cuts, elimination of tax breaks offer a better way to deal with state deficit

February 21, 2008
Cogdill to lead Senate GOP
State Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected Modesto's Dave Cogdill as their next leader, giving the San Joaquin Valley a monopoly on GOP power in the Legislature. 

February 20, 2008
GOP sails to rescue of yachts
SACRAMENTO -- Yacht buyers will continue to benefit from a loophole that allows them to avoid sales tax on their boats, after Republicans in the Assembly blocked an effort to close it Tuesday. 

California's budget gap jumps to $16 billion
SACRAMENTO -- California's budget shortfall has swollen from $14.5 billion to $16 billion, according to the state's chief budget analyst, who calls on lawmakers to reject the governor's approach for closing the deficit through spending cuts alone and consider raising taxes. 

February 19, 2008
In closing state budget gap, vast sums are off limits
SACRAMENTO -- -- The state is about to pump half a billion dollars into teaching children to roll sushi, juggle pins and master new dance forms, even as spending cuts threaten to erode instruction in reading, math and other fundamentals.

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE EDITORIAL 
Out to sea
The no-new-tax pledge by Sacramento Republicans is getting crazier by the minute. The latest example: The GOP's refusal to close a tax loophole enjoyed by yacht owners.
 
DAN WALTERS
Democrats scramble for speaker
Although Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, and Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, are candidates, the assumption in the Capitol is that with the Senate leadership post going to Steinberg, the next speaker must come from Southern California, because of the unwritten rule of regional bifurcation.

Wall Street says Schwarzenegger is overselling lottery idea
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is dramatically overestimating the jackpot the state could collect if it sold the rights to operate the lottery to an outside company, according to confidential Wall Street analyses.

Brown to launch anti-warming effort
SACRAMENTO - Monday, Brown's aides told MediaNews he will announce he is convening voluntary regional schools for California's more than 500 county supervisors and mayors to advocate tough actions such new transportation impact fees and costly energy-efficiency.

February 18, 2008
SAC BEE EDITORIAL
Budget deal is nothing to be proud of
California's Legislature has done such a fine job of creating diminished expectations that the emergency budget cuts it approved Friday actually resembled responsible governance.

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
One cheer, one jeer
Steinberg's rise welcome, but not budget bills.

GEORGE SKELTON
Poor won't have the luxury of a tax loophole
SACRAMENTO - When you've got Republicans who won't even close a tax loophole for yacht buyers, there isn't much hope of honestly solving California's budget mess.


Taxes may stay static, but fees will see a bump
SACRAMENTO - By substituting fees in lieu of taxes, Schwarzenegger proposes to reach into the pockets of motorists, disabled Medi-Cal recipients and homeowners for at least $761.5 million.

DAN WALTERS
Recall bid looks like power play
The year's oddest story of intrigue in California politics may be the recall drive mounted by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata against Republican Sen. Jeff Denham - a campaign that appears to be proceeding even though Perata is being forced out of the Legislature.

February 17, 2008
'Nice guy' says he's a fighter
Fellow Democrats on Feb. 7 designated Sen. Darrell Steinberg to be the next leader of the California Senate. Steinberg, 48, will take over in November under a timeline established by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.

Downturn takes a toll on Golden State fortunes
If recent economic history is any guide, California is in for a nasty tumble. The world's eighth-largest economy is prone to severe peaks and valleys. It soars higher when the financial climate is good - and falls more spectacularly when the nation struggles.

Governor signs budget bills
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed six budget-trimming bills Saturday and urged lawmakers not to wait until summer to act on the next round of cuts because state revenue could slip by another $1 billion.

February 16, 2008
California defers budget deficit
The governor is due to sign off on the plan today, cutting school and healthcare funding. But most of the red ink would be pushed forward with accounting maneuvers and borrowing.

February 9, 2008
Proposal would bill major Bay polluters
After years of voluntary measures, the fees, proposed this week by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, set a precedent as the first time that businesses and government agencies would face financial consequences for contributing to global warming. If successful, the fees could be copied all over the state and country, perhaps ultimately at much higher prices. 

February 3, 2008
OPINION
Budget will test post-partisan governing in California
The question is whether the governor and the Legislature can seize the moment and take a fresh look at the long-term, structural budget issues that have been ignored for the sake of political expediency. 

February 1, 2008
PUC eases rules of energy-efficiency program
California regulators Thursday lowered the bar for an energy-efficiency program to allow utilities to earn about $89 million in customer-funded incentives for achieving as little as 65% of the power savings goals laid out for them. 

Parra says she won't run again
Being around her family, especially her brother's two boys, has changed Parra's life view so much that she's decided to end her political career and focus on getting married and having children. 

January 31, 2008
Recycling fund may be tapped to help enforce greenhouse laws
The Schwarzenegger administration wants to take $32 million in the form of a loan from the state's recycling fund and use it to hire dozens of air quality specialists at the state Air Resources Board, the enforcement arm of the carbon emissions law. The plan, which needs legislative approval, would take effect with the new budget year on July 1.

Governor's Fire Tax Plan is Unfair, Unnecessary
Governor Schwarzenegger recently proposed that every California home owner and business owner pay a new 1.25 percent tax on their property insurance - a $125 million tax increase - to pay for what he says will be improved firefighting efforts statewide, but many of us believe that it will largely go to backfill cuts the administration has proposed at CALFIRE. 

January 29, 2008
Los Angles Times Editorial "The disastrous Foothill South tollway"
Maybe Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was trying to make up for planned cuts to state parks. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine what could have led to his recent support for the Foothill South toll road.

January 28, 2008
Rejection of fire levy plan urged
SACRAMENTO -- -- State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner on Friday urged lawmakers not to approve a fee proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to raise $125 million for fire protection, calling the surcharge unconstitutional, unfair to many property owners and bad public policy.

January 27, 2008
Proposition 93: Capitol leaders at crossroads
With the economy souring and massive problems looming, California could find itself with a lame duck governor negotiating with novice leaders in both the Assembly and Senate by year's end.

January 25, 2008
Little energy behind state solar plant efforts
SACRAMENTO -- -- Despite state goals to encourage alternative energy, no application to build a large solar power plant in California has been approved in 18 years, and new projects could face significant delays in the bureaucracy, the state auditor said Thursday.

Stricter rules on political gifts considered
California's political watchdog agency is drafting tougher disclosure rules for gifts accepted by elected officials and could ban many of them altogether for statewide office-holders. Stricter rules on political gifts considered

January 24, 2008
More firefighters, gear, panel asks
Three months after massive brush fires burned hundreds of homes across Southern California, a blue-ribbon task force on Friday made dozens of recommendations aimed at improving the response to large-scale blazes.

January 22, 2008
Schwarzenegger backs O.C. tollway
Backing away from his neutral stance, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday urged the California Coastal Commission to approve a controversial tollway in Orange County that would pass through San Onofre State Beach, one of California's most popular parks.

January 21, 2008
GEORGE SKELTON
"Gov. has power to cut spending if he wants to do it"
SACRAMENTO - Listening to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, you'd think the role of California's governor was strictly ceremonial, like being the British queen. Pageantry but no power, especially over the purse.

January 20, 2008
Schwarzenegger stays neutral in presidential race
Governor says he won't endorse a candidate and denies that he's waiting for his 'soul mate,' Michael Bloomberg, to enter the race.

Yes on Proposition 93
The term-limits measure would reward a few lawmakers now, but it's right for the state's future.

DAN WALTERS
"Tax breaks are costly, but popular"
Democrats such as Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez sidestep questions about raising personal or corporate income taxes or sales taxes. Instead they say such things as this statement from Nunez: "Revenue sources from closing tax loopholes and credits must be on the table." But Nunez et al. are very vague when it comes to specifics.

January 15, 2008
Governor supports term limits measure
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks California voters "went too far" in enacting legislative term limits and will support the Feb. 5 ballot measure to alter the law, his office announced Monday.

January 13, 2008
DAN WALTERS "Walking on eggshells about taxes"
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez performed a neat verbal trick the other day in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vow to make deep spending cuts to close a massive deficit in the state budget.

Can't blame economy for deficit, critics argue
SACRAMENTO -- While the state's latest fiscal crisis can be blamed partly on an economic downturn, political experts say there is a far more complex history of policy failures and political mistakes by state leaders that is partly to blame.

DANIEL WEINTRAUB" Budget plan is a strategy to get attention"
It's difficult to believe that Schwarzenegger is serious about the proposal he put on the table last week. He knows that the Democrats who control the Legislature will not vote for the cuts he is proposing. What, then, is his strategy? Schwarzenegger appears to be trying to get the attention of the public and to his Republican colleagues in the Legislature. partly to blame.

January 13, 2008
State's budget crisis curtails legislators' agendas
California's lopsided budget has squashed legislative ambitions this year and made it unlikely that lawmakers will be able to do much more than drag spending and revenue back into balance.

January 9, 2008
DAN WALTERS - Governor's new stab at reform
Were politics a rational process, the virtue of setting aside extra tax revenue during prosperous years to cushion the impact of income dips would be self-evident.

Gov. urges insurance assessment to fund firefighting
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose hiking the cost of insurance for millions of California homes and businesses in the budget he unveils Thursday, with the money to be used for firefighting efforts.

January 4, 2008
Global warming goes to courts
The Environmental Protection Agency can't say it wasn't warned. By denying California - and another 16 states - a chance to set tailpipe limits on greenhouse gas emissions,  the fumbling feds are lining up for a painful ordeal in the courtroom and on Capitol Hill.

December 23, 2007
Cal Fire drawing heated criticism over policies
Experts cite agency's rigid approach to job

Benedict Arnold?
The next few months should determine whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can, in any reasonable sense, continue to be considered a Republican. Until now, the socially liberal governor has shared the GOP's anti-tax mania, which was essentially the lone bond he maintained with his party.

December 21, 2007
EPA chief is said to have ignored staff
The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignored his staff's written findings in denying California's request for a waiver to implement its landmark law to slash greenhouse gases from vehicles, sources inside and outside the agency told The Times on Thursday.

December 17, 2007
UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
"Seeing red" State budget crisis even worse than reported
So now we are told the state faces a budget deficit of $14 billion. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is moving to declare a fiscal emergency and has ordered all agencies to prepare for cuts of 10 percent. The news could hardly get much worse, right? For three reasons, that's wrong.

December 14, 2007
Budget battle heats up
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to seek across-the-board budget cuts to solve an estimated $14 billion deficit, but Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said Thursday the state should now consider tax hikes.

DAN WALTERS
Odd allies, confusion bend vote
As voters begin to focus on the Feb. 5 presidential primary - and especially on the array of non-presidential ballot measures - they'll need a scorecard to follow the players. While all campaigns on ballot measures tend to be misleading, those lining up for and against the Feb. 5 measures are an especially odd collection of bedfellows.

December 13, 2007
Speaker on FPPC list of lawmakers, lobbyists to get random audit
Assembly Speaker Fabian NunezÕs campaign finance activities have been in the news in recent months. But the No-ez camp said that by early next year the Fair Political Practices Commission will show that the Los Angeles Democrat has done nothing illegal.

December 12, 2007
State's budget shortfall widens
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told social service advocates Tuesday that the state's anticipated budget shortfall -- already feared to be the worst since he took office -- has widened to $14 billion, according to people at the meetings.

November 28, 2007
Schwarzenegger calls for new tack on infrastructure
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signaled a controversial push to engage private companies in the building and management of state and local public works projects, proposing a strategy widely employed in Canada, Europe and elsewhere.

November 24, 2007
Transit Gov. finds himself in a bigger budget bind
SACRAMENTO - As he prepares the budget blueprint that he will release in January, the governor is in a bind. There isn't as much red ink this time, or an emergency cash shortage -- at least not yet. But deals he made to keep the state afloat earlier in his tenure now hamper his ability to take on a rapidly swelling deficit that early projections show will hit at least $10 billion.

November 19, 2007
Transit Schwarzenegger sets California campaign fundraising record
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has become the most prolific campaign fundraiser in California history, taking in more than $125 million for his various political committees, according to an Associated Press review of fundraising records.

November 15, 2007
Transit Lawmakers told to fix budget now
SACRAMENTO -- Saying spending is poised to grow more than 50% faster than revenues, the state's chief budget analyst called on lawmakers Wednesday to immediately begin cutting government programs or raising taxes to address a budget shortfall that has ballooned to $10 billion.

November 14, 2007
Transit projects hitting speed bumps
SACRAMENTO - A record $19.9 billion transportation bond pitched to voters last fall as a way to "fast track" projects is hitting slowdowns in some areas.

November 9, 2007
State sues EPA on emissions
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Attorney General Jerry Brown on Thursday morning announced that California is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force the agency to decide whether California can enforce a 2002 state law that would slash tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases from new cars starting next year.

DAN WALTERS
Governor's desertion haunts him
Schwarzenegger's own bean counters, the Legislature's budget office, a few curmudgeonly legislators and some in the media repeatedly warned Schwarzenegger that failing to balance the budget during the first three years of his governorship, when the economy and revenues were soaring, would result in a fiscal cataclysm when the economy cooled.

November 7, 2007
Governor teeters on edge of deficit abyss
He talked about the state living within its means, but nothing changed. Now a crisis threatens.

November 6, 2007
Schwarzenegger orders plan for 10% budget cuts
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday ordered all state departments to draft plans for deep spending cuts after receiving word that California's budget is plunging further into the red -- largely because of the troubled housing market.

November 2, 2007
Nuñez used a charity to funnel donations
SACRAMENTO - Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez used a small charity as a conduit to funnel almost $300,000 from companies and organizations with business in the Capitol to events that helped him politically.

October 13, 2007
Water bond, health care unlikely to make February ballot
But Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, insisted that negotiations will continue at least for the next few weeks in hopes of hammering out a compromise on both issues that might go on the ballot either in June or November 2008.

Dems reject new offer in dam debate
Gov. Schwarzenegger offered a proposal aimed to get water bonds on the ballot in February.

Nuñez defends his lavish travel expenses
SACRAMENTO -- Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez offered some explanation Friday for a few campaign fund expenditures in Europe, but refused to elaborate on how tens of thousands of dollars of other purchases were related to governmental or political business.

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Fabian's folly
Speaker facing a hugely deserved backlash.

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