Legislature to Governor: Don’t Smoke ’em If You Got ’em

Occupying legislative office space above the central courtyard of the governor’s office and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s smoking tent can be a drag – literally – a drag off a bunch of big cigars.

Smoke crawls up the chimney-like enclosure and enters the Capitol ventilation system, infusing the upstairs offices with a very pronounced eau du cigar.    Read more »

More

The San Francisco Symphony Gets a Break Under New Law

Champagne corks will be popping at the San Francisco Symphony November 2 – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation allowing the symphony to accept monetary contributions and alcoholic beverages from makers of beer, wine and distilled spirits.

A small portion of the symphony’s facility has a retail license to sell alcohol, which prevents them from accepting alcohol from manufacturers under California’s “tied house” laws.    Read more »

More

Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s Finance Director, to Retire

Mike Genest, director of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Department of Finance, is stepping down, likely by the end of this year.

Since his appointment by the GOP governor in December 2005, Genest, 62, has been forced to cope with the worst budget crises in California’s history. Seemingly unflappable, he helped create a budget in February to close a $36 billion hole between revenues and spending commitments and helped generate another $24 billion in budget fixes in July after the stagnant economy drove the budget out of balance.    Read more »

More

Dim Sum Slutiness Is as Dim Sum Sluttiness Does

Being insatiable seems an essential element of sluttiness.

A slut can’t be sated or else they wouldn’t be a slut, right?

Being insatiable also bespeaks a certain lack of discrimination. Therefore, as a dim sum slut, if a new venue is discovered it must be experienced. Previously in this space, during the then known Sacramento dim sum universe, New Canton on Broadway was celebrated as the most divine.    Read more »

More

Billion Here, Billion There — Pretty Soon, Real Money

Both of the recently introduced $9.4 billion general obligations bonds to fund a variety of water-related projects would spend $1.5 billion on dirt.

In his bond proposal, SB3 7X, Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, calls its “Statewide Watershed and Water Quality Protections.

In the bond introduced by Sen.    Read more »

More

Confessions of a Women’s Conference Escort 2009

Agnes Stevens, founder of School on Wheels was honored with a Minerva Award at the newly re-titled Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women and Families.

The award is given to women who exemplify the courage and wisdom of the Roman goddess whose likeness appears on California’s state seal.

“Warriors on the frontline of humanity,” First Lady Maria Shriver said at the conference of the four Minerva award winners.    Read more »

More

Guest Post: Two (Senate) Officers and a Gentleman

By Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Tony Beard and Greg Schmidt, Secretary of the Senate.

The day started with the usual grey West Coast beach overcast which, as the bagpiper played, soon began to break. The morning sunlight gradually crept through the stained glass windows, filling the sanctuary of the American Martyrs Catholic Church with a sense of warmth and welcome.    Read more »

More

Think of How Crowded the Freeways Will Be

Within 25 years, California’s population will reach 50 million, according to estimates by the state Department of Finance. 

By 2050, 60 million. 

The state’s roads, highways, schools and other public works are designed to serve 25 million — about 14 million fewer people than already live in California. 

To accommodate this projected population growth requires 220,000 new homes to be built each year, 19 new classrooms added every day for five years, delivery of an additional 200,000 acre-feet of water to the Central Valley and Southern California and construction of enough highways to handle 42 percent more vehicles.     Read more »

More

Rising Debt Payments Increase Budget Pressures

Among the points made in State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s wide-ranging testimony to the Senate and Assembly Select Committees on Improving State Government (See the post below) is that California can no longer keep issuing debt willy-nilly.

He explicates the point in his recently issued annual Debt Affordability Report which shows the amount of debt service the cash-starved General Fund pays doubling from $6 billion this year to more than $12 billion in seven years.    Read more »

More

Effective Approach to a Common Problem

“I never panic when I get lost, I just change where I want to go.”

                                                                               –Rita Rudner    Read more »

More