Long-Time South Bay Senator Bob Beverly Dead at 84

Robert G. Beverly, a Manhattan Beach Republican who represented the South Bay in the state Senate for 20 years died October 16 after a long fight with Parkinson’s Disease. He was 84.

His stentorian voice, courtly demeanor and silver-white hair would have made him Central Casting’s choice to portray a senator were he not one from 1976 until forced out by term limits in 1996.    Read more »

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Two Tests: One for Admission, One for Graduation

(Below are two tests. One is an entrance examination; the other is California’s high school exit examination which is objected to by its critics as too difficult and an unfair condition of graduation.)

 1. Name four leading nations interested in the New World in exploring days. Name an explorer from each and give a good sketch of one of his explorations.    Read more »

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Robbing Peter to Pay Paul on State School Funding

 Among the 240 bills vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 was a measure passed in the closing hours of the legislative session to prevent $400 million in cuts to districts containing the state’s lowest performing schools.

Democrats initially backed cutting schools — already the recipient of deepest cuts this year — as a way to lower the size of the GOP governor’s proposed reductions in health and welfare programs.    Read more »

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How Often Do Governors Say No? The 2009 Edition

(Editor’s Note: Each year, Peter Detwiler, the indefatigable chief consultant of the Senate Local Government Committee compiles a listing of bills signed and vetoed. This listing now stretches back to the first year of Ronald Reagan’s governship in 1967. Here are highlights of this year’s version. The complete listing is HERE.)       Read more »

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Book Review: California in the Balance

Not many primers on California budget history, processes and strategies begin with a Foreward whose third sentence notes that in earlier times “priests scrutinized the entrails of recently deceased birds and mammals to inspire their analysis.”

They are also the words of State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, himself not a common feature of primers on California budget history, processes and strategies.    Read more »

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Bad Budget News Ahead, Fiscal Year Short $1 Billion

SACRAMENTO, October 9 — For the first three months of the fiscal year, total state general fund revenue was nearly $1.1 billion below the estimates used in the recently amended 2009-10 budget, State Controller John Chiang reported today in his monthly accounting of California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements in September.    Read more »

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Self-Imposed Hospital Fee to Benefit Kids, Medi-Cal

Continuing one of the oddest bill signing months ever, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has so far only publicly announced his action on three of some 700 bills sent him by the Legislature before they adjourned for the year September 11.

The GOP governor has until midnight October 11 to act – about 81 hours from 4:00 PM October 8.    Read more »

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Bill to Help Small Business Loan Guarantee Program

Supporters of California’s Small Business Loan Guarantee Program hope that on October 12, when the state senate next meets, Republican senators will relax their pledge not to vote for any two-thirds majority bills and approve a measure allowing the program to continue guaranteeing loans.

Backers of the bill, SB 66, include ethnic chambers of commerce and bankers.    Read more »

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To Sleep, Perchance to Drink, in Senate Session

The Senate will reconvene in special session on October 12, Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, announced October 6.

The upper house could also meet October 13 and October 14 at the call of pro tem, Steinberg’s announcement said.

Special sessions are called for a purpose. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called one to consider the tax law changes recommended by the Commission on the 21st Century Economy, for example.    Read more »

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Six Days to Deadline and Still Just Three Bills Signed

As of 3:30 PM, October 5 – with six days left to act on more than 650 pieces of legislation, there was no public announcement of bill signings by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Since lawmakers adjourned for the year September 11, the GOP governor has issued three press releases announcing his signature on three measures, one of them budget-related.    Read more »

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