Tight Fists vs. Spendthrifts

“State revenues should cover expenses. But the balance will vanish if a bunch of stuff doesn’t break California’s way.” 

By Greg Lucas 

Sacramento News & Review, January 24, 2013 — Budgets bite. Mainly because spending can’t be more than money received. Budgets allow for spending on some fun stuff, but require saying no to other good stuff, which is usually the really super primo good stuff, since that’s the only stuff for which there never seems to be enough money available in the budget.     Read more »

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By Greg Lucas

Sacramento News & Review, January 10, 2013 –Perception depends on the perceiver. But also on the perceived.

Loath to buck the fact-based belief of America’s citizenry that they’re a tawdry nest of slack-jawed, self-promoting wastrels, the members of Congress piddled around for months before hurriedly cobbling together a rinky-dink hodgepodge of major tax-law changes, whose principal benefit, albeit temporary, is hastening the removal of “fiscal cliff” from what is generously called a “national dialogue.”    Read more »

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“Make ’em, Don’t Break ’em — New Year’s Resolutions for Lawmakers”

By Greg Lucas

Sacramento News & Review, December 27, 2012 — Elected officials aren’t mutants from an alternate universe sent to infect our world with madness.

They used to be regular folks anonymously striving to meet their monthly nut, not piss off partners (business or otherwise) and navigate life’s pothole-pocked path without major catastrophe.    Read more »

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“Freshman Disorientation — If the State Legislature Were a Business, Would It Get Bain Capital’d?”

By Greg Lucas 

Sacramento News & Review, December 13, 2012 — Imagine trying to run a successful business in which every two years one-third of the veteran employees leave and are replaced with green sieve heads who require training, mentoring and vigilant supervision to avoid All-World clusterfucks that feature overzealous health inspectors, class-action lawsuits, mangled co-workers—or a combination of the three.    Read more »

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Appearing Elsewhere

 The Byzantine world of California welfare funding | 07/18/12 

Whacking boards and commissions: The devil is in the details | 07/10/12 

State parks ‘partner up’ in fruitful quest for money | 06/28/12 

High anxiety: California’s poorest and sickest await the budget vote | 06/26/12 

The big snooze: Facebook and the state budget | 06/20/12 

Nation’s first ban on foie gras taking effect – after eight years | 06/18/12 

Let’s talk about sex – therapy, that is.     Read more »

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California’s Capitol Talks to John Garamendi

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The Second in a series of Interviews with statewide Democratic candidates who will be attending the Democratic State Convention in Sacramento, April 24 through April 26.  

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(Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, the only Democrat officially running for governor, has been an Assemblyman for two years, a state senator for 14 years, the state’s first Insurance Commissioner from 1991 to 1995, a deputy secretary at the U.S.    Read more »

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Dear Sen. Cogdill:

WRITESTUFF INK 

Greg Lucas

1130 K Street, Suite 290

Sacramento, CA 95814

916-446-2013

February 21, 2008 

Dave – 

Just a note to offer my congratulations, which I assume is the right word, on your election as Senate GOP leader. 

Ross Johnson, a predecessor in your new post, once described the job of Assembly Minority leader as “herding cats through a minefield while juggling hand grenades.”     Read more »

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The Best Candidate for Assembly Speaker

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY:

To bring order out of chaos in the Legislature’s lower house, I hereby declare my candidacy for Speaker of the California Assembly. 

I am aware that titans have occupied the post since the first legislative session of 1849. Jess Unruh. Willie Brown. Paul Peek.    Read more »

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About

California’s Capitol is a site dedicated to providing information about exactly what the name says.

There are posts about the Legislature, the state budget, ballot measures, politics, the economy, the governor, fundraising – and a little bit of history.

The goal is education, explanation and a bit of entertainment.

But, be forewarned, sometimes the content gets a bit eclectic, esoteric and edgy.    Read more »

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The Confessions of a Women’s Conference Escort — Part 2

A former Bank of America that opened in 1906, L’Opera, the 101 Pine Ave. Long Beach restaurant where Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has dinner the night before First Lady Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, is swamped by conference attendees.

Nevertheless, the hostess accommodates both O’Connor and her team of marshals.

Dinner conversation is varied.    Read more »

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