In Session for One Day, the Legislature Introduces 131 Bills

Although the members of the Assembly and Senate were sworn in December 6 and adjourned until January, they did manage to introduce 131 bills before they left the Capitol for the rest of the year.

In the Assembly 58 bills were introduced, eight constitutional amendments and nine measures dealing with the state’s projected $25.4 billion budget hole.    Read more »

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Part of Governor’s Budget Plan Lawmakers Should Enact Soon

In the wake of a projected $25.4 billion budget shortfall if lawmakers do nothing between now and June 30, 2012, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – for the last time – declared a fiscal emergency December 6 and called the Legislature into a special session to deal with the problem.

Schwarzenegger proposed $9.9 billion in actions — $7 billion of them spending cuts — to eliminate the current year’s projected deficit of $6 billion, and whittle down the expected shortfall for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.    Read more »

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Plot Thickens on Proposed Sale of 11 State Office Buildings

Read this article from the Los Angeles Times.    Read more »

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Long Before Avalon, There Was the Martyr Santa Catalina

Some 25 miles off the coast of sunny Southern California is Santa Catalina Island.

It’s another part of the Golden State named after a saint.

And it’s another part of California whose name comes from Spanish General Sebastian Vizcaino’s 1602 to 1603 voyage along the coast to find good moorings for Spanish galleons returning from the Philippines and headed toward final port in Acapulco.    Read more »

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Is Capital Pacific Holding Helping to Buy 11 State Buildings?

According to state records, one of the investors in California’s $2.3 billion sale of 11 state office buildings is a Newport Beach company founded and run, until 2008, by Hadi Makarechian, a contributor of more than $314,000 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger since 2003 and nearly $175,000 to ballot measures backed by the GOP governor.    Read more »

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More About the All Too Often-Overlooked Sebastian Vizcaino

Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino sure got around. Not only did he give the city of Santa Barbara its name but he also discovered the Carmel River in 1603.

As was Vizcaino’s frequent custom, he chose a religious name for the stream — Rio del Carmelo. Carmelo is Spanish for Mount Carmel near Jerusalem, which, in turn, comes from the Hebrew karmel, meaning “orchard.”    Read more »

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California’s Public Schools Are Doing More With Less Money*

Starting with the budget signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February 2009, the revisions to that in July 2009 and the record 100-day late budget signed in early October, public schools have been shorted $12.1 billion.

And because  temporary tax increases enacted in February 2009 will trigger off, lowering the state revenue available to support public schools, the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2011 will be just as grim for the state’s 6.2 million pupils and 300,210 teachers.    Read more »

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How Some California Cities Got Their Names: Santa Barbara

Numerous California cities are named for saints, a leftover from the missionary zeal of the 17th and 18th centuries.

San Francisco is Spanish for St. Francis and San Jose is St. Joseph, the father of Jesus. Santa Maria, his mother. San Bernardino is St. Bernard of Menthon, he of the cask-carrying rescue dogs.    Read more »

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Take a Look at California’s Public Schools and Their Students*

In 1980, there were 4,119,000 students enrolled in California’s public schools.

Ten years later, there were 4,951,000.

In 2009, 6,252,000 — a 52 percent increase in 29 years.

Of those students, 3,065,00 are Latino — a 189 percent increase.

African Americans are 455,000 of those students — a 21 percent increase.    Read more »

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Guest Post: Another View of the State’s Grim Fiscal Condition

***** (Editor’s Note: This synopsis of the state’s fiscal condition, mildly edited by California’s Capitol,  was sent to clients of Greenburg Traurig, an international law firm. Among the entities Greenburg’s Sacramento lawyers represent are El Paso Corporation, the American Council of Life Insurers, Otis Elevator Company, MillerCoors LLC and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.)    Read more »

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