New Spotlight: Politics on Tap

A Fun Conversation, Particularly About Young Voters with Dustin Corcoran, the California Medical Association’s CEO;  Mindy Romero, Project Director of the California Civic Engagement Project at the UC Davis Center for Regional Change and  The Sacramento Bee‘s Dan Morain.     Read more »

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Seeking Equity in Public School Funding From the Ancients

No press conference by Gov. Jerry Brown seems to be compelte without some reference to ancient Greek or Roman philosophy and literature – often declaimed in the original Latin.

The Democratic governor’s unveiling of his proposed $139 billion spending blueprint for the fiscal year rbeginning July 1 was no execption.

Generating the most media attention is Brown’s desire to change the distribution of state money to public schools.    Read more »

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Reaction to Gov. Jerry Brown’s Budget

A scrupulously arbitrary review of 16 statements by lawmakers and statewide elected officials finds Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget plan to be generally praiseworthy.

“It’s not time to roll out a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner yet, but today’s news gives Californians a reason to hold our heads high and put dunce caps on our state’s critics,” says Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, a Van Nuys Democrat who chairs the lower house’s budget committee.    Read more »

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Gov. Jerry Brown Presents His Budget for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1

Watch it here.

 Read this at Capitol Weekly.

     Read more »

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What to Expect — And Not Expect — In Gov. Jerry Brown’s New Budget

 The $130 billion budget Gov. Jerry Brown will unveil January 10 will largely be a yawner.

Relatively speaking anyway.

There’ll be no deluge of doom-and-gloom denunciations over the draconian measures the Democratic governor proposes as there were two years ago when the state faced an estimated $26.6 billion gap between revenues and spending commitments.    Read more »

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Good Budget News: December Cash Collections Up More Than $100 Million

SACRAMENTO – After accounting for timing issues related to sales tax deposits, December’s tax receipts were $103.4 million above estimates contained in the budget for the current fiscal year ending June 30, according to  Controller John Chiang’s monthly cash balance report released January 9.

“While December’s figures were distorted by timing issues, the month’s revenues closely match budget projections and offer further evidence that California’s economy is slowly mending,” said Chiang.    Read more »

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If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Stay Out of the Kitchen

“The game here is, ‘Come to Sacramento and get your little piece of the pie.’ Well I’m the cook here and I’ve got to cut the slices in fair amounts and I think we’ve cut a big enough slice for the prisons.”

–Gov. Jerry Brown, Janaury 8, 2013, Sacramento Press Conference

(Art by Katie Lucas)    Read more »

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Memo From the Grammar Police to California Department of Justice Lawyers

On January 7, 2013 the Brown administration filed a document with a panel of three federal judges asking them to release the state from it’s obligation to lower the population at the Golden State’s 33 prisons to 110,000 inmates – 137.5 percent of design capacity.

(There’s a little under 120,000 inmates at the moment, which is down 43,000 from the peak of overcrowding several years ago.)    Read more »

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As an Alternative, Eliminate the Archaic 30-Days-In-Print Rule

On January 7, 2013, Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, violated one of the chief rules of public relations by trying to blunt potential criticism of the upper house by drawing attentiont o the opportunity for leveling it. 

As the Senate’s first floor session of 2013 drew to a close, Steinberg allowed that the public and might  be critical of the lack of legislative business conducted during the first months of the legislative session.    Read more »

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Gov. Jerry Brown’s Annual “State of Disbelief” Speech — 9 AM Thursday January 24

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