Gov. Brown Halts Budget Negotiations

Good for Governor Brown! He finally was forced to call out the GOP on their absurd demands and obstructionist tactics. Let the people vote and don't ever, ever, mess with CEQA.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Governor's Press Office
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 (916) 445-4571

SACRAMENTO - Governor Jerry Brown today issued the following statement on his decision to halt budget negotiations:


"Yesterday, I stopped the discussions that I had been conducting with various members of the Republican party regarding our state’s massive deficit.

The budget plan that I put forth is balanced between deep cuts and extensions of currently existing taxes and I believe it is in the best interest of California. Under our constitution, however, two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the Senate must agree before this matter can be put to the people.

Each and every Republican legislator I’ve spoken to believes that voters should not have this right to vote unless I agree to an ever changing list of collateral demands.

Let me be clear: I support pension reform, regulatory reform and a spending cap and offered specific and detailed proposals for each of these during our discussions. While we made significant progress on these reform issues, the Republicans continued to insist on including demands that would materially undermine any semblance of a balanced budget. In fact, they sought to worsen the state’s problem by creating a $4 billion hole in the budget.

One glaring example is the taxation of multinational corporations. My budget plan requires that gigantic corporations be treated the same as individual taxpayers and not be allowed to choose their preferred tax rate.

This is the so-called single sales factor. The Republicans demand that out-of-state corporations that keep jobs out of California be given a billion dollar tax break that will come from our schoolchildren, public safety and our universities. This I am not willing to do.

Much is at stake, and in the coming weeks I will focus my efforts on speaking directly to Californians and coming up with honest and real solutions to our budget crisis.

Attached is my letter to Republican Leader Dutton last Friday that outlines in greater detail my position."

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet For Wednesday

We do Big Things with Smoked Salmon

The SOTU can be declared a great, forward thinking, and inspirational speech if only because the oil industry was so quick to pan it. In truth, Obama was doing Kennedy-lite, even invoking Sputnik at one point. The speech was very good, but not great. In a post-Tucson America, maybe it was exactly what was needed. The seating arrangements made for a refreshingly subdued, if not sporadically partisan audience that only managed to interrupt the speech about 20 times. My favorite was watching House Speaker John Boehner jonesing for a scotch and soda and a cigarette throughout the entire speech.

The official Republican response was given by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. The extreme Republican response was given by the American history challenged Representative from Minn., Michelle "The Camera's Over Here" Bachman.

UPDATE: Teabaggers throw Michele Bachman under the bus, "She has no right to speak for us".

The Mayors of 9 California cities, including Los Angeles, will meet with Gov. Brown this afternoon to weep,  moan, thrash about, and beg for him to abandon his proposal to disband CRAs across the state. I'm looking forward to his response.
Related; Our good friend, Ron Kaye, has had excellent coverage this week on LA's CRA scandal, and our very own Red Spot has reported on Huizar's absence from Council yesterday, that could be CRA related, no matter how hard his staffers deny it.


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