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California Governor Schwarzenegger Rejects GOP Senate Leader’s Call to Reopen State Budget Negotiations Without Tax Increases
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks during an event February 17, 2009 at the State Captiol in Sacramento, California. California lawmakers remained deadlocked Wednesday over a plan to increase taxes to tackle the state’s budget deficit as Republicans ousted their legislative leader for his support of tax hikes
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a noon time new conference on his State of California Website and rejected newley elected GOP Senate Leader Dennis Hollingsworth’s call to reopen stalemated California state budget negotiations with taxes off of the table. He said those Senators that think the California State Budget shortfall can be solved without new tax revenues do not know their math and need to retake math 101.“Anyone that runs around, I think, and says that this can be done without raising taxes, I think has not really looked at it carefully to understand this budget or has a math problem and has to get back, as I said, and take Math 101,” Schwarzenegger said.
In the meantime, the California State Senate has reconvened and Senate Democrat Leader Darrell Steinberg called up AB 3, the budget tax bill for a vote and it failed 23 to 12 (27 affirmative votes necessary for passage). Note: GOP Senators Cogdill, Ashburn and Cox did NOT vote along with Democrat Senator Correa.
Steinberg then took to the floor of the Senate and said he would call up a vote every hour on the hour and update the state of the state if a budget does not pass today. This hour was a potential loss of federal transportation money.
Stay tuned……
Technorati Tags: Darrell Steinberg, Dennis Hollingsworth, Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Stop Treating the Taxpayers of California as a Personal ATM Says California GOP State Senator Tony Strickland
State Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, right, talks with reporters after he was elected as the new Senate Minority Leader at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. Hollingsworth replaced Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto as the Minority Leader. Also seen are state GOP Senators George Runner, of Lancaster, left, and Tony Strickland, of Thousand Oaks
Quote of the Day from Flap’s California State Senator Tony Stickland:Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks (Ventura County), said there should be more cuts in spending to show that Democrats are truly compromising, including targeting boards and commissions whose members make more than $100,000 a year and meet only once a month.
“It’s time we stop treating the taxpayers of California as a personal ATM,” he said.
Well said, Tony.
Technorati Tags: Tony Strickland
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California State Senate Remains in LOCK DOWN – California Budget Stalemate Continues While Steinberg Vows to Continue
+++++ 11 AM Update+++++New California State Senate Leader Dennis Hollingsworth has called for re-opening Big 5 California State Budget negotiations while taking taxes off of the table.
In a news conference with Senator Barbara Boxer, Senate Democrat Leader Darrell Steinberg rejects this approach and vows to continue to pursue one or two GOP Senators to vote for the current Big 5 proposal.
State Senator Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, gets a hug from Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, after he was ousted as Senate Minority Leader at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. In a late night move, Cogdill was voted out of his leadership position and replaced by Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula
California State Senate Democrat Leader Darrell Steinberg continues to hold the Senate hostage and in “LOCK DOWN” (Senators cannot leave the Capitol) in an attempt to pass a California State Budget which includes tax increases.The state Senate reconvened Wednesday morning and lifted the call on the tax-hike part of the legislative puzzle.
The roll was called and the votes remained unchanged around 8:30 a.m. 23 ayes. 12 noes.
Senate Democrats immediately called for a private caucus off the floor.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, in a brief interview, reiterated that the Democrats’ strategy remains the same, despite the ousting of GOP leader Dave Cogdill late last night.
“The question is does this mean we go back to square one and start over? Absolutely not,” the bleary-eyed Sacramento Democrat said.
He is “focused on gaining the one additional vote” needed to pass the budget, he said.
Negotiations continue with GOP Senator Abel Maldonado on his “WISH LIST” who voted NO on the budget late last night.
It seems to Flap that a TIME OUT should be called and a continuing resolution ala Steve Poizner should be considered along with a special election in May.
Stay tuned….
Technorati Tags: Abel Maldonado, Steve Poizner, Darrell Steinberg
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Poll watch: Generic Congressional Ballot – Democrats Lead GOP by ONLY 2 Points
Since the November 2008 elections the GOP has certainly been polling better.
After an intense partisan debate over the newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill, Republicans and Democrats remain almost even in this week’s edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.
Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys found that 41% of voters said they would vote for their district’s Democratic candidate while 39% said they would choose the Republican.
The principled stand by the Congressional Republicans over the Obama/Democrat Economic Stimulus Bill may be bearing some electoral fruit.
Stay tuned…..
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Senator Dave Cogdill Replaced as California GOP State Senate Leader Over Unhappiness With California State Budget Stalemate
State Senator Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, second from right, talks to members of the Senate Democratic caucus, after he was removed as Senate Minority leader at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. In a late night move, Cogdill was voted out his leadership position and replaced by Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula,. Seen are from left, Senators Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, left, Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, second from left, Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach second from right with back to camera, and Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, background right
Republican Senator Dave Cogdill who helped craft the Big 5 California State Budget compromise (with $14 Billion in tax increases) was replaced overnight as GOP State Senate leader.Senate Republicans ousted Sen. Dave Cogdill as their leader and replaced him with Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, who has repeatedly criticized the current budget deal for its $14 billion in new taxes.
Hollingsworth said he did not know immediately what it meant for budget negotiations. Four members of the 15-member Senate GOP caucus did not participate in the caucus coup, and all four have been targeted by Democratic leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as potential votes for the tentative deal reached last week.
The California State Senate is due to reconvene at 6 AM this morning (the Senate is on LOCK DOWN) and Flap will be covering up to the minute events on Twitter in the right sidebar ————>
Or Follow Flap on Twitter
Technorati Tags: Dave Cogdill, Dennis Hollingsworth
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Day By Day by Chris Muir February 18, 2009 – Drawing A Line
Chris, it is funny that you mention President Obama’s former illegal drug use. Early on in the campaign Mrs. Flap related to me that some of her company workers were from Hawaii and grew up with “Barry.” They said they would never would have imagined him running for political office since he was since a “STONER” while he was in school there.Flap doubts Obama read the entire Democrat-crafted Economic Stimulus Bill which is now law. But, then again, how many in the Congress ACTUALLY read it before voting on it?
Few, if any.
Plus Ca Change
Previous:
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Day By Day
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links for 2009-02-18
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Nationalisation, long regarded in Washington as a folly of Europeans, is gaining rapid ground among US opinion-formers. Stranger still, many of those talking about federal ownership of banks are Republicans.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator for South Carolina, said that many of his colleagues, including John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate, agreed with his view that nationalisation of some banks should be “on the tableâ€.
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When Mr. McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president, he noted that while he and his opponent both spoke about moving beyond partisan divisions, only one of them had a history of working with members of both parties to get things done. "I have that record and the scars to prove it," he said. "Senator Obama does not."
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State Insurance Commission and Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner called on lawmakers today to put the brakes on a contentious, 18-month budget deal and instead pass an emergency, six-month package to keep California from insolvency.
With lawmakers one vote shy of a deal to close a $40 billion hole in the state budget, Poizner said all sides should back away from the plan in order to avoid tax increases he charged would disproportionately affect middle- and low-income Californians.
Roughly $10 billion of the $14 billion in taxes would come from hiking taxes on gas, income and vehicles.
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Steve Poizner is positioning himself for his run for the Governorship in 2010 -
California lawmakers failed to reach agreement on how to eliminate a $42 billion budget shortfall as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to shut down hundreds of public works projects and fire thousands of state workers.
Senate President Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, plans to lock lawmakers in the capitol unless they pass a $40 billion package of tax increases, spending cuts and bond sales today. The bills, backed by the Republican governor and by Democrats, remain one Republican vote short.
“We are dealing with a catastrophe of unbelievable proportions,†said Senator Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach. “We cannot deny it any longer.â€
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It's 7 a.m. at Henry Ford Hospital, and surgeons are preparing to remove a cancerous tumor from a man's kidney.
It's potentially a risky surgery, but everything's ready: The doctors and nurses are in the operating room, the surgical instruments are sterilized and ready to go, and the chief resident is furiously Twittering on his laptop.
That's right — last week, for the second known time, surgeons Twittered a surgery by using social-networking site Twitter to give short real-time updates about the procedure
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n. Abel Maldonado has been in the Legislature for more than a decade, but he's always been an odd man out.
Maldonado, son of a farmworker who became a wealthy Central Coast farmer, is the Legislature's only Latino Republican. He's also one of the Legislature's few GOP moderates who has occasionally bucked conservatives, but who paid a price for his centrism when he lost a 2006 effort to become the Republican nominee for state controller.
Two years ago, Maldonado was the decisive vote for a budget deal that almost all his fellow Republicans opposed. When the most recent deal on closing a $40 billion budget deficit emerged from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders, he was atop the list of Republicans most likely to vote for it.
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Here are key provisions of the proposal to close California's $42 billion budget deficit through June 2010:
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