Ah, the fun days of budget brawling aren't over yet.

Today's tussle features the most Republiucan legislator to vote in support of the $40 billion budget package last month... and the highest ranking Republican running for his party's nomination to be governor in 2010.
(more...)

San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell.
May your walls fall and may I live to tell.
May all the world forget you ever stood.
And may all the world regret you did no good.

Those are Johnny Cash's words in his 1969 classic about California's most infamous prison.

And for now, it's going to stay a prison.

After a brief debate this morning, legislation to close San Quentin State Prison and sell its Marin coastline property was shelved, and it appears the proposal could ultimately be rejected later this year in the state Senate.
(more...)

A new poll, positions taken, and strategy being mapped out. In a nutshell, that's this week in the contest over the budget related measures on the May 19 special election ballot.

On this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we examine some poll numbers showing an uphill battle... as well as what happens next.

Capitol Weekly editor Anthony York and I also examine a very different battle brewing. Or maybe just a tug of war... over control of federal stimulus dollars coming in to California.

A popular topic for those inside the state Capitol rooting around for spare change to help close the annual budget gap has been to get rid of surplus state property.

And yet, a state audit released today shows that it's not quite that simple, years after everyone said it should be.
(more...)

If there is any silver lining in a new public poll for supporters of the six budget related measures on the May 19 ballot, maybe it's this: fewer than one in five likely voters are "very closely" following news about the special election.

In other words, maybe there's still time.

But that's about it on the good news front from the new Public Policy Institute of California survey. There appear to be some real concerns out there about Propositions 1A through 1E. (Proposition 1F, a no-brainer that bans lawmaker pay hikes in deficit years, is wildly -- and unsurprisingly -- popular.)
(more...)

Treasurer Bill Lockyer says the $4 billion general obligation bond offering became a $6.54 billion offering due to sharp demand, as blogged about yesterday.

Not that you needed a formal audit of California government to know it, but today's detailed report gives some final clarity to how much the state took in last year... and how much more it spent.
(more...)

The federal judge who took control of California prison health care some three years ago rejected a request today to scrap the court-appointed receivership.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson denied a petition from Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to replace the receivership with the more limited powers of a special master.
(more...)

Some good financial news for California coming out of the office of Treasurer Bill Lockyer this morning, as more than half of the planned $4 billion in state general obligation bonds were sold before midday on the West Coast.

A spokesman for Lockyer says $2.4 billion in GO bond purchases were made by individual investors this morning. It's been nine months since the state has sold GO bonds, the kind of bonds that are considered to be pretty much the gold standard in government debt (in that they are backed by the "full faith and credit" of the state).

[UPDATE 5:15 pm - Final first day total was $3 billion in bonds sold. "Things are going very, very well," Lockyer said in a phone interview this afternoon.]
(more...)

On one hand, California lawmakers have no money for various projects. On the other, they have a lot of money to dole out... and soon.

Thus is the odd lay of the land in the news this week at the state Capitol, and the focus of this week's Capital Notes Podcast.

Capitol Weekly's Anthony York and I take a look at the infamous budget "trigger" debate as well as the first public hearings about how California will spend tens of billions of dollars in federal stimulus money.