Reform (ri form'), noun.
1. The improvement of what is wrong, corrupt, or unsatisfactory. [Webster's Dictionary]
2. A proposal whose merit depends on your political persuasion [Dictionary of Common Sense, never published... but in demand]

If the debate over California's gaping budget deficit is as it appears this second week of the new fiscal year, we're going to be spending a lot of time examining not only how much programmatic change certain programs need... but also how much of that change can happen quickly.
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Well, you had to know it was coming.

In the wake of yesterday's all-budget special election, a former candidate for the Legislature has formally filed an initiative to knock the California Legislature back to part-time status, more than four decades after it became a year-round affair.
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You're angry. You want to punish the politicians. And so... if you're like your fellow Californian who's been polled in recent weeks... you're going to cast a vote for Proposition 1F with glee. Off with their heads, er, pay raises!

Prop 1F was the focus of this morning's final look at the May 19 special election on The California Report.

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Proving once again that in politics, perception often trumps all else, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has canceled pay raises for staffers in the lower house.
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10:45 pm: The Assembly has called it a night, after a more than four hour delay, which followed the failed vote for the Democratic budget proposal.

And in true Capitol fashion, even that vote was surprising, as all Democrats removed their votes from the bills once the quorum call was lifted this evening. Which means we end the day where we began it.

[11:30 am Wednesday: My brief coverage of yesterday's saga can be heard below in this morning's edition of The California Report (it's the first story).]

As the old saying goes, watch this space.

We know the Assembly is convening this afternoon to take up a new, or rather modified, budget deficit proposal from Democrats. We know it's a $19 billion proposed solution, per comments to reporters from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

And we know there's a chance the session could go into the night. And perhaps a formal lockdown of the Assembly chambers? "I'm so concerned about the [state's fiscal] situation," said Bass, "it just might have to get to that."

But the package, as of this writing (2:15pm) hasn't been made public. Bass says it has $11.3 billion in revenues, including a sales tax hike, and almost $7 billion in cuts.

Stay tuned. And if you're headed to the Capitol, bring a book. And maybe a pillow.

[update 3:30 pm: Some details of the proposal coming up for a vote are now out... and almost all of its revenue ideas seem similar to those pitched last month by Governor Schwarzenegger, including a sales tax hike, a new oil severance tax, and a nickel-per-drink alcohol tax.

It proposes $2.5 billion in current year cuts to public schools -- a figure equal to Schwarzenegger's plan -- but trims the spending in different areas. And it proposes a $657 million cut (over 18 months) in state worker pay, without specifying how to achieve the savings.

It's doubtful this is a plan the GOP will vote for, but apparently Dems think it's worth the effort.]

Welcome back, Legislature. Man, don't we all feel rested?

Per the state constitution, today marks the convening of a brand new two-year session of the California Legislature, where more than two dozen rookies join seasoned vets under the Capitol dome for work on... what else... a budget crisis.

If the issue wasn't front and center on its own, Governor Schwarzenegger put it there by declaring a fiscal emergency -- the second of his tenure, and a power given to him under 2004's Proposition 58) and by calling the new Legislature into special session, which runs concurrently with the regular session that began today.

(A sidenote: Schwarzenegger made the announcement in Los Angeles, after his private jet was grounded by fog here in Sacramento. While some in the press may wonder why the public doesn't understand the problem, perhaps we might want to look at ourselves; at least one LA reporter could be heard asking the guv just what a "fiscal emergency" is and how it works.)

It's hard to call any of what happened today at the state Capitol truly different; in my conversations with a few new legislators this morning (more on that tomorrow on The California Report), it was clear that the political battle lines seem pretty much intact.

And yet, there are small sprinklings of a new approach. One was found in today's announcement that the budget committee in the Senate will now consist of all 40 senators, a "committee of the whole," as it were. That decision was announced by new Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

"We all own the problem," he said in his floor speech this afternoon. "Let's have the institution begin acting like it."

Steinberg also called on legislators to complete their budget negotiations in 2009 by May 15. "Let's use the [governor's] May revise not as the beginning point of budget negotiations," he said. Steinberg further challenged lawmakers to strike deals on several thorny issues, from water supply protection to renewable energy, in the first 120 days of the session.

And back to the budget... Assembly Speaker Karen Bass says she wants to convene a joint session so that the state's financial experts can discuss the budget crisis with all 120 legislators in more detail.

Meantime, the governor threw some water on one idea that's been getting a lot of ink lately: asking the feds for money to solve the state's fiscal woes. Schwarzenegger is expected to travel to Philadelphia tomorrow for an event featuring President-elect Barack Obama; but it doesn't sound like he'll be asking for cash.

"I would never ask the federal government to help us before we straighten out our own mess," he said today.

Governor Schwarzenegger appears resolved to call current legislators back to Sacramento for a special session on the ever-growing state budget problem.

That's according to his press secretary, Aaron McLear.

"We don't believe we can wait until November 30," said McLear, referring to the idea that the newly elected Legislature will officially take office just after the calendar flips to December.

McLear made those remarks this morning during a weekly briefing on Schwarzenegger's upcoming schedule.

In a campaign event yesterday in San Diego, the governor made it clear he doesn't want to wait to shore up the already leaky deficit; current estimates are the shortfall is at least $3 billion.

"We are proposing a special session very soon where Democrats and Republicans will get together and try to solve the economic challenges that we are facing," said Schwarzenegger.

But as to when... well, stay tuned. The governor's advisers say that a better sense of both economic conditions and the depth of California's problems will be known as soon as the end of next week, after financial experts convene in a private meeting in Sacramento to assess the economy.

That doesn't mean, however, that anyone's picked a date to call everyone back. McLear said that's still to be determined. It does appear, however, that Schwarzenegger would also declare a fiscal emergency (under the powers approved by voters in 2004's Proposition 58), which requires both a formal evaluation of the problem and some sense of solutions.

Assuming the soon-to-be-history Legislature does come back, it remains to be seen what kind of political dynamics would exist; it will be interesting to see termed-out legislators being asked to come debate, and vote, on either spending cuts or tax increases... while their replacements are already moving boxes into Capitol offices.

There are 10 senators that are termed out as of December, and 24 members of the Assembly who are departing. It's doubtful any of them thought they'd be coming back to Sacramento. But now it appears they may want to check their calendars.

BUDGET DAY PLUS 48 -- Politics is not for the faint of heart.

Less than 12 hours after not voting for, or against, the budget proposed by her fellow Democrats, Assemblymember Nicole Parra (D-Hanford) has been told to pack her bags and move her office out of the Capitol.

That's out of the building and across the street to the building that houses staffers, the Legislative Office Building.

Parra was the only Democrat in attendance (one was absent) on Sunday who did not vote for the budget proposal, which went down in defeat after failing to garner the necessary two-thirds vote. A couple of weeks ago, she told her hometown newspaper that, due to the needs of the 30th Assembly district, she couldn't vote for any budget if there wasn't also a water bond proposal to place on the November ballot. And Sunday night, she simply didn't vote.

The three-term Democrat has had a rough go if it with her party in recent times. Most notably, there were frosty reactions when some thought she was actually suggesting that voters in her district elect a Republican to succeed her this fall. Democrats have spent lots of time... and money... to keep Parra in office, in a district that's one of the only real competitive seats in the Assembly.

The official word... not much. Sources in the Assembly Democratic Caucus confirmed the action, but would only otherwise call it an "internal caucus matter."

Nonetheless, this is one of the more unusual punishments doled out in Capitol history. Lawmakers have been relegated in times past to small Capitol offices, or even had their locks changed for a temporary period for stepping out of line. But getting booted out of the building? That's a new one.

[Below was tonight's "live blogging" of the Assembly budget debate and vote. Thanks to all of you who wrote in while it was happening. By the way, the original Sunday budget preview posting is now here.]

8:16pm Budget fails to get a two-thirds majority. Vote: 45-30. The two in attendance who didn't vote: Assemblymember Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton) and Assemblymember Nicole Parra (D-Hanford). And with that, it's off to the post-vote press conferences. More tomorrow morning. It was a long debate... and it begins again in earnest tomorrow.

8:15pm The vote. The bell sounds. The tally board is lit up.

8:15pm: We're now officially at four hours for this budget debate. Laird appears to be wrapping up. "I think it's time to get to a solution," he says. "One dollar of revenues for two dollars in cuts and solutions... it's a good budget," he says.

8:06pm: Assemblymember Laird closes and asks for an aye vote. 49 total speakers, he says (and jokes that all Californians are probably glad that there weren't any more). Laird then reminds members of all of the spending in recent times that didn't actually go to state programs. "I don't think there was a single thing on that list," he said, "that was a partisan Democratic item." He also claims the GOP spending cap idea would've led to $18 billion in cuts this year, with $9 billion coming from K-12 education. And he then adds that at least a few Republicans voted for all of those budgets that the GOP now says spent too much. And Laird disagrees with the notion that half the tax increase would have to go to public schools. His argument is interesting, but the hour is late. You can sense the members are ready to vote.

7:55pm: And so it's ending. Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines rises to speak, and focuses on tax increases of the past -- namely, those enacted by former governors Reagan and Pete Wilson. And he hones in on the Wilson tax hike. "There was less tax money on the table" as a result, he said. Villines said he doesn't know which taxes are now on the table -- sales tax, income taxes. "I just know it's a lot of taxes," he said.

"I think we can do a much better job than this budget," he tells assemblymembers. Villines go on to suggest tax cuts as an economic incentive, even in the face of the current budget shortfall. And as to the fact of a possible deadline to get items on the November ballot-- he calls attention to the fact the Senate is not in session. Translation: a budget deal wasn't going to happen tonight anyway.

7:52pm: Assemblymember Keene gets up to speak, and tells Democrats that their proposed tax increase would actually result in only about half the money for general government services, while the rest would automatically go to public schools through the Proposition 98 guarantee. He mentions this as way of arguing the numbers don't add up. "You start out upside down. Do you realize that? Or does it even matter?"

7:48pm: Thanks to all seven live blog readers for emailing in. The cookies were chocolate chip.

7:45pm: Three and a half hours. The visitors gallery is now up to a whopping seven citizens! One is a young girl... she's chewing gum and leaning over the rail, looking down at the legislators like she's on a weekend trip to the zoo.

7:41pm: For all the rhetoric, a lot of Democrats and Republicans do... gasp... seem to like each other personally in here. Several small bipartisan groupings can be seen from my perch off the floor. Dems and Reeps chatting, even listening to the debate.

7:32pm: "You are all good and decent people. Until you got in this room." -- Assemblymember Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park). He was making a joke, in case it doesn't come through here.

7:30pm: Cookies are being handed out by fellow Capitol reporter Marcey Brightwell. Homemade. Seriously. Good. She apparently just got off the news set at local ABC affiliate News10. That's dedication.

7:23pm: "Let's just get together." -- Assemblymember Wilmer Carter (D-Rialto), who then proceeded to tell a story about how she has a knack for working with "difficult" people. She then pleaded with her colleage to "please don't let me be in trouble" with constituents by having to go home and tell folks she couldn't bring everyone in Sacramento together.

Carter's remarks received applause. Call it the feel good moment of the afternoon/evening.

7:20pm: I had to take a break and finally eat that packed away sandwich. Turkey and cheese, if you're curious. Debate continues, and repetition factor of main points remains high. Visitors gallery is now empty. Thanks to all three of you still reading this for sticking around.

7:09pm: Assemblymember Anthony Adams (R-Hesperia) channels Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan Jessep in telling Democrats who say the state needs more money: "You can't handle the truth."

7:07pm: In the interest of reporting a little news, Assembly Speaker Bass just briefly chatted with reporters just off the floor and said she intended to rekindle budget negotiations first thing tomorrow, knowing full well this vote will come up short. She also seemed a little less-than-optimistic that Democratic legislators would be traveling to Denver for the Democratic National Convention.

7:05pm: I'm told three assemblymembers are missing today: Assemblymember Nell Soto (D-Pomona) remains in poor health, as does Assemblymember Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster). Assemblymember Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont) is stuck in Miami, where he traveled to meet his kids returning from Bolivia... and where he ran smack dab into bad weather, courtesy of a hurricane.

7:02pm: An "unidentified" legislator tells me the Harris Ranch joke was actually about a horse in the men's room called "Budget Surplus." I stand corrected. I also will now let sleeping horses lie.

6:55pm: Assemblymember Guy Houston (R-Livermore) just mentioned something about staying out of the restroom at Harris Ranch. The chamber chuckled; I'm told it had something to do with a previous comment about said men's room and some kind of steer enshrined in there. Sorry to tell you I must've not been paying full attention. My apologies.

Also, gallery update: the three optimists left. Two glum new visitors arrived.

6:47pm: Just as the last two citizens in the visitors gallery went home... and all hope was lost... three newbies just arrived. They're smiling. I love their optimism.

6:45pm: Three hours, baby. And... wait for it... yes, more microphones just went up. Hopefully some smart reporter is keeping a full tally of the number of speakers. I've obviously given up on the substance of the debate as it's become... sorry, assemblymembers... repetitive. Not enough revenue... too much spending... all brought to you by the Office of Redundancy Office.

6:43pm: Three hours under our belts. I just saw Assemblymember Bill Maze (R-Visalia) sneak some kind of candy out from under his desk, shared by Assemblymember Rick Keene (R-Chico). I can't seem to get over there to ascertain exactly what kind of candy that was.

6:34pm: More microphones just went up of assemblymembers wishing to speak. Sigh. And wait... oh, man... one of the three remaining gallery visitors just left. Lucky guy.

6:30pm: Assemblymember Ted Gaines (R-Roseville) just mentioned the ill-fated Donner Party. They ate their fellow travelers, you know.

6:28pm: The lifeguard left. I now count three visitors in the gallery.

6:15pm: Two hours. Who had two hours in the pool? You lose. Onward we go.

6:01pm: "A lot of things are broken in this state, including my microphone." -- Assemblymember Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City). Then she tells the chamber she's tired of the annual budget ritual and offers this... unusual... way of expressing her feelings: "I'm sick and tired of the 'you show me yours, I'll show you mine.'"

And then in conclusion, pleading for more discussion on Monday, said Garcia: "Come in your sneakers, wear your damn pajamas... let's get down to work!"

5:54pm: Governor Schwarzenegger underwent arthroscopic knee surgery last night and isn't in Sacramento today. Lucky guy.

5:48pm: Assemblymember George Plescia (R-San Diego) invokes record Olympic medal winner Michael Phelps. See, who says legislators can't speak in ways the common person understands? But I kind of lost the analogy after that.

5:45pm: We're now at the 90 minute mark of the budget debate. I just remembered, somewhat excitedly, that I packed a sandwich in my gear bag. Let 'em keep talking, I say.

5:37pm: More visitors just walked into the gallery above the Assembly floor. They seem puzzled. One teenager has a "lifeguard" t-shirt on. He should stick around; we may need him.

5:28pm: Assemblymember Mike Duvall (R-Brea) brings up the historical record of Calvin Coolidge and tax cuts. Now he's on to lamenting tax increases under Franklin Roosevelt and blames them for the Depression. Actually... and I hate to focus on the historical record... but the Depression is widely agreed to have begun in 1929 when Herbert Hoover was the prez. The comment reminds me of the classic college flick Animal House, where John Belushi's character says the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

"Germans?" says one of Belushi's frat brothers. "Forget it," says another brother. "He's rolling."

5:17pm: Oh no, he didn't. Assemblymember Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) says 2004's Proposition 58, which created a rainy day budget fund, was "completely ineffectual," and he says the strength of the original proposal was "negotiated away". And who does he think did that? Well... He ends his soliloquy with an angry jab at Democrats. "Shame on this body!" he says, plopping down in his chair and pushing his microphone down.

Debate running time currently 1 hour, 2 minutes.

5:13pm: Oh no, she didn't. Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) drops the name "Grover Norquist"-- the conservative anti-tax crusader who helped orchestrate an event where every GOP member of the Assembly except one (Niello) signed a pledge to not raise taxes.

5:11pm: Okay, sorry to disappoint. But given the repetition of arguments now appearing in floor debate, I think I'll stop chronicling everyone who speaks. Sorry, assemblymembers. But I think we've got the picture... for now.

5:06pm: Assemblymember Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel) slams the tax increase idea.

5:00pm: Assemblymember Juan Arambula (D-Fresno) rises to ask Assemblymember Laird to talk about how last year's reserve evaporated after several doses of bad luck for the state. Arambula then tells the chamber that those things weren't the fault of Democratic leadership.

Update: remember how I said this might not be a long floor debate? Ummm... the number of microphones raised to speak keeps increasing. Oh well.

4:50pm: Assemblymember Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) rises to speak. Ah, here come the verbal slings and arrows we were expecting! On Dems calling this a compromise budget: "Compromise with who? Are you talking to yourselves?!?" And then there's this from Huff: "We have a systemic lack of leadership within the Democrat majority party." One Dem legislator shook his head in disgust. Now he calls Sacramento "La La Land." See, who said a Sunday budget debate wouldn't be fun?

The three citizens in the gallery upstairs seem unfazed. I wonder why they showed up?

4:46pm: Assemblymember Mike Feuer (D-LA) rises to speak. He must be an optimist, because he tells the chamber he hears agreement on how to solve the budget problem. Wait, he's a first-term lawmaker. Ah, that explains the optimism.

4:44pm: The following isn't meant to impugn all assemblymembers, but there do seem to be a fair number during this debate who are busy checking the BlackBerries, printing documents off their desktop computers, reading the news online [Olympics, anyone?], chowing down at their desks. Hey, it's Sunday.

4:39pm: Assemblymember Doug LaMalfa (R-Biggs) rises to speak to deride excessive spending and the ills of a tax increase. He, too, laments the lack of bipartisanship. [this just in: Assembly reaches accord... on a lack of bipartisanship. Film at 11. --JM] LaMalfa goes on to tell his fellow legislators to consider the fact that a new cap on state spending, a key GOP demand, might give some pols "cover" when it comes to pointing the blame to reduced state services.

4:37pm: Assemblymember Gene Mullin (D-South San Francisco) is up, channeling a "Can't we all get along?" theme.

4:33pm: Assemblymember Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) rises to speak, saying that Democrats have a "minority among" them that doesn't want to cooperate with Republicans. "Republicans ideas for reform," he says, "are dying in committees."

Blakeslee then delivers this little zinger: "No justice, no peace. If you want us to work with you, then you're going to have to work with us."

4:31pm: Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally (D-LA) offers some historical perspective about another celebrity GOP governor who famously agreed to a tax increase-- Ronald Reagan. Dymally should know; he was in the Legislature at the time. Dymally repeats the call of Democrats for GOP assemblymembers to put their own budget if they don't like this one.

It should be noted that most members of the Assembly are reading a relatively small summary of what's in the budget proposal being debated.

4:30pm: "It is time for Democrats to take their heads out of the sand... What are we doing here?" --Niello

4:27pm: Assemblymember Roger Niello (R-Sacramento) opens up debate for the GOP position. He says he's been getting lots of calls and emails telling him to "hang tough" and oppose the tax increase. He reads from an email written by a citizen who refers to Niello and his colleagues as "you Democrats" in his anger about taxes. Ummm, nope. And to the point of the day: "This is not a compromise budget," says Niello, "and it has no chance of passage."

4:24pm: Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is speaking. [Might this mean a short floor debate? --JM] Bass says this year's budget needs to be mindful of not exacerbating next year's problems, when the economy will again likely be dragging. She tells assemblymembers that a longer budget impasse may cost the state $300-400 million in fees tacked on by Wall Street investors for any borrowing needed to keep the state afloat. Bass calls the state's problem "an extraordinary situation" that requires a tax increase.

4:22pm: Assemblymember John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) opens up debate, saying that "only Democrats have put forward a real plan." And yes, he admits that today's outcome is a foregone conclusion.

4:15pm: Budget debate has begun... earlier than expected. Closed-door caucuses only lasted about 45 minutes, and now the full Assembly is considering both the original budget conference committee proposal, AB 1781, as well as the proposed changes highlighted below.