A cease-fire to the water wars that have lasted for most of California's modern existence. A prison overcrowding problem that's about to be yanked from state control by federal judges. A broad expansion of California's commitment to sources of renewable energy.

All that in ten days. Really?
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That was the sentiment this morning from the President pro Tempore of the California Senate, universally known as a nice guy but perhaps ready to make sure that no one equates nice guy with pushover.

Implicit in that comment from Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is that Governor Schwarzenegger's public prodding on a number of pending issues won't help; one wonders, too, how it will affect the work in private, beginning with this afternoon's 'Big 5' leadership meeting.
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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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It wasn't specifics that reporters learned today in a wide-ranging chat with the leader of the state Senate, but rather a map for the budget debate that lies ahead -- regardless of what happens in the May 19 special election.

Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's main message was this: if the budget-related ballot measures pass, the remaining deficit is likely manageable. If they don't, it won't be pretty.

"Is it a scare tactic?," said the Democratic leader. "No, it's reality. The numbers are the numbers."
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Well, get ready for Budget Drama Day Three.

With the necessary votes still elusive, the Senate adjourned tonight without acting on the full $42 billion deficit proposal that has been debated in public, and private, for more than 24 hours straight.

Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, in an emotional speech before adjournment, implored Republican senators to "deviate just a little" from their "mantra of 'no new revenue.'"

Steinberg's pointed floor remarks, responding to criticism of the process by Sen. Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley).

With only Senate GOP Leader Dave Cogdill voting this weekend to approve crucial parts of the budget deal, the package of bills sat in limbo all day and night Saturday and Sunday in search of two more GOP votes in the Senate. It's widely believed the package has the needed three GOP votes in the Assembly.

Three names have dominated the discussion for those last two votes: Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks), and Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria).

With Ashburn largely considered a safe vote, that left one more. But when Cox emphatically told reporters in the wee hours today that he wasn't voting for the plan, the buzz and private lobbying turned to Maldonado.

(Even an unusual online plea from Sacramento's editorial writers couldn't sway Cox.)

And thus began an elaborate courtship of the Central Coast agricultural scion, including a long private meeting with Governor Schwarzenegger that "Maldo" described to reporters as cordial.

Maldonado's relationship with the governor was also mentioned more than once; the senator carried important legislation for Schwarzenegger in the past... but may not have gotten what he wanted when it came to other political aspirations.

The Capitol guessing game all day has been this: what does Maldonado want? As of tonight, one might suppose that game goes on.

Tonight's failure to launch means that the entire 27 bill package must begin its legislatie journey anew; apparently, legislative rules dictate that adjournment without completion meant that the bills already dealt with effectively had their votes wiped out. This means it's going to be another very long day... with nerves already frayed... and the state's finances still teetering. The stakes only seem to be getting higher.

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.

With the future of the California Lottery still under discussion in this dismal budget season, one state legislator is pitching a way to increase lottery sales: gas giveaways.

Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter) said today that he'd like to see lottery officials take a page from the playbook of other states, where lottery prizes now include free gas cards.

"As we look for ways to think 'outside the box' to make the lottery attractive to new players," Florez wrote in a letter to California Lottery director Joan Borucki, "this is one idea that should be given serious and prompt consideration."

Florez was apparently inspired by a story in today's edition of The New York Times chronicling a free gas giveway -- for life-- now being offered as a prize by the Florida Lottery. At least four other states are also now dangling gas giveaways as prizes for lottery winners.

If you only remember two things about the crisis in California prisons, might I suggest the following: (1) the prisons are overcrowded and in the crosshairs of the federal courts, and (2) the prison system is apparently in need of billions of dollars to solve problem number 1.

The above Problem (2)... the money... was the focus of today's announcement by GOP legislators of a proposed "fix" to the landmark $7.7 billion prison construction bond signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in May 2007.

The new proposal, SB 1705, gives the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation more flexibility over how to spend the bond money, and attempts to expedite the design and construction process of expanding prison capacity.

It's somewhat unclear as to just who asked for the changes included in the new GOP bill. Republicans legislators said today that many of the changes were requested by Attorney General Jerry Brown, but a spokesman for Brown declined to comment on any requests that might have been made in "legal advice" between the state's lawyer and his clients.

Also unclear is whether these modifications to the 2007 prison bond will have any impact on the stalemate over a separate $7 billion bond to pay for prison health care needs, a bond measure blocked by Republicans and demanded by the federal court-appointed receiver for prison health care.

"I believe that, combined with this fix, that out of the Senate there are votes in order to move the receiver's bond forward," said Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster).

But there wasn't the same level of confidence from Assembly Republicans. "I think we would just have to look at [the receiver's proposal] and see what it looks like," said Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines (R-Fresno). Villines said he'd like to see some of the prison health care needs paid from the first bond package before borrowing more.

And even then, Democrats in the state Senate say that all of this still ignores the need for actually reducing the population behind prison walls.

In other words, the endgame in the prison crisis is still unclear, and the issue is the hottest of hot potatoes under the Capitol dome... looming large over an already ominous budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins next Tuesday.