The headline, rushed online yesterday by news outlets looking for a scoop, makes it clear the state's budget woes aren't getting better. Maybe even worse.

But deeper inside the new in-depth analysis of the Legislative Analyst's Office are examples of a government budget system that's evaporating faster than the polar icecaps.
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Consider it the first big news in the 2010 race for governor of California, and it came 221 days before the June primary: the nomination of the state's dominant political party appears to be safely in the hands of a guy who hasn't even officially said he wants it.

If you love politics, it's a great story.
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The Great 'Give Me Water or I'll Give You Vetoes' Showdown of 2009 is now over. And as is often the case around the Capitol, everyone lives to fight another day.

Just after 9:30 pm last night, Governor Schwarzenegger released a statement that ended the long-running saga over a deal on water issues, and whether lack of said deal would trigger a mass veto of legislation worked on all throughout the year.
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Dispatches from day two of this weekend's California GOP confab from my KQED colleague, Scott Shafer.

Meg-a Problem? Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman gave a somewhat lackluster speech to the state Republican convention Saturday afternoon. She touched on all her usual themes -- cutting taxes and regulation, staying tough on crime, etc. But one thing she didn't mention was her personal voting record.
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A long awaited study of the costs to small businesses from state regulations is finally out, and on first blush seems to reinforce the argument that state lawmakers should scale back their meddling ways.

But the study appears thin on an actual roadmap forward for policymakers, and may not help untangle the complicated issue of which regulations are superfluous, and which ones... even if costly... serve a worthy purpose.
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The autumnal equinox is often marked in Sacramento by the state's chief executive signing or vetoing hundreds of bills submitted by the Legislature.

This season is no diffferent. Or... is it?
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Few new tax proposals have dominated the recent political debate in Sacramento like calls for a new levy on each barrel of oil produced in California. Both sides say it's a no-brainer; not surprisingly, it's a little more complicated than that.
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On Friday, a trio of federal judges will be waiting with hands outstretched for a plan from the state of California to resolve the overcrowded conditions behind its prison walls. And it's now looking like a distinct possibility that the plan will not be limited to the pared-down proposal ratified by the Legislature as last week's session came to an end.
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It's hard not to see the results of tonight's new statewide poll as even more fuel to the fire of reworking the way California government -- and frankly, California politics -- will operate in the future.
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Few proposals have had as many twists and turns in 2009 as a plan to allow new oil drilling in waters less than three miles off the California coast. But even after serious setbacks, few expect the proposal to fade away anytime soon.

The proposal is known as Tranquillon Ridge, and it's the focus of my lengthy story that aired this morning on The California Report. You can listen by clicking below.

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