While California Dreams: A Weekly Update on the Goings-on in Sacramento

Governor Schwarzenegger has already sounded the political bell by announcing his intention to an across the board 10% reduction in services for every state agency and department. It could also mean a suspension of Prop 98---the school funding mandate which requires that at least 40% of the state?s general fund goes to education spending for K- community colleges, so expect some serious push-back from the educational community and the public as well. For more on this story, check out the Sac Bee article here.

The Resurgence of a health care measure

It will be interesting to see how this announcement plays out in the context of the bleak budget prognostications. A universal health insurance program, backed by the Governor, the Assembly leader and several unions is presently scheduled for a floor vote Monday. Although it is the result of many months of negotiation and its parts are complicated, the measure doesn't address how this is all going to be paid for. The measure requires that all Californians buy health insurance from various private, for-profit companies, some of whom are the subject of lawsuits for their improper treatment of their insured's (see below). It also requires that companies pay a varying percentage for employee health coverage, among its provisions, but it doesn't say how it's all going to be funded because it won't get through the 2/3rd vote requirement in the legislature. So that expected $14 billion price-tag is expected to be presented as an initiative in November 2008.

This raises the obvious question: How are we going to close a $14 billion budget gap and raise another $14 billion to fund an ambitious health care proposal. For more on the deal, check out the articles at the LA Times and the SF Chronicle and for the most up-to-date analysis of the measure as it continues to be revised, click here for the California Progress Report story.

The elation of the Governor and the Speaker of the Assembly on this healthcare deal has been tempered by Senate leader Don Perata who has announced that his house isn't going to rush to judgment on this plan. He has publicly stated that he will not be calling the Senate into session to vote on the proposal this year and cautioned that the measure should not be taken up until the public sees what kinds of cuts the governor is going to make on existing healthcare services.

Other groups have piped-up about the rush to judgment of an early vote tomorrow as well. While some labor groups support the plan (specifically the Service Employees International Union, best known as SEIU), others are either strongly opposed (the California Nurses Association for one) or wary enough about the current and still emerging plan, to call for a delay in the vote (the California Labor Federation). For more on this story, check out today's LA Times story here.

Lawsuits and rulings of the week:

Mental Health advocates take on the Governor

With Christmas cheer in suspension this week, mental health advocates filed suit against the Governor to overturn a decision to fund a $55 million homeless program by shifting the money source from the state budget to a voter approved initiative that calls for a 1% additional tax on California's millionaires. The suit claims that by substituting this money from the funding pool created by Proposition 63, the Governor is undermining the intent of the measure to provide more money for mental health programs, not simply substituting from one source to another. For more on this story, click here.

Court upholds California's global warming legislation

On another legal front this week, a Federal District Judge in Fresno upheld the State's mandate that motor vehicles reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and improve their fuel economy to an average of 35 mpg by 2016 as required under AB 1493, passed in 2002. The court threw out the world's major automakers suit that tried to claim only the federal government has the authority to issue such a mandate. While just one in a string of attempts by the recalcitrant auto industry to step-up-to-the-plate on their role in global warming, they continue to pump millions into lawsuits rather than into trying to be part of the solution.

Although a major victory for California and the war on global warming, the State's mandates still face reluctance from the Bush administration whose own U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has yet to grant us the waiver required for us to proceed. That failure to act is the subject of another lawsuit filed by the State of California last month to force the U.S. EPA to act, which is based on a prior lawsuit that the Supreme Court ruled on earlier this year. In that decision, the Court found that the EPA has the duty to regulate greenhouse gases, regardless of the impact on fuel-economy standards. In other words, the big automakers and the complicit Bush administration keep suing and keep losing on the climate change problem. And we thought they hated lawyers and lawsuits???? For more on this story, click here.

Insurance Commissioner goes after Blue Shield:

Not to be kept out of the limelight, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced this week he will be seeking $12.6 million in fines against Blue Shield of California for improperly and illegally terminating the insurance coverage of more than 200 people. In his announcement, the Commissioner claims that Blue Shield, one of the companies that stands to benefit from the proposed health care plan being voted on tomorrow, committed over 1200 violations in their dealing with their insured's before terminating their coverage. Of course Blue Shield is howling, but recent investigative news reports have exposed practices by this and other big insurance companies showing how prevalent this kind of behavior has been. For more on this story, click here.

What the polls are saying this week:

The highly regarded PPIC has come out with another poll this week which contains few surprises. It shows that 65% of Californians expect bad economic times ahead. The poll also questioned voters on their thinking about Prop 93, the term limits/expansion initiative with 47% being in favor, 38% being opposed and 15% not having an opinion either way. That's today, of course, but let's see what the final numbers are on election day after both sides spend millions bashing politicians. Who will survive this carnage is anybody's guess at the moment. For an excellent summary and analysis of the report, check out Frank Russo's column here. If you missed our analysis of the ballot measures for the February 2008 election, we had a run-down of them in last week's While California Dreams that you can find it here.

Hannah-Beth Jackson is a former Assemblymember who served in the California Assembly from 1998-2004. She Chaired the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety, the Committee on Natural Resources as well as the Legislative Women's Caucus.

She started Speak Out California and serves as its President. Speak Out California is a progressive internet site envisioned by California's progressive leaders to effectively craft the issues and messages that will encourage public participation in bringing new ideas and vision to California's political landscape. Jackson will be a candidate for election to the State Senate in 2008.