Results tagged “senate”

As UC Regents meet for a vote on increasing University of California tuition by 32%, Attorney General Jerrry Brown said today that a state panel has the authority to cut the pay of state Senators and Assemblymembers by 18 percent, which would cut pay from $116,208 to $95,291 in December 2010, according to the Sacramento Bee. At issue was if Senate salaries could be cut mid-term, which Brown said was within the law. But still undetermined is if benefits can be cut.

We've got a former eBay CEO and conservative Meg Whitman running for Governor and today we find that another tech CEO from the right is making the move for public office. Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina will announce this morning her run for the Senate, according to the LA Times. She will face Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) in the Republican primary. The winner of that will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in next year's November election. If Boxer wins, it will be her fourth term.

Watch out, Los Angeles. We might be having a Raider Nation soon enough (or hey, maybe even get back the Chargers). In a legislative session yesterday, the state's senate approved a bill that "would grant the 75,000-seat stadium project an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act, the environmental law that governs development," according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Finally, the budget has passed both houses--the Senate early this morning and the Assembly this afternoon--and Governor Arnold Scwharzenegger says he plans to sign it next week. However, the LA Times hints that Schwarzenegger may do some line item vetoing and a $1.1 billion deficit still remains to be solved.

Happy New Fiscal Year! To no surprise of anyone, the state once again failed to pass the budget revision before today, the beginning of the 2009/2010 fiscal year. That means 28,742 payments, many of them tax refunds, totalling $53.3 million will be sent out tomorrow as IOUs, costing the state $3.4 billion over the next 30 years due to higher interest rates.

In a late Sunday night Session, the state's Assembly passed a budget with $2 billion in tax and fee increases that included a $15 annual vehicle registration fee that would pay for state parks, among other taxes and fees like a $1.50 tax on cigarettes. The Democratic budget solution is headed to the state Senate for consideration this morning.

As of yesterday, the State Senate had not moved on items except denying a budget package of three bills passed by the Assembly (before a bill can go to Schwarzenegger, it must pass both houses). That package would temporarily halt the use of IOUs in lieu of bill payments from the state. In regards to the threat of state parks, no action has been taken yet. The Democrats proposal goes like this: AB 180, the big budget revision bill (remember, the budget was already passed earlier this year), contains a one year cut of state parks (Schwarzenegger called for two years). Once that passes, effectively eliminating state parks, then another bill would be introduced to save state parks via a $15 annual fee on vehicle registrations. That's a risky move considering Schwarzenegger and Republicans vow to veto any taxes or fee increases. The Senate reconvened at 12:30 today and the Assembly will on Saturday.

“I am confident that Hilda Solis will turn the many challenges we face into many opportunities for the American people. As Secretary, she will continue to promote policies that will invigorate our economy, protect our jobs, and retrain our work force," California Senator Barbara Boxer said today on the confirmation. "She will work for a sustainable energy future, which is going to mean lots of jobs and new technologies. She will ensure safe working conditions. She will enforce fairly the wage and hour laws we have on the books… She will protect against worker discrimination. She will strengthen the middle class."

Three wildlife bills, passed yesterday in a rare Sunday session of the Senate, paved the way to give California more than 700,000 acres of protected land. "It would designate as wilderness -- the government's highest protection -- about 190,000 acres in Riverside County, including parts of Joshua Tree National Park; about 450,000 acres in the Eastern Sierra and San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles; and about 90,000 acres in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, including John Krebs Wilderness," reported the LA Times.

Two San Francisco lawmakers from the Assembly and Senate are planning to introduce resolutions supporting the repeal of Proposition 8. "Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, will introduce measures specify that Prop 8 is an improper revision of the California Constitution. Significant revisions to the Constitution mandate distinct procedures and require a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature before going to voters," says Equality California, the organization that is sponsoring the bills. Proposition 8, which sought to ban gay marriage in California, won in the November election, prompting protests and a state supreme court case that will likely be heard starting in March. It seems the battle over Prop 8 is being fought at every level possible.

Today, the LA City Council will be voting to endorse two federal bills. It's only symbolic in nature for the city to do so, but it helps when the bills hit the House and Senate or the differences committees.

For those of you following AB 2321, a state assembly bill that would allow Metro to put a proposed half-cent sales tax increase on November's ballot (they say it could raise $30-40 billion dollars over 30 years), it passed out of the state senate this afternoon, according to Steve Hymon at the Bottleneck Blog.

There are two identical bills floating around the U.S Senate and House this month that would protect federally owned land from any development, vehicles, permanent structures, mining or basically anything else that would alter the environment. The land would go under The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Johnson and says defines land as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." Hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, hunting and fishing are allowed, according to the Sacramento Bee.

A huge hurdle has been cleared so that a half-cent sales tax increase proposal can be on November's ballot. Yesterday afternoon, a state Senate committee approved the bill that allows LA County to ask for the tax hike. If it makes it there and is approved by voters, it could raise $30 to $40 billion a year over the next 30 years for public transit and other transportation projects. But first, a few more hurdles to get through until major transportation funding.

The deadline to get props, measures and initiatives on this November's ballot is August 10. As for the proposed half-cent increase in sales tax for LA County for transportation projects, it has to go through a series of agonizing legal approvals to even make it to the point where the people get to vote on it. Metro has already approved it and the County Board of Supervisors will vote on it later today. But the most critical piece right now is the passage of AB 2321, which will make room for the sales tax increase on the ballot. The Senate Appropriations Committee looked at it yesterday, but tabled it to Thursday, August 8, according to Streetsblog LA. If it makes it out of committee later this week (here's how you can help), then it goes to the full state senate for approval. Nothing like a little stress over something that is not final until the people have the last word. Sigh.

For Angelenos, bees are more often than not encountered as sugar-drunk spastics outside of a neighborhood recycling center, sippers of sweet nectar from your garden's flowers, or a stinging source of outdoor anguish. But there's actually a nationwide "bee crisis" that pertains specifically to honey bees and their unexpected decline, and now what's been a problem for farmers is getting passed on to the consumers in the form of higher food prices.

As the average price for a gallon of gas tips over $4 across the country (in Los Angeles, the average is about $4.46 for regular), the Senate will vote today on a "windfall tax" that would snag some of the top oil company's profits at the tune of $17 billion -- in other words, the tax breaks they would expect in the next ten years. $36 billion was earned by the top five oil companies during the first quarter of this year.

This week's Senate Committee Hearing on the Future of the Internet featured notable speakers on both sides of the net neutrality debate including Stanford Prof. Lawrence Lessig, FCC Commissioner Kevin J. Martin, Patric Verrone, President of the WGA-West, and Michele Combs of the Christian Coalition.

Via Think Progress and Bob Geiger, it looks as though we may finally be seeing Democrats grow a spine: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced a few hours ago that he intends on forcing Republican obstructionists to stay in the Senate, over night if necessary, if they want to filibuster the Iraq withdrawal legislation. Here are a few key excerpts (for the whole schlemiel, head over here):

Today in the House Committee on Appropriations, a transportation funding bill for Fiscal year 2008 was voted on and passed. It included our Purple Line, the subway that is planned and dreamed on for Wilshire Blvd. Unfortunately, it appears that the bill will not fund the project, but rather does something else of bureaucratic importance: it repeals language written in 1986 by Congress to ban subway tunneling along Wilshire. "Metro is deeply appreciative of Congressman...