[Editor’s Note: Mr. Rice is a lobbyist for City Hall in Sacramento.]
Dateline Sacramento — We made the rounds of the Capitol yesterday, talking with our usual suspects of great friends and contacts to get the latest scoop on where the budget discussions are as of now. The response we consistently got was, nowhere. The Legislature was completely blindsided last week when Gov. Brown vetoed the main budget bill less than 24 hours after the Legislature sent him a “balanced” budget.
A very close friend was walking into the Capitol last Thursday morning with one of the top budget negotiators for the Senate when he proceeded to say that Gov. Brown would likely sit on the budget while he tried to negotiate with the Republicans on a special election.
If he didn't get what he wanted, the Legislature expected the governor to sign the budget bill, but blue pencil items he didn't like and request the Legislature “re-do” those items he deemed objectionable. Instead, the governor called the legislative leaders at 9 a.m. and told them of his intent to veto the budget just a few short hours later.
At this time, the Legislature has no clue what to do next, but they are definitely united in their disbelief of Gov. Brown. At this point, it appears the Legislature will allow the governor a little bit of time to continue to negotiate with the Republicans on a special election….but their patience is running thin.
Legislation — SB 469 (Vargas)
The Legislature's policy committees are running at full speed again dealing with legislation sent to them from the opposite House. We want to highlight SB 469 (Vargas), the anti-Walmart bill that is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Local Government Committee on Wednesday. We have been working very closely with the Committee on this bill, and they continue to inform us of the fact that similar bills in the past have passed the Local Government Committee on party line votes. Based on our outreach to members of the Committee on this bill, we think history has a great chance of repeating itself….
Extortion Payments
If you have not already seen it, the California Redevelopment Assn. has been working overtime the past few days in developing a chart to display how much your RDA would have to “contribute” in order to continue its operations under the recently passed SB 27x. We strongly encourage you to highlight how difficult it will be to invest in your community should this bill eventually be signed into law [SB 26x (RDA elimination) and SB 27x (Extortion payments) are currently sitting in the enrollment process, and will be held there by the Legislature until a better understanding of what is going on with the budget debate].
Mr. Rice may be contacted at tony@riceenglander.com
