The nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst’s Office, in a report issued today, issued a bleak outlook for the state budget with projections of a $27.8 billion shortfall in the next 20 months.

This will almost certainly test the mettle of the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the coming months as they struggle to find a way through this economic mess.

Click here to watch LAO analyst Mac Taylor’s comments.

Here’s what the LAO said:

“We concur with the administration’s assessment that the state’s struggling economy signals a major reduction in expected revenues. Combined with rising state expenses, we project that the state will need $27.8 billion in budget solutions over the next 20 months. The state’s revenue collapse is so dramatic and the underlying economic factors are so weak that we forecast huge budget shortfalls through 2013­14 absent corrective action. From 2010­11 through 2013­14, we project annual shortfalls that are consistently in the range of $22 billion.”

Click on this link for the full report: http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=1893

In legislation modeled after California’s popular transportation half-cent sales tax programs, state Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, has introduced a bill that would let school districts into the action.

SB 1430 would permit two or more contiguous local school districts (K-12) within a county to form an education finance district and ask voters to tax themselves for a specific set of projects and programs. Potential taxes include sales, telephone or other utilities, parcel taxes or vehicle license fees.

The idea is similar to the half-cent transportation sales tax that voters have repeatedly embraced in Contra Costa and Alameda counties and elsewhere. The major difference is that transportation plans require two-thirds voter approval; this one calls for a simple majority.

Today, individual school districts can ask voters for parcel tax money but it requires two-thirds voter approval and bonds require 55 percent. (Statement corrected at 9:02 p.m. on 2/28/08.)

While voters generally dislike tax increases, they have been persuaded over the years to pass local measures earmarked for local projects and programs. Nearly half of California’s public investment in transportation now comes from local sales taxes and tolls.

“School districts could join together in a program that provides local accountability,” Torlakson said in an interview in his Sacramento office on Wednesday.

On the other hand, transportation interests may resist opening the door to education — always a high priority with voters — in what has been a relatively successful if hard-fought source of cash for road expansions, pothole money and public transit service.

What are the chances this bill will ever be signed into law?

It’s hard to say. The Legislature will be preoccupied for months as it copes with a gaping budget deficit.

But Torlakson chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and after eight years in the Senate and four in the Assembly, he has many friends. Known for his persistence, he could also keep trying if he is successful in his planned 2010 election for state superintendent of schools.

Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, that would make on-line harassment a misdemeanor passed in the Public Safety Committee today 5-0.

“We, as legislators, must write laws with one eye on the present, and one for the future,” Houston said in a prepared release. “Currently, California state law does not recognize this growing area of concern. California is always at the cutting edge of technological advancement; we need laws to keep up with the technology.”

Here’s the partial text of Houston’s press release:

AB 919 would make it a misdemeanor to use the Internet to intentionally incite a third person to cause fear, harass or harm an individual.

AB 919 will be heard next be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Memo to San Francisco 49ers: We can’t stop you from going but don’t forget to leave the name behind.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, just dropped this press release:

LENO TO INTRODUCE LEGISLATION LIMITING THE USE OF THE NAME “SAN FRANCISCO” BY SPORTS FRANCHISES LOCATED OUTSIDE THE CITY

The idea comes in the wake of the San Francisco 49ers owners’ surprise decision to break off
talks about the construction of a new stadium in San Francisco, which also potentially imperils
the City’s bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2016. After further research, the bill would be
introduced in the next legislative session, which begins in December.