Here’s the Courage Campaign’s new television ad “re-branding California Republicans as the ‘Yacht Party’ for refusing to close a ‘yacht tax’ loophole despite an initial $16 billion state budget deficit.”

United Healthcare Workers-West and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, are joining with more than 550 small donors to air the ads in Sacramento and San Francisco today and Thursday, and in Walnut Creek, Palm Springs, and other areas at times not yet determined.

The “Yacht Party” concept began on Calitics, a state politics blog. Netroots activists there came up with the term and then produced a one-minute YouTube video, created by blogger David Dayen; that video inspired this ad.

UPDATE @ 3:20 P.M. WEDNESDAY: Man, they make it TOO easy. This just in from the California Democratic Party:

Perhaps the fumes from the engines on their power yachts finally got to them. That’s the only logical explanation we can think of as to why the Assembly Republicans, breaking their own record for political tone-deafness, would have chosen the swanky new boutique hotel Le Rivage as the location for their caucus retreat.

Nestled into the banks of the Sacramento River, Le Rivage offers “elegant surroundings, select accommodations, impeccable service, and unique amenities combine to create the finest luxury hotel in California’s capital.” What unique amenities, you ask?

How about – you guessed it — “luxury yacht parking, long term and short term.”

According to the hotel’s website: Le Rivage Hotel proudly hosts Sacramento’s premier yacht parking. Conveniently located adjacent to the luxury hotel and on The Sacramento River. Le Rivage Marina includes

25 permanent slips from 36-100ft vessels

Dual 50 amp service

Pump-out station

Boat catering

Short-term parking

Yacht sales

Use of hotel pool, whirlpool, and fitness center with berth rental

What better way for Assembly Republicans to celebrate their crowning legislative accomplishment of the new session thus far – their killing of the bill to close the “sloophole”?

Sacramento reporters have been complaining for some time about a lack of Internet access in the state Capitol.

Steve Geissinger — the Capitol Correspondents Association of California’s president and a reporter for this newspaper — said perhaps the state and the CCAC, through fundraising, could forge a 50-50 deal so the deficit-plagued state doesn’t bear the whole cost of providing adequate Internet access for reporting on things such as — well, the deficit.

At least one lawmaker reportedly agrees and has been talking with the CCAC about a deal, although this person asked not to be identified before an agreement is reached.

Follow us after the jump for a letter the CCAC sent to state officials yesterday, including some comparisons that show just how far the supposedly high-tech Golden State has fallen behind… Read the rest of this entry »

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office budget review is out, and the news is grim: “Primarily due to the continued deterioration of the state’s revenue outlook, we project that the state’s budget shortfall (prior to any corrective actions) has increased to about $16 billion.”

That’s up from about $14.5 million, and this increase essentially just ate up the corrective actions passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor last week. Read as: Back to square one.

Furthermore, the LAO says Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers’s “budget-balancing approach is fundamentally flawed.

“Its across-the-board reductions reflect little effort to prioritize and determine which state programs provide essential services or are most critical to California’s future. In the absence of a credible plan that prioritizes state spending and revenues, we offer an alternative approach for the Legislature’s consideration. By making more targeted reductions and adding ongoing revenue solutions, we believe this approach offers the Legislature a better foundation to begin crafting a 2008‑09 budget that focuses on essential services.”

In short, cuts alone aren’t the wise way to go; we must increase California’s revenues, too. The LAO suggests reducing, limiting or eliminating various tax credits, deductions and exemptions.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez says the LAO report “makes it clear that a slash-and-harm, cuts-only approach of dismantling state government won’t fix our budget problem.

“The report backstops our commitment to taking a balanced approach that includes eliminating tax loopholes and raising revenues so we will not have to close parks, lay off teachers, and put our state’s most vulnerable citizens at risk,” Nunez said. “We’ve taken care of half the problem with tough cuts, and with this outline, will continue careful deliberations to enact a budget that reflects the values of Californians rather than anti-tax martyrs.”

Meanwhile, the Education Coalition — representing more than 1.7 million parents, teachers, school board members, school employees and administrators — has released a new radio ad featuring parents at a PTA meeting talking about the impact of the Governor’s proposed budget cuts to students and schools, and urging Californians to call the Governor and their Legislators to tell them “no more education funding cuts.” Listen to it here:

UPDATE @ 12:54 P.M. WEDNESDAY: “Now that the Legislative Analyst’s Office has released its analysis of my 2008-09 budget proposal, I am looking forward to discussing the analysis and our budget with all four legislative leaders,” Gov. Schwarzenegger says. “While I believe that we should begin negotiations with all ideas on the table, I have been very clear in my position against raising taxes to fix Sacramento’s spending problem and our budget.”

Assembly Republicans voted down a bill today which would’ve closed a tax loophole letting those who buy yachts and aircraft avoid paying California taxes.

The Assembly voted 47-18 for SBX3-8, but because tax matters require a two-thirds vote for passage, it failed. All Assembly Democrats voted for it, while 18 Republicans voted against it and 13 more Republicans failed to vote on it despite being present at the State Capitol today.

The bill would extend from 90 days to a full year the amount of time a new yacht or aircraft bought out of state must be stored outside California in order to avoid the state’s sales and use tax. Closing the loophole would bring in an estimated $5 million this year and $21 million next year.

Some might say that’s chump change, and in the context of the state’s $146 billion budget, it’s hard to argue. But critics would argue that while payments to schools are delayed, MediCal provider reimbursements are slashed, welfare cost-of-living increases are postponed, judicial vacancies go unfilled and far more draconian measures are considered to close the state’s enormous budget deficit, why would a fiscal conservative vote to maintain ANY tax loophole for ANYBODY? It’s not about the dollar amount, it’s about the philosophy, about the message it sends to the state.

“We have just had to make serious cuts in health care and education to keep the state solvent,” Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, says in his news release. “For Assembly Republicans to then turn around and cover up for wealthy yacht owners who hide their boats so they’ll pay less tax is nothing short of reckless and callous. The fact that even some Republicans who had previously supported this measure didn’t vote for it today is particularly troubling. Instead of closing ranks Republicans should be closing the yacht loophole. Be assured this matter is not finished: closing the ‘sloophole’ will be the top item I bring up in every budget discussion before any further cuts are to be considered.”

The 18 Assembly Republicans who voted against closing the loophole are Joel Anderson, R-La Mesa; John Benoit, R-Palm Desert; Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto; Mike Duvall, R-Brea; Ted Gaines, R-Roseville; Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad; Guy Houston, R-San Ramon; Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar; Kevin Jeffries, R-Riverside; Rick Keene, R-Chico; Doug LaMalfa, R-Biggs; Bill Maze, R-Visalia; George Plescia, R-San Diego; Jim Silva, R-Huntington Beach; Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita; Todd Spitzer, R-Orange; Audra Strickland, R-Camarillo; and Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel.

And the 13 Assembly Republicans who Nunez said didn’t vote on the bill despite being in the State Capitol on Tuesday are Republican Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis; Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia; Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton; Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo; Paul Cook, R-Yucaipa; Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine; Bill Emmerson, R-Redlands; Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield; Shirley Horton, R-San Diego; Alan Nakanishi, R-Lodi; Roger Niello, R-Sacramento; Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster; and Van Tran, R-Costa Mesa.

I’m on a conference call with the California Clinton campaign. Here are some quotable quotes:

Luis Vizcaino, California communications director: This was “a great victory in the Golden State last night which demonstrates that California is still Clinton country.”

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: “This is a bellwether state, so what happens here has an impact across the nation… The diversity of this state is like no place in the United States of America, maybe in the world.”

“We won big, in southern California particularly” on concerns about the economy, health care, etc. “This is a tremendous victory.”

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles: “Hillary Clinton has built a strong relationship with the Latino community over many many years… She committed not only to me but to others that she would come into the Latino community to campaign, particularly into East Los Angeles, which very often is overlooked.”

“She respected the Latino community, we knew we were important to the election, and she spent time there not only listening to our needs but also telling us what she wanted to do for the Latino community.”

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: “At the end of the day, it is about hard work, its about organization, its about constancy in this campaign which really began over a month ago… when those absentee ballots arrived.”

“The Asian community turned out very significantly for Hillary Clinton, the LGBT community turned out very significantly for Hillary Clinton.”

Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte: “The sleeping giant has awakend, the Latino vote is hear, and they really showed their colors last night.”

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles: Noting that Mimi Vitello of Van Nuys, who’d hosted a house party visit by Obama recently, ended up voting for Clinton instead, “It trumped the ‘message of hope,’ it was really about ‘Here’s the future, let’s go on a ride to the future.’ … I think she really found herself in the last two months of this campaign.”

“I think that the primary reason why Hillary Clinton won in California is because they (voters) read between the lines… and in the end they did exactly what Mimi Vitello did, which was evaluate the candidates on their merits.”

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco: Asian-Americans “really believe in Hillary Clinton’s leadership… People felt very comfortable that we knew who we were voting for for President.”

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles: “We should all be extremely proud of California, particularly since the posters and pundits had said it was even-Steven in California… As it turned out it was a spectacular win, the pundits were absolutely wrong.”

“It’s clear to me that Latinos and women really did create this win.”

“What Obama was able to do was collect a lot of little states, which made him look better. Many of those were caucus states, which did not at all reflect what would’ve happened in a primary.”

“I think we all have to get on message with the Latino vote and presence. There are some people who are trying to inject negativity into what is happening with Latinos and blacks.”

State campaign director Ace Smith: “This was a campaign that reached into every community… and one thing that we don’t get much credit for but was huge for this campaign was that we went out and talked to young voters.”

And now, one day after Barack Obama’s campaign rolled out its California “truth squad,” Hillary Clinton’s campaign has unveiled its “rapid responders” in the Feb. 5 primary states, “a national group of truth tellers who will respond to inaccurate or misleading attacks directed at Senator and President Clinton,” the news release says.

In California, it’s state Controller John Chiang; state NAACP president Alice Huffman; San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom; Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles; and former U.S. Rep. Lynn Schenk, D-San Diego.

Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of truthiness! Perhaps we can have a Celebrity Deathmatch-type showdown — maybe Gavin can represent Clinton against Kamala Harris for Obama, or maybe a battle of the Lynns: Woolsey v. Schenk.

Lots goin’ on this past week, so I thought maybe we could recap some of the highlights…

We saw Bill Clinton in Oakland trying to mobilize a mostly-minority crowd for Hillary, and we saw Barack Obama in San Francisco trying to mobilize women.

We saw Tom Lantos endorse Jackie Speier to succeed him, and we saw Leland Yee promptly declare he’s not running — but wait, here comes Yul Kwon, a San Mateo management consultant who won the $1 million prize on “Survivor: Cook Islands” in 2006, reportedly considering a run. He’s a former aide to U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. — which quite frankly might be more hinderance than help in Lantos’ district.

We saw Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorse Proposition 93, which would lower the total number of years a state legislator could serve from 14 to 12, but would let him or her divide those years between the houses as they choose — and would grandfather current officeholders so people like Don Perata and Fabian Nunez could serve another term. The governor’s own party this week called Proposition “a self-serving measure, authored by a small group of state legislators seeking to extend their terms in office beyond the limits set by voters in Proposition 140.”

We saw the Green Party hold a presidential debate in San Francisco, with former George Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney a clear front-runner.

And we saw Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums give a passionate State of the City Address… but it’s not his passion with which some disgruntled residents are taking issue.

Hot off the presses, a few choice chunks of the address Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will deliver later today:

In any number of areas, we’ve tackled politically risky things that no one in the past wanted to touch. To me, this is progress. And now, we must make progress on another problem that’s been put off for many years.
…
The problem is that, while revenues are flat, automatic formulas are increasing spending by 7.3 percent. Even a booming economy can’t meet that kind of increase. So the system itself is the problem.
…
We need more stability.
…

The first year I was here, I tried to get the legislature to pass a constitutional amendment to limit spending—but I failed. Then, in 2005, I tried to convince the voters to pass a constitutional amendment to control the budget—but that failed, too.

So, for several years, we took actions that balanced the budget as long as the economy was booming. For several years, we kept the budget wolf from the door . . .but the wolf is back.

It used to be that Sacramento plugged deficits by grabbing money everywhere it could—pension funds, local governments, bonds, gas taxes meant for transportation. But we tightened the noose by taking away those options. We passed Proposition 1A, Proposition 58 and Proposition 42. We now have no way out . . . except to face our budget demons.

To address next year’s $14 billion deficit, in two days I will submit a budget that is difficult. It does not raise taxes. It cuts the increase in spending. And it cuts that spending across the board.
…
We cannot continue to put people through the binge and purge of our budget process. It is not fair. It is not reasonable. It is not in the best interests of anyone.

So I am again proposing a constitutional amendment so that our spending has some relationship to our revenues.
…
It makes me proud as governor that a recent survey found that 23 out of the top 100 public schools in the nation were in California. I would like to congratulate the teachers, principals, administrators and all who are responsible for these remarkable schools. There are other good things, too.

The number of high school students taking advanced math and science courses has increased 53 percent since 2003. That’s terrific for our hi-tech future. And we have other good education news, but as you know, it is not all good.

Our dropout rate is between 15 and 30 percent. We don’t even know. This is not just a statistic. These are children lost in a black hole of ignorance, poverty and crime. Our schools have 30 percent fewer teachers and half the number of counselors than other schools in the U.S.

Everyone knows that to dramatically change our education system we have to undertake reforms, and we have to fund those reforms. In light of the current budget situation, this is not the year to talk about money. I do believe, however, we still must undertake reforms right now in the schools that need our help most.

UPDATE @ 4:25 P.M. TUESDAY: The governor’s office has set up a spiffy little Web site to explain his State of the State address. Read the full prepared text here. Read Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s and state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata’s responses here. And wait until after voters have decided on Proposition 93 this Feb. 5 before expecting lawmakers to speak their minds on issues of budget and taxation with complete freedom.

Well, I’m back after a week of vacation, and what did I miss? Oh, not much: The state Senate’s President Pro Tem got carjacked; a powerful Bay Area Congressman and committee chairman announced his illness and impending retirement; Obama won Iowa; etc. A slow week by all accounts.

OK, maybe the vacation was a bit ill-timed. But we’ll put that all behind us, as today marks the start of absentee voting in California!

The Golden State’s presidential frontrunners — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani — are excited, perhaps particularly given their less-then-stellar performances in Iowa (Hillary in third place among Democrats, Giuliani a distant sixth among Republicans). After all, California absentee ballot voters comprise more than 40 percent of the overall primary vote, and the state has a tremendous percentage of the delegates needed to win the nominations.

Clinton supporters including Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (a national campaign co-chair), other state lawmakers and California campaign senior staffers will gather in Sacramento in about 15 minutes to discuss “a plan that will ensure a victory for Senator Clinton on February 5, 2008.” Over the weekend, they sent out a memo claiming “our ground game, grassroots organization, and volunteer network throughout the 58 counties are unmatched and will allow us to remain strong.”

Meanwhile, this from Bill Simon, Rudy Giuliani’s California Chairman:

For the first time in years, California Republicans will play a pivotal role in determining who the Presidential nominee will be for their party. The voters in California begin to be heard today, as absentee voting starts in the state. As Republicans cast their ballots, I urge voters to choose the only true fiscal conservative in the race and the man whose tested leadership brought the country together in a time of crisis — Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Remember, vote-by-mail ballots must be received by an elections official no later than the close of polls — that’s 8 p.m. on primary election day, Feb. 5. You can mail it in or return it in person to any polling place in your county or to the county elections office on Election Day; if illness or physical disability prevents you from returning the ballot yourself, you can designate a spouse, child, parent, grandparent, sibling, or a person residing in the same household to return the ballot to the elections official or the precinct board at any polling place within the jurisdiction.

State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, had nothing nice to say about today’s San Francisco Chronicle editorial on health-care reform legislation (”It’s too bad that Nunez and Perata can’t get along, but it’s also time for them to put their personal issues aside.”) when asked about it before a news conference this morning in Oakland.

There is no rift between him and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, he insisted, and he has no problem with the legislation — he’s a cosponsor, he noted. But with Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger predicting a $14 billion budget shortfall, now’s not the time to hurry forward with a new potential encumbrance; if taxes don’t cover the new plan’s cost, the already-in-the-red general fund could end up taking the brunt of it. Better to wait a few weeks until the budget picture is clearer, he said.

“I want to see how badly damaged we are,” Perata said, adding he’s confident the plan can still be put on the November 2008 ballot. “A good idea is not going to be stopped by two weeks (delay).”