--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me...dlines-politics

From the Los Angeles Times
Gov. Gets Earful From GOP
Republican legislators want Schwarzenegger to slash borrowing for his $222-billion public works plan and ease environmental rules.
By Peter Nicholas
Times Staff Writer

January 12, 2006

SACRAMENTO — Republican lawmakers on Wednesday laid out conditions that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must meet to get their crucial votes for his $222-billion public works program.

The legislators gave Schwarzenegger a list of demands in a private meeting in the Capitol, where the governor had hoped to assuage their concerns that he may be saddling the state with too much debt without enough to show for it.

At the top of the list was a request that the governor pare the $68 billion in state borrowing his plan envisions and relax environmental protections as a means to speedily shore up roads, levees and other infrastructure.

Schwarzenegger needs a two-thirds majority of the Legislature to send his sweeping proposal to the ballot, giving the Republicans special leverage. Even if he gets every Democratic vote, he would need at least six Republican votes in the Assembly, and two in the Senate.

The meeting was attended by Assembly Republicans. "A two-thirds vote is required to put this on the ballot, and they need Republican votes," said one participant, Assemblyman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks). "If we have certain principles that are extremely important to us … then those principles will have to be included." Schwarzenegger laid out his proposal in his annual State of the State speech last week. It calls for 550 miles of new carpool lanes, 750 new highway miles, 600 miles of new commuter rail lines and the repair of 9,000 miles of existing freeways.

The $222-billion cost would be over 10 years, paid through a mix of borrowing, federal and local money, new tolls, fees and contributions from private industry.

Some Republican legislators foresee weeks of difficult negotiations in which Democrats will press for a plan that could inflate costs, cause delays and plow money into wasteful ventures.

Assemblyman Keith Richman, a moderate Republican from Northridge, said: "There is a risk that, once again, a dysfunctional Legislature will not be able to come to agreement on an infrastructure investment plan. The concern is that the Legislature will continue to be so beholden to various interest groups that common-sense compromises will not be made."

The governor comes to the negotiations weakened. Schwarzenegger's public approval rating is 32%, according to recent opinion polls. He is trying to recover from the painful November special election, in which voters rejected his plans for changing state government. And he is entering a reelection campaign in which he is eager to point to concrete accomplishments.

The governor's chief legislative aide, Richard Costigan, predicted in an interview Wednesday that in the end, the governor would have enough Republican votes to see the plan enacted.

"The Republicans have always been there, and the Republicans are also interested in getting this taken care of," Costigan said. Republicans worry that Democrats will insist the rebuilding be done by union labor. That would prove unpalatable to Republicans, who say the exclusive use of union labor could delay construction and inflate costs.

Republicans, for their part, are insisting on conditions that Democrats could find equally untenable.

In their meeting with the governor, the Republican Assembly members said they wanted to ease some aspects of the state's signature environmental protection law, which requires environmental reviews before the state issues building permits. That law, called the California Environmental Quality Control Act, was enacted more than 35 years ago.

"We want significant reform measures connected to the bond," Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) said in a recent interview.

Republicans also want a "pay as you go" approach, in which parts of the project would be paid directly from state coffers. That way, the state would not rely so much on borrowed money.

Conservatives across the state said they are watching the negotiations closely.

After Schwarzenegger appointed Democratic activist Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff, some disappointed Republicans said the governor could not count on their unblinking support, and would have to prove that he still embraced Republican ideals.

"I think you'll find most conservatives are inclined to oppose it," Shawn Steel, who serves on the board of directors of the California Republican Party, said of the governor's plan. "They know that it has to be twice the cost advertised by the time you're done paying the interest.

"... Will there be so many environmental controls and so many personnel costs that we're not going to see a lot of roads built, but rather a bureaucracy funded?" Steel said.

"There are other big considerations: Will there be featherbedding and paying the top prevailing wage to satisfy the unions, so that we pay Tiffany prices for freeways?"

Democrats are entering the negotiations emboldened.

They insist that the final plan will not necessarily look like the one the governor rolled out in his speech. What will emerge, rather, is a compromise that also reflects Democratic goals, the party's legislative leaders said.

"This is his vision of the world," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said of Schwarzenegger's proposal. "Ours is different…. There's no question the political atmospheric conditions are very well placed [for] a compromise that is very good for Democrats."

For starters, Nuñez said, he wants to see more money earmarked for urban mass transit, along with fees assessed on developers to help repay the bonds. Setting up a potential regional faceoff, Nuñez said Los Angeles should emerge a victor in the competition for the money.

"I'm going to insist that L.A. be treated not just fairly but well in this process," Nuñez said.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) said the Democrats have a strong incentive to reach a deal.

Both parties would be smart to recognize that they have to pass something, lest the public conclude that the Capitol is paralyzed, Perata said.

"We're in a burning house," Perata said. "And if we don't get out, we all die…. The public is getting really tired of trying to figure out why we're up here."

 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me...dlines-politics

From the Los Angeles Times
GEORGE SKELTON / CAPITOL JOURNAL
Gov.'s Shift to the Center Is Paying Off, but There's at Least One Catch
George Skelton
Capitol Journal

January 12, 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's strategy is working as designed. By moving toward the political center, he is becoming less offensive to Democratic and independent voters.

Swing-voting moderates are starting to come around.

But, as would be expected, this isn't a free ride. The governor now is less appealing to Republicans generally and conservatives in particular.

Overall, Schwarzenegger's popularity may have bottomed out, barring more bungling. It certainly is on a slight rise, according to a new poll being released today by the nonpartisan Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State.

The statewide poll of 757 registered voters, with a margin of error of 3.6%, shows that:

•  The governor's job performance now is approved by 40%, with 51% disapproving. That's up slightly from late September, when he was being pounded on TV by public employee unions for pushing conservative "reform" initiatives that voters ultimately rejected. At that time, his job rating was 36% approval, 53% disapproval. Currently, it's back up to roughly what it was in late June.

•  More significantly, the Democrats' approval of Schwarzenegger is up by six points and their disapproval down by eight. (It's still only 23% approval, 68% disapproval.)

•  The changing mood of independents is striking: Approval is up 13 points, disapproval down 17 (to 39%, 44%).

•  Moderates are taking another look. Their approval of the governor is up nine points, disapproval down eight (43%, 48%). Even liberals are less angry. Approval is up 13, disapproval down 12 (28%, 64%).

•  But there's disenchantment among fellow Republicans. Approval is down five points, while disapproval has risen 13. (To a relatively weak — for his own party — 61%, 32%.)

•  And the conservative base is fretting. Approval is down 10 points, disapproval up 12 (49%, 38%).

The poll was conducted from Jan. 2 to 6 after Schwarzenegger, with loud fanfare, had moved to the center on several issues: Proposing an increase in California's minimum wage, urging the federal government to allow citizens to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, calling for a freeze in university student fees and signaling his intent to sponsor a colossal capital outlay program to fix up the state's outdated infrastructure.

Schwarzenegger also appointed a career Democratic activist — former Gov. Gray Davis advisor Susan Kennedy — to be his chief of staff, stunning Democrats and angering many Republicans.

While the poll was underway, the governor announced that he would begin repaying schools the money he had promised in a budget deal two years ago. He'd reneged on his word to avoid raising taxes. It's what triggered the California Teachers Assn. bombardment that helped obliterate Schwarzenegger's centrist image and undermine him among Democrats and moderates.

"The encouraging sign, for people who follow politics, is that the voters are paying attention to what's going on," says Phil Trounstine, director of the San Jose State survey institute. "At least in a general sense, they're sensitive to what occurs."

Of course, the poll was taken before Schwarzenegger disclosed in his budget proposal that he inexplicably wants

once again to hammer the impoverished aged, blind and disabled.

Just as he was beginning to regain the centrist look, the governor proposed that the state rip off more federal dollars intended for California's 1.2 million recipients of Supplemental Security Income, or SSI.

Last year, the governor and Legislature agreed to pocket SSI cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for three months starting Jan. 1, and for the same period beginning next Jan. 1. Now Schwarzenegger wants to continue that 2007 money grab for an extra 15 months, until July 1, 2008. The administration figures it can reap an additional $185 million from another stiffing of the aged, blind and disabled.

It's hard to keep up with all the projected "savings." The state also has suspended COLAs for its own State Supplementary Program, or SSP. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, Sacramento already was intending to confiscate $620 million over two years from SSI/SSP beneficiaries.

For most recipients, we're talking about $33 a month that they won't be getting to pad their $812 subsistence. The administration argues that even with these frozen benefits, they're the highest of any big state.

Democrats went along with the mugging last year, but vow they won't again.

"In a year when increased revenues are $3.7 billion, it seems particularly punitive to not give SSI/SSP recipients a federal increase when their cost of food and rent is going up," says Senate leader Don Perata (D-Oakland). "Is it responsible to hijack money from little old ladies? No."

In fact, Perata says he wants to "revisit" all the SSI/SSP decisions from last year.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) says that "Democrats, this time around, are not going to stand idly by while the poor take it in the shorts. It's totally unacceptable. It'll happen over my dead body."

Except for shortchanging the poor, Schwarzenegger has been moving steadily leftward. The San Jose State poll is the first to measure that shift's political impact.

It indicates that the only way the still-unpopular governor can win reelection is to plant himself in the center.

But Schwarzenegger can't stay there convincingly if he continues to whack the aged, blind and disabled.

*


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.