Posted on 03/16/2011 10:11:25 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The handful of Republican lawmakers most likely to provide crucial votes for Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan are threatening to withhold their support without a dramatic rewriting of state environmental law.
The demand, pushed in private talks with the governor, would curtail lawsuits against projects threatening ecological damage, grant waivers to big telecommunications companies and exempt many urban developments from environmental review.
The legislators have declined to share the details of their proposal publicly, but draft legislation to overhaul the law was obtained by The Times.
Sweeping changes in the California Environmental Quality Act would stand little chance of approval through the normal legislative process, which Democrats — environmentalists' usual allies — control. But the governor's budget cannot pass without some Republican votes, and GOP lawmakers see an opportunity to win long-sought concessions.
Environmentalists expressed outrage at the Republicans' bid. Bill Magavern, director of Sierra Club California, said that what the legislators want amounts to a "wholesale gutting" of the law.
"They're using the state's fiscal crisis as leverage to try to reward the big developers," he said. The proposal "would freeze communities out of the planning process."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Bill Magavern, director of Sierra Club California, said that what the legislators want amounts to a “wholesale gutting” of the law.
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to which I say..
Gut Gut Gut!!!
No Fault Gubamint in action
For years special interests have saddled this state with so many regulations going back to the 1950s and earlier.., ya almost need a lawyer to go to court for you if you want to do much of anything on your property and probably soon, to even use a BBQ in your backyard.
just looking out for the public interest? B S.. Stalin and Mao would be proud.
Screw CARB.
I burn my trash in a 55gal drum.
Eliminate CARB. Eliminate AQMD. It’s BS. The Environmentalist movement began with wild unsubstantiated Liberal BS, was picked up, and carried by Leftist opportunists, and is perpetuated by Leftist opportunist, control freak BS, and is out of control.
Stop it now.
This hinges on the premise that you can trust a Rat. They would rewrite the rules to get a yes vote and Republicans to blame, then just rewrite 'em again to let leftist lawyers get rich at the expense of Joe Average.
The only real fix is to REPEAL the laws, dissolve the agencies and fire the "public servants" that were created by those laws.
What FReeper here thinks we can trust a Rat?,......... or even a RINO?
Don’t know but most ban using your fireplace on certain days, to which I said FU!
I went on strike against this ordinance and high gas bills by using my wood burning stove as my primary source of heat this winter. A little more work but wow, saved a lot of money on the PG&E bill.
I wouldn’t vote to put the tax-hike extension measure on the ballot, period, no matter how many “conservative” things are added to the mix.
1. The state’s budget woes are caused by horrendous overspending, not undertaxation. Make massive cuts, particularly in the hundreds of boards and commissions. Eliminate many, and cut the personnel at truly necessary ones. (Why, for example, do we need over 25 Regents on the U.of California board instead of, say, 7?)
2. The tax hikes that Brown wants extended were SOLD IN THE FIRST PLACE as a super-temporary, JUST-THIS-ONCE fix. Extending them for five years will further undermine public confidence in “temporary” tax hikes — which may make it harder to pass the rare, TRULY necessary one someday.
Another piece of the budget struggle going on in Sacremento.
www.asm.ca.gov/Jeffries
Assemblymember.Jeffries@assembly.ca.gov
Mushroom Alert - Budget Vote #1
For Immediate Release: March 15, 2011
Jeff Greene, 951-894-1232 or Craig Deluz, 916-319-2066
We were told this afternoon that there is now a budget vote scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1pm. I’m quite certain that this is what we call a “drill,” done for political purposes only and there will not be an actual budget passed. Regardless, there are important issues at play here, so I wanted to be sure you were aware of what is going on.
As per usual, we have yet to see any detailed language or analysis of the budget we are now expected to vote on tomorrow. There have been hearings, and there have been closed door meetings, and we all know the big picture items, but the Devil is always in the constantly changing details, and once again, we aren’t being given the time to analyze those details.
I’d be more aggravated about this coming to the floor for a vote without the opportunity to review it if it weren’t so obvious that they don’t actually intend to pass a budget to solve our spending problem, but merely wish to score political points. As far as I know, there is no deal to pass this budget, and they know they don’t have the votes to increase the taxes they want. They do actually have the votes to pass the cuts they have proposed, because they can be passed with a simple majority, and they could move ahead with that and start saving money tomorrow.
But this vote will be about tax increases and their inability and unwillingness to make any of the structural changes to the budget and our pension system that are necessary to balance our budget over the long term. Many do not believe voters in California are going to be willing to pass five more years of tax increases on the ballot without a guarantee that the state will stop spending money as usual. As a result, putting the doomed tax increases on the ballot only postpones the inevitable another three months, as we spend ourselves further into bankruptcy. Serious budget and structural reform must take place now, regardless of whether they ever get their tax increases, and postponing those votes only continues to worsen the problem.You can watch it all happen tomorrow at 1pm on the California Channel or at www.CalChannel.com
I’m waiting for Moonbeam to lose it at the mic down the road... a ‘Jefferson Airship/Grateful Dead’ moment in the making in drab shades of gray..
Maybe it is fitting that one of those most responsible for the mentality that got us in this mess should be at the helm when it augers into the side of HalfDome..
Gut Gut Gut!!!*
Cool!
Not only gut, but utterly DESTROY the foolish environut laws and bury them deep in the ground where the nuclear waste is stored.
I’ve had to deal with CARB for almost 30 years. People laughed
at me when I told them about the new gas can nozzle regulations.
As you stated about the backyard BBQ, I too believe it will be
regulated like the fire places.
CARB tried to regulate restaurants that used “grilling” to cook meat.
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