Free Republic

Los Angeles Unified School District officials are considering asking voters to approve a $7 billion bond measure in November, more than twice as big as previously discussed and nearly half of it set aside for unspecified future projects. LAUSD's board is set to vote Thursday on whether to support the bond measure, which allocates more than $3.2 billion for future "repair and safety," "modernization, repair and technology," "green technology" and to "attract, retain and graduate more students," according to a draft summary of the bond funding distribution. Meanwhile, district and charter officials are wrangling over exactly how much charter schools...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping to raise $15 billion to jump-start a rainy day budget reserve by borrowing against future state lottery revenue, although administration officials bristle at the notion that the plan amounts to borrowing. "The governor's proposal is not to borrow from the lottery," Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear said Wednesday. "The proposal is to sell, outright, a portion of future lottery profits. This is a big difference." Schwarzenegger's lottery proposal is a key piece of his plan to erase California's $15.2 billion budget deficit and balance spending and revenue for the fiscal year that begins in July....

Gov. Schwarzenegger may be heading for a showdown with local officials over language in his transportation bond which strips power over transportation projects from locals and gives it to the administration. The issue of how transportation projects are prioritized, and which ones would receive new bond money, will be among the most contentious debates over the transportation bond. That debate officially begins today, when the Senate Transportation Committee begins informational hearings about the bonds. At the center of debate is the Schwarzenegger proposed centralization of project-choosing authority, a shift, administration officials argue, that is necessary to fast-track the most important...

<p>If Californians saw the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a great opportunity to fix California's broken fiscal system and its dysfunctional government, they're likely to be sorely disappointed.</p> <p>What they seem to be getting instead is warmed-over Davis proposals, rejected ideas going back to Gov. Pete Wilson, among them his "King Pete" initiative that would give the governor sole power to cut spending in tight times, and Alfred E. Neuman "what, me worry?" borrowing plans that Californians will be paying off for the next 30 years.</p>