Free Republic

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Driven by a rising inmate population, prison spending in California is scheduled to exceed $8 billion this year. But the real intrigue in the state's 2006-07 corrections budget is in what it's proposing for the near- and long-term future Spelled out in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's summary on the spending plan is a proposal "to pursue authority to secure additional inmate capacity through contracts with other providers." The wording is fleshed out in the actual budget bill, which calls for a virtual doubling in the number of private prison beds in California, from the current 8,500 to an...

Bills that would implement the governor's plan to sell $68 billion in bonds to help pay for his $222.6 billion public works program: - AB1831 by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, and SB1163 by Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Fullerton, which would provide $2.2 billion for courthouses, seismic safety improvements at other state buildings, and health and safety improvements at state parks. - AB1833 by Assemblyman Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, which would authorize $6.8 billion for jails, prisons and certain other public safety facilities. - AB1836 by Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, R-Brea, and SB1164 by Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, which would provide $38 billion for...

Once again, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is thinking big--proposing the largest investment in the state's infrastructure in its history. But lost amid the sheer size of the governor's $222 billion infrastructure package and $68 billion in proposed bonds was the potentially powerful new debt ceiling that could fundamentally change how--and perhaps more importantly--which state programs receive government funding. As written, the governor's infrastructure plan would essentially monopolize the state's entire general obligations bonding capacity for most of the next twenty years, boxing out any group whose pet projects are not contained in the package. "We want to cover the whole field,"...