Free Republic

Compared to prior years, the resolution of the 2006-2007 California state budget was a relatively benign affair. True, it was still late, as the constitutional deadline was June 15th. But like the line from the first Pirates of Caribbean movie, this constitutional provision has always been treated more like a “guideline,” not a firm rule. (This alone tells us a lot about the fidelity to constitutional principles held by our ruling elites). The budget was passed, happily, before the beginning of the fiscal year which started on Saturday. That has not happened since the year 2000. And there is more...

<p>SACRAMENTO – The Legislature is scheduled to vote tonight on a $131 billion state budget that contains a 10 percent boost in school funding after legislative leaders and the governor agreed on the sweeping plan yesterday.</p> <p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger not only gets much of what he wanted in the spending proposal, but as he runs for re-election he also might get a rare on-time budget, one that is in place before the new fiscal year begins Saturday.</p>

A multibillion dollar tax windfall has eased the strain of California's perennial state budget debate and handed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a chance to buy off Democrat and Republican critics as he heads into his re-election campaign. Stock gains, home sales, business profits and taxes on rising gas prices are expected to bring in revenue at least $5 billion above forecasts from just two months ago. The money already has allowed the Schwarzenegger administration to pledge that it will give more to public education and appease the state's teachers union, which has been critical of the governor's spending. "It really helps...

SACRAMENTO – State lawmakers early Friday approved a series of bills that would place a record public works spending plan before voters in November, reviving a proposal that had broad public support but failed to pass the Legislature earlier this year. The $37.3 billion package would be the largest bond issue in California history and now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor, who proposed an even larger spending plan in January, called the votes in each house “a landmark accomplishment that will yield benefits for generations to come.” “For the first time in a generation, we are making a...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Schwarzenegger is scheduled to be in Fresno today, a visit that only months ago would have been enough to excite most any Republican. But if you ask one of Fresno's leading Republicans, the governor will get a reception today that is just "extremely lukewarm." "The problem he's got is the [Republican] base is just dead — it's dead and lifeless," said Michael Der Manouel Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, a GOP group. Der Manouel and other fiscal conservatives are upset by the governor's attempt to put a multibillion-dollar bond measure on the ballot...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers Saturday attempted to pick up the pieces of a historic bond package for new schools, roads and levees and restart negotiations after a bitter defeat of the plan at the hands of Senate Republicans early Saturday morning. While time may again be running out -- the official deadline was Friday for placing bonds before voters June 6 -- lawmakers agreed that Schwarzenegger's plan isn't dead yet, even for June. After meeting with him Saturday, Assembly Republicans and Democrats agreed to keep negotiating today. The Senate voted 24-12 along party lines -- three votes short...

Núñez, Perata say Schwarzenegger must get his party on board with bond deal. The Legislature's two leading Democrats called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday to pressure his Republican colleagues in the Assembly if he wants to get an infrastructure bond plan on the June 6 ballot. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, and state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said they have resolved their own infrastructure differences and that it's up to the governor and the Assembly GOP members to close the gap between their own proposals so the Legislature can present a bond deal to the...

The nation’s strong economic growth is creating a tax-revenue boom for the states. State tax revenues jumped 8.7 percent in 2004 and about 8 percent in 2005. About three-quarters of state governments had tax-revenue growth of 6 percent or more in 2005. What will the states do with their overflowing coffers? During the revenue boom of the 1990s, states allowed their budgets to bloat as they expanded programs such as Medicaid to unsustainable levels. When the recession hit in 2001 and revenues stagnated, state officials moaned that they were innocent victims of a fiscal crisis. They responded by hiking taxes...

Six years after former Gov. Gray Davis and state legislators created chronic budget deficits by squandering a one-time revenue windfall, and nearly three years after voters dumped Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to fix the state's tortured finances, the budget is still out of whack. And as spending climbs, it may ooze red ink indefinitely. As Schwarzenegger on Tuesday proposed a $125.6 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, he described it as continuing the state "on a path toward fiscal responsibility and economic recovery." But he was wrong on both counts. The budget, if adopted as...

The GOP Could Lose in '06 Have congressional Republicans lost their way? With Rep. Tom DeLay's forced departure as majority leader, Newt Gingrich says, the Republican Party stands at a crossroads as important as any it has faced since nominating Ronald Reagan for president in 1980. "It must decide if it is going to be a party that fundamentally reforms government or one that merely presides over existing institutions and spends more money," he says. Which path the GOP now takes may determine not only how much damage it suffers in next year's elections but also whether it can hold...

Rainforest Iowa (artist's concept). Hello everyone, this is David Burge. In my role as the internet’s ‘Iowahawk,’ it has been my privilege to entertain tens of readers like you around the globe with my quirky brand of wacky wisecracks, rib-tickling funny boners, and good ol' slapsticking ‘think-chucklers’ – or, as I call them, ‘thucklers.’ Yes, we’ve enjoyed a lot of wonderful thuckling together, you and I. But today, I’d like to take a moment to wipe off the greasepaint, put down the seltzer bottle, remove my baggy pants and bring your attention to a very important topic near and dear...

House Republicans at the start of the new legislative session could have set a new, fiscally sound direction by endorsing a series of procedural rules aimed at curtailing federal spending. Instead the House Republican Conference rejected virtually every commonsense measure that would fetter runaway spending, thereby opening the door to more federal excess. This, after the GOP last year vowed to control spending and restore budget sanity on Capitol Hill. With no circuit breakers in place, discretionary spending will spike, just as it has over the last three fiscal years, which account for some of the biggest annual spending increases...

The numbers are jarring: Fiscal years 2002, 2003 and 2004 under Republican leadership represent three of the five biggest annual increases in discretionary spending in the last four decades. Republicans cannot pin this on defense appropriations or the war on terror. Figures compiled by the Cato Institute show nondefense discretionary outlays jumped 36 percent in President Bush's first term. If the course is not reversed, President Bush will go down in history as one of the biggest spendthrifts of all time. Now's the time to take a page from President Reagan, who increased defense appropriations by 26 percent during his...

(AP) Wholesale prices climbed by 0.5 percent in November — an improvement compared with the previous month's surge, but still fresh evidence that inflation is picking up as the economy gains momentum. The increase in the producer price index, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, came after wholesale prices shot up by 1.7 percent in October, the biggest rise in more than 14 years. "Inflation pressures are mounting in the U.S. economy," said Sherry Cooper, chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns. The reading in November on the PPI, which measures the costs of goods before they reach store shelves,...

Fed all but certain to raise rates another quarter-point Tuesday; how high will rates climb in 2005? December 10, 2004: 1:13 PM EST By Paul R. La Monica, CNN/Money senior writer NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - There's not much anxiety about what the Federal Reserve is going to do on Tuesday. A rate hike is a given, according to most market observers, even though December rate hikes are not all that common. "

An agonizing choice Conservatives have plenty of cause to abandon Bush BY BOB BARR Voting for president used to be so easy, at least for a conservative. There was the Republican candidate. You knew he generally stood for lower taxes, less government spending, giving fewer powers to the government, lower deficits and a zealous regard for individual privacy. Then, there was the Democrat. You knew he generally stood for higher taxes, more government and deficit spending, and a zealous regard for civil liberties. Throughout my own presidential voting history, the choices have rarely, if ever, been agonizing. Nixon vs. McGovern?...

Going to Mars isn't nearly as expensive as you've heard. IT HAS ALREADY BECOME conventional wisdom that President Bush's proposed mission to send a man to Mars will cost a trillion dollars--even many trillions of dollars. At that cost, it's no wonder public support for the White House space vision is wavering. But is that number credible? Where does it come from? It has certainly been tossed around a lot in the days before and after Bush's January 14 speech. An Associated Press article said that "informal discussions have put the cost of a Mars expedition at nearly $1 trillion."...

Bush is signing the AIDS bill right now at the State Department. He's also got guests from Africa and the Carribean with him. The cost of the bill is $15 billion.

Democratic efforts to increase spending bill halted in Senate 01/17/2003 Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON – Holding firm for President Bush, Senate Republicans on Thursday killed Democratic attempts to add billions of dollars for domestic security and education to a $390 billion bill that would fund the government through September. On a 51-45 vote, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to spend $5 billion more for security at ports, nuclear plants and other facilities. Hours later, the Senate defeated, 51-46, a proposal by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to spend $6 billion more on education. Both votes showed...