Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's goal of a Christmas budget fix apparently won't happen, with Republicans sitting on the sidelines and Democrats not budging on deeper spending cuts and relaxation of environmental regs for major construction projects. They'll try again on Friday and maybe our leaders will be in a better negotiating mood fresh off a big Christmas dinner.
Here's the San Francisco Chronicle's take on the state budget negotiations. Our sister paper, The Sacramento Bee, has this report on the budget gridlock.
Maybe there will be a budget solution before the end of the year, but don't bet on it.
So, how did "relaxation of environmental regs for major construction projects" end up as a budget item?
Maybe if the Governor concentrated on getting concessions on actual budget issues, he might be making some progress.
This sounds like a broken marriage, on an wedding anniversary aboard a train wreck.
The governor's requirement for changes to CEQA are just smoke and mirrors and has little to do with the budget. There is another ajenda there and he is holding the budget hostage for this hidden ajenda. His claim that CEQA is hindering California to take part in federal stimulus programs is nonsense. When there is federal involvement in transportation projects, Caltrans must comply with federal legislation, the main law being NEPA. The NEPA and CEQA environmental process has already been streamlined through combined NEPA and CEQA compliance and review and NEPA Delegation from the federal government to Caltrans. CEQA isn't holding up anything. When there is no federal involvement, CEQA alone applies. It is a very toothless environmental law. My experience with it has been that California spends more time and money trying to get around CEQA compliance than it would spend following the rules the first time around. CEQA is being used as a scapegoat and a tool for another ajenda. As I and most other Californians are sitting here watching our economic lives swirl down the toliet, I am more than a little offended that the governor would stop a budget based on a side ajenda.
In my house when our budget needs cutting. We go down each and every budget item and cut spending on things that we can do without. Is that such a hard concept for our legislators? It's a long list guys, better get started and stop giving us these uniformed band aide fixes you keep coming up with. Do you really think we are that stupid?