Villaraigosa's deficit-reduction plans anger labor

Schwarzenegger pleads for passage of ballot measures
Battling anger and indifference on the part of California voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implored them Sunday not to make the state "the poster child for dysfunction" by defeating a host of measures on Tuesday's ballot that seek to restructure the state's bleak finances.

George Skelton: Lawmakers are toxic, but voters helped get themselves into this fix
Tuesday's state election has all the rough feel and harsh sounds of a referendum -- a referendum on the performances of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature.

Gregory Rodriguez: California's democracy overload
We're being asked to vote too often on too many issues that we're too unqualified to evaluate.
In less than 24 hours, you're going to be hearing the righteous indignation of all sorts of California pundits and policy types. They'll no doubt be shouting about an embarrassingly low turnout in Tuesday's statewide special election and the astounding ignorance on the part of those who did vote. Though not completely without merit, their rantings also will be part and parcel of the problem they're condemning: Our political elites are burdening the public with too much democracy.

Solving California's budget, sort of
California's longstanding budget dysfunction has come home to roost. With only a fraction of revenues the state was expecting, it now must slash deeply. Those cuts will be a bit less deep if voters adopt five of the six measures on Tuesday's ballot.

Reiner on 1D and 1E: Don't hurt kids
Hollywood director Rob Reiner stars in the only broadcast ad specifically opposing Propositions 1D and 1E.

This week at the Capitol
TODAY: Immigrants and their advocates from around the state meet in Sacramento to press state law-makers to reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals to eliminate Medi-Cal services and other programs for lawful immigrants. The California Immigrant Policy Center is sponsoring the all-day event, which starts on the Capitol's west steps. Scheduled speakers include Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino.

Dan Walters: Struggling state targets special funds again
For many decades, California maintained a strict dividing line – a lock box, if you will – between the state's general fund budget and special funds financed by single-purpose revenues.

Groups raise $31.5 million for Calif. ballot fight
The battle over six budget-related measures on Tuesday's special election ballot has generated more than $31.5 million in campaign spending, split the state's labor community and created strange bedfellows on both sides.

Major donors for and against Calif. propositions
Top contributors to campaigns supporting one or more of the six propositions on Tuesday's special election ballot:

Sick of budget mess? Vote 'yes' on 1A
Like many Californians, we are deeply dissatisfied with the Legislature's mismanagement of this state's finances. Years of dysfunction, discord and partisan polarization have led to perpetual deficits that have been an embarrassment to the state and an impediment to economic growth for most of this decade.

Schwarzenegger's vaunted salesmanship tested
In the wildly diverse worlds of bodybuilding, movies and politics, Arnold Schwarzenegger has consistently marshaled one critical skill - an uncanny knack for salesmanship - to catapult him to the top of his class.

Editorial: A governor's burden of debt
Sure, there was an element of politics in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's release of a decidedly painful plan to bridge the state's budget shortfalls. He intentionally wanted to lay out the scenarios before Tuesday's special election.

The budget ballot measures: a primer on California's special election
It's a familiar scene in Sacramento these days. The state budget is in shambles. The Legislature is about to begin yet another round of heated negotiations to close a deficit that's grown to more than $15 billion. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back on the campaign trail pleading for your help.

California ballot measures faced long odds from the start
From the start, the campaign for the six ballot measures in Tuesday's special election faced long odds — mostly in appealing to a public already cranky and disenchanted over the gloomy economy.

Governor's revised state budget plans are only short-term stopgaps
YEARS OF FISCAL mismanagement in Sacramento, compounded by a sharp recession, have resulted in a state budget crisis that cannot be resolved without considerable pain.

Vote 'no' on all six state propositions
Stop the destructive tax-and-spend cycle that the California Legislature is addicted to
The spendthrift governor and Legislature over-taxed and over-spent California state government into its current predicament. They put government employees first and taxpayers second. They routinely overestimated future revenue while consistently mismanaging the cash on hand. Their fiscal appetites regularly were greater than what they could afford, and they put off solving their financial problems by borrowing more and more, and shifting money around to pay for things taxpayers didn't intend that money to be spent on.

Measures disrupting traditional political ties
Tomorrow's statewide special election has produced crazy-quilt battle lines that unite natural opponents and divide natural allies.

Fees loom for industries' greenhouse gas emissions
The state Air Resources Board plans to collect more fees from industries responsible for large amounts of greenhouse gases to recoup the administrative costs of implementing California's landmark climate change law.

Dan Walters: Scare tactics or a day of reckoning in California?
Has California’s day of fiscal reckoning, postponed for years by political tricks and hide-the-pea financial schemes, finally arrived?

Special election will set stage for new budget battle
The political hangover from California's last special election fight in 2005 didn't last long. Within months, lawmakers approved the state's largest public-works bond package and passed landmark legislation to reduce heat-trapping emissions.