What was that for?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

To add insult to injury, the Governor also eliminated funding for the UC Berkeley Labor Center. It was the only line item veto in the UC budget. The Governor did this even though his Administration relied on the work of the Labor Center in doing health reform in 2007. The UC Labor Center did numerous publications on health care which all of us who struggled with health reform rely upon, publications on the impact of an employer mandate and important work done jointly with UCLA on affordability for individuals that separated out those who are in the individual market from those who are employees. (No surprise: those who are in the individual market suffer from lack of affordability much more than those who get coverage on the job.) You can find these publications at www.laborcenter.berkeley.edu.

I guess we should not be surprised: a Governor who would once again delay funding for one of his own signature programs, the prescription drug discount program for the uninsured, and who would toss a quarter million kids or more off Medi-Cal, is the kind of Governor who would single out a research effort that had worked with his Administration on health reform. Of course, he did not veto funding for any of the business schools on the various UC campuses.

Speaker Bass in her media release said it well:

“The Governor has also broken his promise, again, to fund the Miguel Contreras
Labor Institute. I am deeply disappointed in his actions today, and they set the
stage for yet another difficult budget in the year ahead.”

Labels: Bass, Budget, Research, Schwarzenegger

posted by Beth Capell | Permalink | 7:27 AM


 

Jones to be chair of Health Committee...

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Speaker Bass has announced that Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) will be the new chair of Assembly Health Committee. Here's health-specific excerpts from the report by Shane Goldmacher at the Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert:


Jones, a Sacramento Democrat, is currently chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The new chairmanship is considered higher on the Capitol pecking order, as many influential bills pass through the health panel, particularly as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said reforming the state's health system remains a top priority.

The current chairman, Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, is termed out this year...

None of the changes are effective immediately. The new chairs will take over the committees in December.

Here's a recap of... the committee chair and leadership moves Bass has made since her selection as speaker:
Majority leader: Alberto Torrico
Assistant speaker pro tem: Lori Saldaña
Appropriations: Kevin De Leon
Budget: Noreen Evans
Rules: Ted Lieu
Health: Dave Jones

Labels: Bass, Legislation, Sacramento

posted by Anthony Wright | Permalink | 5:52 PM


 

Bass on the budget...

Speaker Karen Bass made some budget announcements today, mostly pulling together the budget as a whole, and what the Assembly Budget Subcommittees have done in terms of rejecting cuts, and indicating the need for revenues to prevent those cuts to education, health care and other vital services.

Some excerpts from the press release about the need for revenues to prevent cuts:

The Assembly Democrats’ plan will require some cuts and some new revenues and relies on the Legislative Analysts Office’s revenue and property tax assumptions.

How these goals will be achieved:

* Assembly Democrats have said all along that we would not accept a cuts-only budget. We were encouraged that the Governor agreed with us.

* Assembly Democrats have also said that everything has to be on the table, and
we’ve proposed several ways to increase revenues.

Speaker Bass continued: “The four legislative leaders have already begun meeting to talk about how we get to where we need to be to balance this budget with revenues. And I believe we need to start with closing loopholes and restoring the tax giveaways of past budgets, particularly for corporations and the richest of the rich Californians. That’s where the discussion will start, and I look forward to
more of the productive discussions I’ve had during the past few weeks.”

“Our plan will be our starting point in the Budget Conference Committee, which will begin meeting mid-to-late next week. We will miss the June 15th deadline because of the complexity of the proposals and size of the deficit, but we are on target to vote before the fiscal year with a proposal that is not just a ‘drill,’” Speaker Bass concluded.

Labels: Bass, Budget

posted by Anthony Wright | Permalink | 5:45 PM


 

Bass fishing...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

It was a moving ceremony today to install the new Speaker of the Assembly, Karen Bass.


Some common points were made in the various speeches and comments: her position is historic, as the first African-American female to lead a legislative body in the U.S.; her background in community organizing; her courage in the face of a recent tragedy of losing her daughter; and her personal interest in and advocacy for foster care children. She gave a beautiful speech as well.


Through the day, the topic that loomed was, predictably, the state budget. It's the task at hand, and one that will impact everyone in California, and every issue. And especially health care, given that health care is second only to education in its claim on the state budget.


Jon Myers at KQED Capitol Notes has an interview and asked about the future of health reform. While the new Speaker made clear that the budget was (appropriately) the first, second and third priority, she said, in reponse to Myers' questions, "I don't think it is dead at all... I absolutely want to get back to health care reform, but we have to deal with the budget first.... There will be time left in the legislative year to address health care reform.... No, I don't think it was too much bitten off.... I would very much like to tackle the whole issue."


Important signal. Shoring up the budget is an important foundation for health reform, but we have a Speaker that is willing to move forward this year and next, in order to win elements of a comprehensive reform package.


And so congratulations to Speaker Bass: she also now gets her own label on this blog, so that people can click on her below, and get most of this blog's posts related to her and health care.

Labels: Bass, Budget, YearOfReform

posted by Anthony Wright | Permalink | 10:45 PM


 

Insurance for Insurance

 

Musical Chairs

 

It keeps growing...

 

Congratulations, Senate President pro tem...

 

They're baaaaccck.....

 

A smoking gun

 

The challenge of children's coverage...

 

Let the Sunshine in...

 

The team, coming together...

 

Sine Die -- for real this time