Daily California Watch 12

Yep. It's baaack! Budget woes piled up while the Legislature went into their usual summer three weeks of hiding. They call it recess for a reason. But that's not fair. Many of our elected Representatives use this time to raise cash. Lots of cash.
First SFGate:

Lawmakers, back from recess, must act fast

Wyatt Buchanan,Richard Procter, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

(08-17) 04:00 PDT Sacramento --

The California Legislature reconvenes today, after a three-week break following a bruising budget battle, to face some of the state's thorniest issues: water, prisons and spending.

In addition to the hundreds of bills, lawmakers will have to figure out what to do about the state's water crisis and how to trim $1.2 billion from prisons. Lawmakers approved cutting prison funds last month but put off identifying the cuts until this month.

Legislators will have only a short time to do this. The deadline for passing bills is Sept. 11, less than a month away.

Another issue guaranteed to polarize the Legislature is state prisons. Lawmakers have to agree to how they will implement a budget cut of $1.2 billion, and they will have to respond to the order by a panel of three federal judges to reduce the state's prison population by 40,000 inmates over the next two years. While that order is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the court gave the state just 45 days to come up with a plan.

The Legislature was on the cusp of an agreement to reduce the prison population by 27,000 as part of last month's budget deal, but it fell apart after Republicans objected. Every day that goes by costs the state $3 million in savings not realized, or about $100 million a month, according to prison officials.

...

Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta (Riverside County), echoed Blakeslee on prisons and said he expected some Democrats to side with Republicans on the issue. He also said the current proposals on water did not satisfy him.

"We're seeing more of the same without delivering any more water to farmers in the Central Valley," he said.

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N.B. The "water" issue is a way to get a new revenue stream flowing not more water flowing.

And remember the issue of Taxpayers v. CalPERS?
CalPERS actuary says California's public pension costs are 'unsustainable'
By Ed Mendel, Calpensions, 8/10/09

The CalPERS chief actuary says pension costs are "unsustainable,"
and the giant public employee pension system plans to meet with
stakeholders to discuss the issue.

So, are the critics right: Do overly generous pensions threaten to
eat up too much of state and local government budgets?

An historic stock market crash wiped out a quarter of the CalPERS
investment fund last fiscal year. Some experts are forecasting
limited investment earnings in the years ahead, making it difficult
to replace the losses.

Now "sustainability," a term used in environmental discussions, has
become a common label for a big question about public employee
pensions: Will the current level of benefits be affordable in the
future?
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Ahh yes. there's that weasel word again. sustainable. By now readers should know; sustainable equals higher taxes.