Capitol Alert

The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office has filed drunken driving charges against Democratic Assemblyman Roger Hernandez of West Covina.

Two misdemeanor charges were filed, officials said, but both counts stem from the same incident in which Hernandez allegedly was driving under the influence when stopped by police March 27. He is scheduled to appear in court May 21 for arraignment.

Laboratory results found that Hernandez' blood-alcohol level at the time of the test was 0.08 percent, the level at which a driver can be charged with drunken driving. The lawmaker was tested about an hour after he was taken into custody, police said.

Hernandez could not be reached immediately for comment today. When lab results were released last week, however, he apologized for his actions and said the findings serve as a "huge wake-up call for me."'

"I may have made a poor judgment thinking that I was sober enough to drive after a couple of drinks over the course of an evening," he said. "Had I thought I was mentally or physically impaired to drive, I would not have gone behind the wheel of a car."

Hernandez, accompanied by a 29-year-old woman, was stopped by officers in the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Hotel about 2 a.m. on a weekday. The Toyota Camry he was driving - an Assembly vehicle -- had been spotted weaving inside a lane on Concord Avenue, officers said.

The first-term legislator denied that his car had been weaving or that he was impaired at the time.

Hernandez has voluntarily relinquished his right to drive an Assembly pool car until the matter is resolved.

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to eliminate the seven-member board that hears appeals on unemployment insurance benefits -- whose members are often termed-out California legislators -- and turn their work over to civil service administrative law judges.

But the Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, says that eliminating the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, whose members are appointed by the governor and legislative leaders, would erode legislative oversight of the appeals process.

Taylor, in a new report to the Legislature, agrees that unemployment insurance appeals should be heard by state administrative judges, but says the board should remain intact, albeit with two fewer members, to oversee the appeals process and set overall policy for benefits. He also recommends that salaries of the remaining five board members be lowered from $128,112 a year to $114,000, the same as the administrative judges, and that members meet the same qualification standards as the judges.

Finally, he suggests that the governor, who now appoints five members of the board, get three appointments while each legislative house continues to have one appointee each. Although the board has seven positions, it has had only five members - three of them former legislators - since last fall.

Brown's proposal and Taylor's alternative will be part of deliberations on a 2012-13 budget.

Ten Assembly Democrats have spent nearly $200,000 in state funds sending more than a half-million fliers to constituents touting the benefits of Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez's "middle-class scholarship" legislation, records show.

The fliers ask residents to sign a postcard supporting Pérez's proposal, which needs a two-thirds supermajority vote in the Legislature for passage, requiring Democrats to solicit at least two other votes in each house.

Pérez's legislation would alter corporate tax law to raise about a billion dollars, which would bankroll scholarships intended to cut by 66 percent the cost of attending college for a student from a middle-class family earning less than $150,000 a year.

California Employers Against Higher Taxes, opposing the proposal, contends it would raise taxes on multistate companies by requiring them to calculate total tax liability based on the portion of their sales in California.

By seizing on an issue of statewide concern, the rising cost of a college education, the Assembly's postcards could pay dual political dividends by helping Democrats lobby Republicans and promote themselves in an election year.

One of this year's most hotly contested legislative issues in California, dealing with recovery of medical costs in personal injury lawsuits, appears to be headed underground.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg had introduced Senate Bill 1528 to overturn a 2011 state Supreme Court decision, Howell v. Hamilton Meats.

The decision held that injury victims could recover only the actual payments for medical treatment negotiated by insurers, not the amounts that medical care providers initially seek, which are typically much higher.

It was a big victory for the insurers, who said losing could have cost them and their policyholders $3 billion a year, and a big setback for personal injury attorneys, who typically claim about a third of liability judgements.

As introduced by Steinberg in February for Consumer Attorneys of California, the two-paragraph bill would have declared that injured plaintiffs "shall be entitled to recover the reasonable value of medical services provided without regard to the amount actually paid."

Insurers and business groups were gearing up to oppose the bill as the trial bar's lobbyists were working on passage in anticipation of an initial committee hearing.

However, this week, SB 1528 was amended to declare only "the intent of the Legislature to establish a framework for compensating persons with injuries due to the fault of third parties."

That change means that it's now a "spot bill" -- essentially a blank slate that can move through the process and then be filled in later, perhaps in the crush of the legislative session's final days, with or without a compromise between the warring factions.

The measure also has election year implications because trial lawyers are major contributors to Democratic legislative campaigns while insurers and business groups usually back Republicans or Democrats they consider to be business-friendly.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's raised concerns today after California income tax revenues fell short in April and a judge ruled the state controller cannot withhold legislative pay based on budget quality.

In its review, the agency said the two developments "could weaken the state's prospects for further improvement in its fiscal structure," though it noted that this outcome is not inevitable.

S&P did not downgrade California's worst-in-the-nation A- credit rating, though it used today's report to suggest the latest developments could threaten the progress the agency has praised in recent months.

California fell nearly $2 billion shy in personal income tax revenues in April, the state's biggest collection month, according to state Controller John Chiang. The Legislative Analyst's Office estimated last week that California is running about $3.5 billion behind Gov. Jerry Brown's forecast for the fiscal year to date in personal and corporate income taxes. The LAO also said the state could also be short by a few billion dollars by June 2013.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge last week ruled in favor of state lawmakers who alleged that Chiang violated the state constitution last summer when he withheld their pay for 12 days for submitting a budget he considered out of balance. Judge David I. Brown ruled that Chiang had overstepped his bounds, and that the Legislature has broad authority to determine for itself when a budget is balanced.

Brown's ruling posed more of a worry for S&P, which stated, "This decision, in our view, may open the door for the Legislature to potentially rely on budget maneuvers that may be politically expedient but fiscally unreliable when devising deficit solutions."

The agency stated further, "We believe that the Steinberg decision, coupled with what we see as reluctance among legislators to make additional difficult spending cuts, increases the risk of a less structurally balanced budget for fiscal 2013."

Update (5 p.m.): The Legislative Analyst's Office revised its April estimates to say that general fund revenues are lagging by about $3 billion for the fiscal year to date, which accounts for a shortfall in income taxes but a slight boost in sales and insurance taxes. The Analyst's Office still says Brown's revenue forecast is likely a "few billion dollars" short through June 2013.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, issued the following statement in response to S&P's comments:

"We know we have a task ahead of us and we are prepared to make the tough decisions required to balance a credible budget on time. The S&P report acknowledges the tremendous progress we have made in tackling the deficit and there is no reason to assume this year will be any different. We are hopeful that this budget coupled with the Governor's tax initiative will help us put an end to the deficit cycle. The court decision upholds the language of the state constitution, reaffirms that a third party has no authority to arbitrarily invalidate a budget and has not fundamentally changed any aspect of the budget process. To imply otherwise is presumptuous."

California saw modest population growth last year, and the biggest boomtowns by percentage were two prison cities, according to a new release from the state Department of Finance.

The state added 250,617 residents for a total of 37,678,563, a jump of 0.67 percent.

According to Finance statistics, some of the most active regions had to do with prisoner counts. The fastest growing city was Calipatria in Imperial County, which grew 4.2 percent after adding 286 inmates at Calipatria State Prison along with some regular household growth. The second fastest growing city? California City in Kern County at 3.7 percent after its federal prison added 392 inmates.

But not all was bustling for state prison towns. Thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shift lower-level inmates to county jails, some of the biggest population declines were in places like Delano (-2.1 percent), Coalinga (-6.6 percent) and Chowchilla (-5.1 percent).

Locally, Winters in Yolo County (pop. 6,839) ranked third in growth rate at 3.5 percent.

Sacramento is the state's sixth largest city with 470,956 residents, a 0.3 percent increase above last year. Within the top 10, No. 3 San Jose (pop. 971,372) and No. 5 Fresno (505,009) grew fastest at 1.5 percent each.

The state's growth rate has slowed since the early part of last decade, when annual population increases topped 1 percent. Department of Finance assistant chief demographer John Malson said the state is seeing a decline in natural births, as well as a net outmigration to other states.

Malson said international migration to California is still positive, but owing largely to immigrants from Asia. Malson pointed to recent data showing that migration from Mexico to California may have already reversed due to economic problems here.

Finance bases its May report largely on housing activity, while taking into account previously reported data related to births and migration, Malson said.

Post updated at 11:35 a.m. with prison-related population declines.

Redding City Councilman Rick Bosetti got a six-figure boost from an independent committee supporting his candidacy for the open 1st Assembly District seat.

An independent committee called Northstate Farm and Business PAC spent nearly $115,000 to produce and air a cable television ad supporting the Republican's candidacy, according to an independent expenditure report filed with the Secretary of State over the weekend.

The committee reported in the same filing receiving $160,000 in contributions from the California Real Estate Independent Expenditure Committee, which is funded by Realtors, developers and marketing companies, and $5,000 from Pacific Gas & Electric. A request for comment made through the committee's treasurer has not been returned.

Bosetti, a retired Major League Baseball player, is one of five candidates running for the newly-drawn seat, which spans all or part of ten counties in the northeastern region of the state. Also on the ballot in the safe GOP district are Lassen County Supervisor Brian Dahle, also a Republican, Plumas County Supervisor Robert Meacher, a Democrat, water ecologist David Edwards, a Green Party member, and biotech consultant Charley Hooper, who is running with no party preference.

Voter Guide: Check out all the area legislative and congressional candidates with The Bee's Voter Guide.

The Obama administration on Tuesday awarded California community health centers $122 million in grants under the embattled Affordable Care Act.

While the Supreme Court is considering whether to scrap the health care law, or at least its controversial individual mandate, the administration rolled out the new grants totaling $728 million nationwide as a show of the law's benefits. All told, over five years, the law provides $11 billion for construction, renovation and expansion of the community health programs.

"President Obama's health care law is making community health centers in California stronger," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.

The largest individual grants, of $5 million each, will go to community health centers serving cities including Davis, Visalia and East Palo Alto. Health centers in other cities received smaller grants, such as the $4.8 million for a center in Madera and $500,000 for a center in Yuba City.

PHOTO CAPTION: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaks at a news conference in April. Susan Walsh/AP

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A group of California chefs, unhappy that a law banning force-feeding of ducks and geese to enlarge their livers takes effect on July 1, is working the Capitol this week.

The group, the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards (CHEFS) instead wants a new law regulating foie gras production.

On Monday, the chefs circulated a proposed charter at the Capitol, calling for regular audits by certified animal welfare experts, cage-free birds, trained caretakers, hand feeding, reasonable limits on fattening, and feeding methods that do not impair breathing or harm the animal in any way. Now they are in search of an author.

"I am a stickler for quality," said Victor Scargle, executive chef of Lucy at Bardessono in Yountville in a statement. "I want California's standards for foie gras to be something we all can be proud of."

The author of the law, signed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, is not impressed.

"SB 1520 already allows foie gras to be sold, unless it is the result of force feeding of geese and ducks," former Senate President Pro Tem John Burton said in a Monday letter to lawmakers. "I believe that force feeding is a very inhumane practice....If these chefs have any doubt about that, they could sit at a table and have someone cram whatever food they like, including foie gras, down their throats and see how they like it."

VOTER GUIDE:Wondering who all those candidates are on your sample ballot? The Sacramento Bee's Voter Guide can help you sort through the possibilities. Just type in your address and zip code to find your races.

CHILD SAFETY:Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, pursuing a resolution to declare May "California Child Safety Awareness Month," will hold a press conference today with the father of Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her home at 14 in 2002 and found alive nine months later.

Ma wants parents to use child identification kits to store fingerprints and DNA swabs as a precaution in case their child goes missing. The event is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. in room 1190 at the Capitol.