Capitol Alert

SAN JOSE - Gov. Jerry Brown said this afternoon that he has collected enough signatures to qualify his tax initiative for the November ballot.

"We should have them all," the Democratic governor told reporters after speaking to a business group in San Jose.

Constrained by a short timeline, Brown and his supporters raced to collect more than 800,000 valid voter signatures by early this month, relying on robotic telephone calls, mailers and payment of as much as $3 per signature for signatures gathered on the street.

The measure would raise the state sales tax and income taxes on California's highest earners.

Brown's remarks came just hours after Republican leaders assembled at the Capitol to kick off their campaign against the measure. Brown had no comment about the Republican effort, except to say it wasn't news.

In his speech to business leaders, Brown suggested he will propose additional spending cuts in his May budget revision. His tax proposal, he said, is "reasonable."

"Vote for the tax," Brown said. "Suck it in."

The Assembly passed legislation Thursday stemming from an investigation into Sacramento-area peace officers suspected of using their positions to buy weapons not available to the public, then selling them for profit.

The federal probe continues, but the legislation designed to guard against such incidents in the future cleared the Assembly by a vote of 47-25.

Democratic Assemblyman Roger Dickinson of Sacramento proposed the legislation, Assembly Bill 2460, which would bar peace officers from selling weapons classified as "unsafe handguns" to the general public.

The bill targets weapons on California's "unsafe handgun roster," such as firearms that do not have a chamber load indicator or that fail a firing or drop-safety test.

After years of being labeled the "Party of No" by majority Democrats, California Republican leaders stood under rainy skies Thursday outside the Capitol to dub themselves the "Party of Yes."

The newly christened party kicked off its campaign by asking for a "no" vote on Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike. California Republican Party leaders organized the press conference to launch a statewide "whistle-stop tour" just as Brown had finished collecting signatures for his $9 billion tax initiative.

"Jerry Brown is turning in his signatures as we speak to make that (top tax rate) the highest rate in the country," said California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro. "We think that's the wrong way to go."

Standing next to a "Party of Yes" banner proclaiming "yes" on jobs, solutions and tax relief, they said the governor's plan would drive businesses and residents out of the state. They promoted their own budget proposal, which relies on deep cuts and one-time revenue maneuvers but does not raise taxes.

Del Beccaro wouldn't say how much he expected the cash-strapped party to spend against the governor's measure. "I'm not concerned about the cost," he said. "We're using alternative media. We're out there with volunteers. We're the party of volunteers, and we're going to continue to pursue that."

Some of those volunteers included about a dozen Tea Party Patriots who showed up in support of the GOP campaign launch. Patrick Wagner, a 60-year-old Grass Valley retired surgeon wearing a red Tea Party shirt, said he and his wife, Terry, wanted to speak out for "fiscal responsibility and getting our economic freedom back."

"The whole notion of taxing to try to find a way to correct the budget, it just doesn't work," he said. "We can't tax our way out of this kind of a horrifying position."

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, took particular issue with comments made at Thursday's event by Assemblyman Jim Silva, R-Huntington Beach. The lawmaker said, "I've always felt that the people that work should live better than the people that don't work."

Silva was correct that California has a disproportionate share of the nation's welfare-to-work recipients, largely because the state still provides aid to children after their parents have exhausted their own time limit. But Wright pointed to recent state cuts that have already shrunk the time limit to four years and dropped cash grants below 1988 levels.

"What they're saying 'yes' to is additional cuts to education, health care and other vital services," Wright said. "And what they're saying 'yes' to are their millionaire backers."

PHOTO CREDIT: Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway speaks from the steps of the state Capitol as California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro listens on Thursday, May 3, 2012. Manny Crisostomo, Sacramento Bee

Five years after a team of researchers at Stanford University issued a massive study of California's public schools, concluding that the system needed much more money but also major reforms, a followup report from the University of California says there's been a lot of talk but not much progress.

In fact, the new study says, school spending has dropped sharply, largely due to recession and state budget deficits, while politicians and educators discuss structural reforms but haven't been very successful in making them.

"Our initial optimism was unwarranted," says the introduction by Susanna Loeb, an education professor at Stanford and a director of UC Berkeley's Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) who was a major player in the Stanford study, which was called "Getting Down to Facts."

Loeb said that while the issues raised in the Stanford report have generated much discussion, "the past five years have seen only small improvements."

The new study was unveiled Thursday during a Sacramento conference marking the fifth anniversary of the Stanford report, which was embraced at the time by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Republican governor wanted it to become the centerpiece of what he called "the year of education." However, the state's economy tanked shortly thereafter, resulting in a series of cuts in state support of schools, and changes in how schools are governed and financed have been mostly topics of debate.

The state has installed a centralized computer system to track educational performance, as the PACE report notes, and both Schwarzenegger and Gov. Jerry Brown have pushed for elimination of many of the "categorical aids" that dictate how local school districts must spend state aid. Brown is also proposing a change in aid allocation to give more money to low-performing districts and schools, but he faces stiff opposition from districts that would lose money as a result.

SAN JOSE -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said again this afternoon that she has no interest in being a candidate for vice president, but she had some advice for Mitt Romney about the kind of person he might choose.

"Somebody who actually wants to run for office would be a good start," Rice said.

The Republican told a conference of business leaders hosted by the Bay Area Council in San Jose that Romney would make a "fine president."

"I think he'll find a fine vice president, too," she added.

Rice ha occasionally been mentioned as a potential Republican vice presidential pick, but she has said for months that she is not interested.

PHOTO CREDIT: Condoleezza Rice, Associated Press file photo, 2009.

We reported today on University of California campuses enrolling more non-resident students in the wake of state budget cuts. Non-residents pay a nearly $23,000 premium on top of the full $12,192 tuition, and they are ineligible for state financial aid.

We follow up here with some more thoughts that we couldn't include in today's story:

After nearly 30 percent of its incoming freshman class for 2011-12 were from out-of-state - almost three times the proportion just two years earlier - Berkeley slightly reduced its non-resident admissions for Fall 2012, the lone UC to do so. The school accepted 12.6 percent fewer non-resident students for the upcoming year than for Fall 2011 - though still 110 percent more than it did for Fall 2009.

More out-of-state students agreed to come to Berkeley last year than the university anticipated, according to spokeswoman Janet Gilmore. "So, for 2012-13, we offered admission to fewer non-residents, anticipating that we can still hit the same 30 percent target without having to offer admission to as many non-residents as we did the previous year," she said in an e-mail.

The biggest non-resident admissions jump came at UC San Diego, which admitted 75 percent more non-residents for Fall 2012 than it did for last fall's freshman class. That is a significant increase for a university that already saw a huge leap in non-residents last fall.

According to UC registration data, UC San Diego went from 6.7 percent non-residents in Fall 2009 to 18.2 percent non-residents in Fall 2011. If the yield rates hold steady from last year, nonresidents will make up roughly 25 percent of the Fall 2012 freshman class at UC San Diego.

Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service applauded a new University of California, Berkeley proposal to give each UC campus more autonomy, particularly when it comes to setting tuition rates.

Because its seats are so coveted, Berkeley has wanted to charge higher tuition and admit more out-of-state students than other campuses. The school's Center for Studies in Higher Education released a report last month that suggests giving the system's 10 schools greater ability to set policies that fit the "uniqueness of individual campuses."

As we reported today, Berkeley has moved aggressively to admit more non-resident students, who pay a nearly $23,000 premium on top of full tuition, and fewer California residents than the school did prior to 2010.

It is far from clear that UC Regents would consider giving up power to set tuition or admissions policies. And student groups say the campuses have already moved too far toward privatization in the wake of state budget cuts.

But Moody's said the latest proposal "would be a credit positive for UC because the system's leading campuses could better utilize their market potential to generate new student revenues and offset continuing reductions in state support." The ratings agency said the UC system has "considerable untapped pricing power."

The plan might bolster the schools' credit ratings, but not without a cost. Moody's notes, "If the proposal is implemented, the university would be able to command much higher tuition for resident and nonresident students seeking to study at a top research school."

Legislation that bans carrying unloaded rifles in public was passed Thursday by the Assembly.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1527, cleared the lower house 44-28 with no Republican support.

Proposed by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, the bill is similar to a new state law banning the open carry of handguns that took effect Jan. 1.

AB 1527 takes aim at a movement that encourages people to show up at public places with unloaded weapons. Supporters contend that openly displaying firearms can startle onlookers, scare children and provoke violence.

Supporters of a measure that would make major changes to California's budgeting and governance processes are starting to turn in petition signatures as talks continue with political interests that don't want to see the entire package on the ballot this November.

The California Forward Issue Action Fund proposal includes a requirement for a two-year, performance based state budget, legislative transparency measures and a new process for local governments to opt out of state laws or regulations they feel hinders their ability to work efficiently. Labor and environmental interests have expressed concerns about parts of the proposal and Gov. Jerry Brown's allies fear including the plan on the November ballot could complicate strategy for his own tax initiative.

More than 50 groups, including the California Labor Federation, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, signed a letter this week stating plans to form an opposition campaign if the California Forward Issue Action Fund continues with its plans to place its measure on the ballot.

"We have pointed out numerous substantive and drafting flaws in the measure, an analysis that many Board members share," the letter to board members of the action fund and California Forward's nonprofit think tank arm reads. "At a time when we should be focused on recovery, locking in these flawed provisions.... would permanently scar California."

Campaign spokesman Roger Salazar issued a statement Wednesday saying supporters have collected enough signatures to qualify and will begin turning them in on a staggered schedule "to allow the maximum time for negotiations in hopes that a full deal can be reached."

"We recognize the concerns raised by some parties and interests and have worked in earnest to reach a possible compromise," the statement said. "While a workable framework is on the table, an agreement has not yet been realized."

The nonprofit think tank California Forward's campaign arm attempted to qualify a pair of measures that included some similar components for the 2010 ballot, but were short on cash to collect the needed signatures. This time around the effort was boosted by more than $1 million from Nicolas Berggruen, a billionaire investor who has pledged to spend $20 million to reform California government.

Editor's note: This post was updated at 11:22 a.m. with comments from the letter from the opposition.

The director of California's political watchdog agency is shelving her proposal to require bloggers to disclose payments they receive from political campaigns.

Chairwoman Ann Ravel of the Fair Political Practices Commission said she remains committed to holding public debate over mandatory disclosure with the hope that a plan could emerge in the future.

Meanwhile, Ravel said she wants to seek voluntary disclosure by bloggers for the November election, though she conceded, "I don't think there's going to be a large amount of voluntary disclosure."

To supplement voluntary disclosure, Ravel said she may ask the FPPC to consider requiring political candidates to publicize in a distinct format any money they pay to bloggers and provide a link to that information on their website.

Sen. Ron Calderon is replacing fellow Democratic Sen. Juan Vargas on a newly created joint conference committee on legislation to tackle mortgage and foreclosure issues.

Democratic leaders moved to create the committee after opposition from banking and business groups threatened to derail a package of bills backed by Attorney General Kamala Harris. The six-member conference committee will consist of two Democrats and one Republican from each house.

The membership change, which must be approved by the Senate Rules Committee, occurred just a week after procedural moves to create the committee.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, said Vargas "told the pro tem that he was going to respectfully decline to be on the conference committee to attend to other legislative duties."

Vargas' chief of staff did not respond to a request for comment. The San Diego Democrat, who was expected to be a no vote on Harris' bills, is also running for an open congressional seat this year.

Calderon's chief of staff, Rocky Rushing, said his boss' experience chairing a committee that governs banking and finance issues makes the Montebello Democrat a good fit for the post.

"He's legislated in this area, so he's had a keen interest in the foreclosure crisis and he has expertise in that area as well, based on his experience as banking chair," Rushing said.

Also serving on the committee are Sens. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, and Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, as well as Assembly members Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, and Donald Wagner, R-Irvine.

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VIDEO: Hold on tight -- another California state budget dance is about to begin.

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VIDEO: Dan Walters says in today's report that the budget season is upon us.

Gov. Jerry Brown joins former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today at a big-ticket Bay Area Council event in San Jose.

The 2012 Outlook Conference will look at trends affecting business, the economy and politics. Rice is speaking at 1 p.m., while Brown is scheduled to start at 3:35 p.m. sharp. Clinton's talk is set for 5 p.m. Other speakers include the CEOs of LinkedIn, DuPont, PG&E Corp., and Kaiser Permanente.

The conference runs this afternoon at the California Theatre, 345 S. First St. Click here to read the agenda. You'll find more information about the event at this link.

Back in Sacramento, education experts and others consider the state of California school finance.

Five years ago, Stanford University issued a report, "Getting Down to Facts," on the subject. The huge project, funded by private foundations, coordinated research from 32 institutions. Today, a group called the Policy Analysis for California Education, or PACE, holds a forum called "Getting Down to Facts: Five Years Later," to examine the subject anew.

Listed speakers include Susanna Loeb of Stanford, one of the original project coordinators, as well as former state schools chief Jack O'Connell. Other speakers include Dan Schnur of the University of Southern California, who will present the findings of a recent USC online poll on education.

The USC/PACE survey found, for instance, that 67 percent of respondents agreed that the state should increase spending on education, but only 48 percent believed that spending should be increased if it meant their own taxes would go up. The poll was conducted from April 26 to May 1 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points for questions asked of all 956 California adults who participated. Click here to read the entire poll.

The event itself starts at 1 p.m. at the Department of General Services, 1500 Capitol Ave. Click here to find a link for the agenda.

Under the dome, the Senate and the Assembly both have floor sessions scheduled for 9 a.m., after which Senate budget panels consider Brown's proposals on higher education, the Board of Equalization, the Franchise Tax Board and other matters. Click here for the Senate's daily file, and click here for the Assembly's.

PRESSER: California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, Senate Republican leader Bob Huff and Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway highlight the start of a statewide tour to campaign against the governor's ballot tax measure and talk up GOP proposals on state spending. The event starts at noon on the Capitol's west steps.

ELECTION 2012: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul appears at UC Davis at 7 p.m. this evening. Click here to see a flier about the event.