Capitol Alert

A new Super PAC has started airing television ads in support of independent candidates running in California's June 5 primary.

icPurple announced today that it is backing four candidates running for office with "no party preference," including 26th Congressional District contender Linda Parks, who is running strong in a district targeted by both major parties.

The group is already running one ad in support of San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher, an assemblyman who recently dropped his Republican registration

It is looking at buying airtime for the spot supporting Parks, as well as one for Chad Condit, the son of former Democratic Rep. Gary Condit, in the Central Valley's 10th Congressional District. It has also endorsed Chad Walsh, the only candidate running against Democratic Assemblyman Paul Fong in the Silicon Valley-based 28th Assembly District.

The committee was created by Gateway founder Ted Waitt, who put up $300,000 in seed money to get the ad buys started.

Waitt said in a statement that voters are "demanding pragmatic and problem-solving behavior from our elected officials once again."

"We believe independent minded voters will see this as an opportunity for more than just a statement vote, but as a chance for real political change," he said.

Online versions of the ads are posted at this link.

Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor discussed his office's review of Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget Friday, suggesting the deficit is higher than the $15. 7 billion Brown projected.

Taylor said that Brown's budget expenditure estimates were "reasonable," but there are risks in other areas of his proposal.

He added that there was no need to build the reserve at the moment.

Taylor also said that outside factors contributed to the deficit, such as California being turned down by the federal government on Medi-Cal reductions.

California's budget deficit is likely worse than Gov. Jerry Brown's estimate of $15.7 billion, the state's top fiscal analyst indicated Friday.

Brown proposed a $91.4 billion general fund budget Monday that slashes health and welfare programs, courts and state worker pay. His proposal also relies on voters temporarily raising taxes on sales and wealthy earners to help cover this year's budget gap and deficits in future years.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office said Friday that Brown's revenue forecast is "reasonable," though the Analyst's own projection is still $550 million below the governor's through June 2013. On top of that, the LAO warned that Brown's estimate of money available from former redevelopment programs could be overstated by $900 million.

Based on those initial judgments, the Analyst's Office seems to suggest the state deficit is north of $17 billion rather than $15.7 billion, which was Brown's estimate. But the Analyst's Office didn't provide an exact deficit figure and simply says that the budget problem is "likely somewhat larger" than Brown has estimated.

The Analyst's Office estimates that the state now has an accumulated deficit of $7.6 billion -- meaning a hole that exists because the state failed to balance budgets in the past -- as well as a structural imbalance of roughly $10 billion between revenues and expenditures annually. It believes that the governor's mix of onetime solutions to solve the accumulated deficit is fine, but that the state also needs permanent cuts or revenues to truly solve the gap.

Post updated to clarify that the Analyst's Office is not providing an exact deficit estimate.

Supporters of a proposal to give state regulators power to reject health insurance rate increases say they are submitting 800,000 voter signatures to election officials in hopes of qualifying for the November ballot.

"We will give California voters the chance to decide their own fate in November and stop out of control health insurance premiums," Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court, whose group is sponsoring the initiative, wrote in an email to supporters today.

Under the proposed initiative, changes to heath insurance policy rates would need approval from the state insurance commissioner. Voters approved a similar process for auto insurers, also backed by Consumer Watchdog, in 1988.

Consumer Watchdog launched the initiative qualification campaign after heath insurance rate regulation legislation stalled in the state Legislature last year. The measure also targets provisions of a rate-related initiative sponsored by auto insurance agents.

Supporters say the measure will protect consumers from excessive rate hikes. A coalition formed to oppose the measure, which includes the California Medical Association and the California Hospital Association, blasted the move as bad for patients.

"This measure will create another duplicative and expensive bureaucracy when we can
least afford it, ultimately paid for with higher health insurance premiums." California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg said in a statement released by the opposition campaign.

Supporters are holding a press conference in Los Angeles this morning to begin submitting petitions to election officials there. They need roughly 504,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. All measures headed for the November ballot must be certified by June 28.

RELATED POSTS:

California group files health insurance regulation initiative

Dan Walters: Feud colors clash over California's health care rates

Editor's note: This post was updated at 10:49 a.m. with comments from the opposition.

Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview televised this morning that the water project he proposes this year will be a $14 billion endeavor.

The Democratic governor's remark suggests the administration is fine-tuning its proposal for a peripheral canal or other way to move water through or around the Delta, even as a public announcement has been delayed. In January, Brown said the project would cost water users "well over $10 billion."

Brown was on "CBS This Morning" to promote his November ballot initiative to raise taxes and to defend the budget he revised on Monday. The state budget deficit has grown to $15.7 billion from the $9.2 billion Brown estimated in January.

"California is growing," Brown said in an interview taped Thursday. "This is not Europe ... We're very entrepreneurial, very innovative, and people are still coming here. You know, this is where they put in, they invented Facebook. Not in Texas, not in Arizona. Not in Manhattan, and certainly not under the, you know, the White House or the Congress. This is still the Wild West, and we're going to prove to the rest of this country and the world that we know how to do it."

Told by CBS' Charlie Rose that Facebook was invented in Cambridge, Mass., Brown said that after tinkering there, "they learned fast to get on a plane and get out to California, where all the other innovative people are."

Brown's comments about the water project came as he defended another multi-billion infrastructure project: high-speed rail.

"California's not stopping," Brown said. "We're not some tired country of Europe. We're a buoyant, dynamic society that will both discipline itself on a daily basis, but it will, on the long term, plant the seeds of future growth."

Watch the video:

VIDEO: Dan Walters says judges aren't the only ones to voice disapproval over Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget.

Have a question you'd like Dan to answer? Post it on our Facebook page.

See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

VIDEO: Dan Walters, in his latest video report, says judges aren't the only critics of Gov. Jerry Brown's new budget numbers.

Gov. Jerry Brown is taking his pitch on California's state budget to a national television audience, talking with Charlie Rose on "CBS This Morning." The interview, which was taped Thursday, will air at about 7 a.m.

Brown tweeted Thursday that it's "a lively conversation."

Attorney General Kamala Harris is joining Holly Petraeus, who's the director of the Office of Service Member Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, at Travis Air Force Base to talk up legislation sponsored by Harris that is intended to give property owners more foreclosure protections. Their presser will be followed by a town hall at 11 a.m.

The Legislature has no floor sessions, but four legislative panels are meeting elsewhere in the state.

The Senate Agriculture Committee, chaired by Republican Anthony Cannella, heads to Fresno to learn about agricultural metal theft.

A Senate select committee chaired by Democrat Ellen Corbett, is in Fremont looking at electric vehicle deployment.

Meanwhile, an Assembly select committee is in San Diego -- where chairman Nathan Fletcher is running for mayor as an independent -- for a hearing on "current workforce realities and keeping innovation domestic."

Yet another Assembly select committee -- this one headed by Democrat José Solorio -- explores the future of storm water, including its capture, storage and supply, in Los Angeles.

Click here to read the Senate's schedule, and click here to read the Assembly's.

HIGH-SPEED RAIL: The California High-Speed Rail Authority is holding a special closed telemeeting starting at 10 a.m. to discuss hiring a new chief executive officer to replace Roelof Van Ark, who resigned back in January. The authority has scheduled four more closed meetings on the same subject next week and the week after.

DEADLINE: Monday is the last day to register to vote in the June 5 primary.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlie Rose of "CBS This Morning" tapes an interview with California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday, May 17, 2012. "CBS This Morning" photo distributed via Twitter.