Capitol Alert

Each year, the California Chamber of Commerce chooses a few dozen bills it and other business groups oppose and labels them as "job killers" for imposing new regulations, business costs or taxes.

All are carried by Democratic legislators and most are sponsored by labor unions, environmental groups, consumer activists and personal injury lawyers.

Despite strong Democratic majorities in the Legislature, the chamber and its allies have been remarkably successful in blocking or neutralizing the targeted measures. Only a few have made it through the Legislature and most of the survivors have been vetoed by governors of both parties.

It's been frustrating for the sponsoring groups, which explains why Consumer Attorneys of California, whose bills have often been tagged with the "job killer" epithet, is distributing a study by two university professors that charts the "job killer" campaign in California and other states and chastises the media for repeating the term, saying they "contribute to the deterioration of honest political discourse."

Peter Dreier of Occidental College in Los Angeles and Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa studied use of the "job killer" term in four national media outlets and say that while it's been widely used, its veracity, when applied to a specific piece of legislation or regulatory action, has rarely been investigated.

"At the state level, California has been a hotbed of 'job killer' allegations," they write, adding, "the news media often simply repeat the Chamber's own label of these proposed bills as 'job killers' without providing any scrutiny or analysis."

They cited as one example a 2011 Associated Press story about a California bill to ban use of polystyrene containers for food purchases. However, the story did not apply the term gratuitously, but rather attributed the label to the Chamber of Commerce, as do virtually all uses of the term, which is standard journalistic practice.

By the way, the chamber's current 25-bill "job killer" list can be found here.

Republican Sen. Joel Anderson gave a lengthy speech blasting "Roger's law" on the Senate floor Thursday.

"I don't support Roger's law now and I will never support Roger's law," the Alpine Republican said.

One problem. There's no longer a Roger associated with the bill that was up for a vote.

Assembly Bill 2127, which allows work release credits for inmates who participate in educational, vocational, substance abuse or parenting programs, originally included Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, D-West Covina, as an author.

But he took his name off the proposal after critics, concerned about how the bill affects drunken driving offenders, raised issues about his own recent DUI arrest.

The focus on DUIs and the former author struck some supporters as off mark.

"Woah, how do I close on that," said Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, who presented the bill on the floor, said after Anderson wrapped up his remarks.

The bill, which is supported by counties and sheriffs but opposed by district attorneys, cleared the Senate on a vote of 21-14.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sen. Joel Anderson, debates "Roger's Law." Associated Press/Rich Pedroncelli

California's depressed construction industry generated just 32,000 new housing units between 2010 and 2011, a new Census Bureau report says, a fraction of the 200,000-plus units that California once produced each year.

The 32,000-unit increase, from slightly under 13.7 million units to slightly over 13.7 million, was less than a quarter of one-percent, even though the state's population was growing at least twice as fast. Or to put it another way, with about 12 percent of the nation's population, California had just 6 percent of the nation's year-to-year housing growth.

Traditionally, housing construction has been a major factor in recovery from recession, but it hasn't been happening in California, in part because the recession itself was rooted in the collapse of the housing industry, rather than some other sector of the economy.

Overall, the nation added nearly 500,000 housing units during the one-year period, according to the Census Bureau report, which included a list of the nation's 100 fastest growing counties, in terms of housing units. No California county is on that list, which is dominated by communities in the South and Southwest and topped by Long County, GA, with a 6.3 percent one-year gain.

A number of Texas counties are on the list. Texas had a one-year gain of 97,000 units, almost exactly three times as many as California's increase.

Dan Walters says welfare is the last big sticking point between Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative Democrats on the 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 today's video report, names welfare as the last big issue facing California lawmakers on the budget.

It's time to start watching the clock. Legislators needs to pass a budget by midnight Friday night or they could see their paychecks whacked.

What kind of a budget will they send Gov. Jerry Brown? Kevin Yamamura reports in today's Bee that it looks like they'll reject $1 billion of the cuts he's requested.

In non-budget news, the tents on the Capitol's north steps and lawn will shade high school seniors who've won Comcast scholarships this year.

Elected officials listed to attend include State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Democratic Sen. Michael Rubio, Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway, and Democratic Assembly members Wesley Chesbro, Rich Gordon, Jerry Hill, Jared Huffman and Bob Wieckowski.

The event runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The students also get a tour of the Capitol and admission to a River Cats game.

Both the Senate and the Assembly have scheduled floor sessions this morning. The upper house will welcome as guest chaplain the evangelist Luis Palau, who's in town for a festival this weekend at Cal Expo, before he heads to the Assembly side.

Palau got a few digs in at Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson this week, as Ryan Lillis reported in this post: "It took him a while, but he got married at last. And we're very proud of that. It's OK to say that, right? The city knows about it?"

Hmm. If he could get away with that, there's plenty of material for him under the dome.

CAKE AND CANDLES: Democratic Assemblywoman Betsy Butler turns 49 today.