Capitol Alert

A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Friday blocked the Secretary of State's Office from assigning ballot numbers for the November election while the court examines recent election procedures and a new law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The campaign for a rival income tax initiative, funded by attorney Molly Munger, filed suit Thursday to prevent Brown's measure from appearing on the ballot ahead of hers. Under the order from Judge Timothy Frawley, Secretary of State Debra Bowen must now wait until after a July 9 hearing to set the ballot numbers.

She had otherwise planned to do so Monday, her office said.

Munger's "Our Children, Our Future" campaign believes that its initiative should have qualified ahead of Brown's because it submitted signatures before the governor did -- and had fewer to count as a statutory change rather than a constitutional amendment. In past elections, qualifying order determined where initiatives appeared on the ballot.

The campaign also alleges that Brown and lawmakers illegally enacted budget-related legislation this week that moves the governor's initiative to the top of the ballot, presuming lawmakers delay a water bond.

If California Treasurer Bill Lockyer runs for public office again, in 2014, it will likely be for state controller.

But a more immediate opening may have piqued his curiosity.

Lockyer, 71, has privately expressed interest in potentially becoming chancellor of the California State University system, according to a source who is familiar with the search process but not authorized to speak publicly about it. It is unclear how serious the former state attorney general and longtime legislator is about the job.

Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar declined to comment beyond writing in an email Wednesday, "There's nothing to talk about."

Chancellor Charles Reed announced his retirement on May 24, and the CSU board's search committee has launched its efforts. The university system includes 23 universities and some 427,000 students.

A chancellorship would likely pay multiples of Lockyer's current salary, just more than $139,000. Last year, the CSU chancellor was paid $421,500, plus $30,000 from the CSU Foundation.

In December 2010, after being elected to his second term as treasurer, Lockyer opened a campaign account to run for state controller in 2014. At the time, Dresslar said, "If Lockyer decides to continue in public service after his term as treasurer expires, state controller is the office he is interested in seeking."

PHOTO CREDIT: Treasurer Bill Lockyer speaks to the Sacramento Press Club on June 21. The Sacramento Bee/Randy Pench

The California Department of Parks and Recreation said today that all but one state park will remain open past this weekend, sparing four more locations whose fate was unclear as of yesterday.

The Benicia State Recreation Area, California Mining and Mineral Museum, Gray Whale Cove State Beach and Zmudowski State Beach will continue operating "for the very near term," according to Natural Resources Agency spokesman Richard Stapler. The four state parks lack interest from outside partners, but Stapler said the hope is that they can find donors or nonprofits in the coming days to spare them.

That leaves only Providence Mountains State Recreation Area in San Bernardino County. Stapler said the park has been closed since March and will not reopen unless it can find a partnership.

Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, who slammed Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday for vetoing $31 million that could have gone toward park operations, said today on Facebook, "While this is good news, it is at best a temporary reprieve for state parks. We have more work to do!"

The word "California" appears nowhere in the 596-page transportation package slated for congressional approval Friday. Nonetheless, the bill that's ridden a Capitol Hill roller-coaster for many months has a definite Golden State tinge.

The bill, for instance, includes a National Flood Insurance Program phase-in pushed by lawmakers including Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento. To prevent sticker shock among homeowners caught up in newly mapped flood zones, the provision phases in higher insurance rates over five years. Matsui called the result "real savings."

Politically, the 27-month, $120 billion surface transportation reauthorization bill is an achievement for Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, the chair of the Senate Public Works Committee. Formally, it's called the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, or MAP-21.

The bill does not include funding for high-speed rail, but neither does it include language championed by Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, in the original House effort that would have specifically blocked federal dollars from going toward California's high-speed rail project. Denham is trying to put similar language on other transportation-related bills.

Both House and Senate are slated to approve the legislation Friday before lawmakers depart for the Fourth of July recess.

Dan Walters says a report on implementing California's law curbing greenhouse-gas emissions deserves a second look.

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See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

VIDEO: Dan Walters says in today's report that California lawmakers should look at whether implementing the state's greenhouse-gas emissions law will affect its economic recovery.

Now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the state budget and penciled out some funding for state parks, child care and Cal Grants, the Legislature doesn't have floor sessions scheduled until Monday.

This, of course, leaves lawmakers free to flee the Capitol.

Assemblyman Henry T. Perea, D-Fresno, is headed home to host a forum on the state's cap-and-trade program regulating greenhouse gases. Representatives of the California Air Resources Board, the Legislative Analyst's Office, the California Trucker Association and the National Resources Defense Council are among those invited to participate.

Others include local food processors, agricultural interests, energy companies and large energy users. The forum runs from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Fresno City College, 1101 E. University Ave., in the Old Administration Building, Room 251.

This weekend, Democratic Sens. Joe Simitian and Curren Price as well as Assemblywoman Betsy Butler are holding events in their districts ranging from sidewalk office hours to town halls to community coffees.

Next Friday is the last day for policy committees to pass bills. With the Fourth of July falling in the middle of the week, legislators are going to have their hands full tackling big issues that remain: pension reform, mortgage and foreclosure legislation, the high-speed rail project and the governor's government reorganization plan.

Lawmakers also need to act quickly if they want to take the water bond off the November ballot and delay it until 2014. They're set to start their summer recess at the end of next week.

NEW GIG: Democratic political strategist Sky Gallegos has joined StudentsFirst as director of national electoral initiatives. Gallegos, who helped start EdVoice, will oversee the group's "candidate and initiative electoral strategy, identifying and supporting the election of strong, reform-minded candidates to public office," says the news release announcing her hiring. StudentsFirst is the Sacramento education advocacy group headed by Sacramento's first lady, Michelle Rhee.

CAKE AND CANDLES: Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, turns 38 today, while Assemblyman Henry T. Perea celebrates his 35th birthday while hosting that cap-and-trade forum in Fresno. Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, R-Fresno, turns 44 on Saturday. Birthday wishes to all.