Capitol Alert

SAN FRANCISCO -- It wasn't the first time Gov. Jerry Brown has addressed the potentially harmful impact of high-speed rail on his November ballot initiative to raise taxes, but it was perhaps his most direct response yet.

"First of all, I don't really believe in the Field Poll," Brown said when asked this afternoon about a poll that showed many voters could lose their appetite for higher taxes if the state approved high-speed rail funds. "And I'll tell you one reason I don't: High-speed rail is more popular than I am right now. So if I believe that, I might pack my bags and head back to the monastery."

The nonpartisan Field Poll found recently that a fifth of likely voters who support Brown's proposal to raise taxes say they would be less likely to support it if the Legislature appropriated money for California's $68 billion high-speed rail project.

The Legislature did just that, and Brown signed legislation today authorizing initial construction.

"A poll here and a poll there," he said. "I got 10 polls in my back pocket that tell me everything I want to know and don't want to know, so don't worry about the Field Poll."

Brown described controversy about the rail project as one between "doers" and "fearful men."

"We are in a culture of immediate gratification -- me, now, easy," he said. "This is about us, long and difficult."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced plans Wednesday for a one-year pay freeze for Senate employees, but the move comes in the wake of a recent pay hike for hundreds of the chamber's aides.

The proposed Senate pay freeze also comes as most state workers are taking a nearly 5 percent pay cut as part of budget cuts designed to save the cash-starved state government billions of dollars.

Steinberg plans to ask the Senate Rules Committee to approve the pay freeze at its next meeting Aug. 1, said Rhys Williams, Steinberg spokesman. The action would take effect immediately. The freeze would not affect pay raises tied to promotions.

Assembly administrator Jon Waldie said that his chamber has no plans to announce a pay freeze, but it will continue to respond to California's budget crisis by trimming and transferring 15 percent of its budget to other state agencies. This year, $22 million will be sent, Waldie said.

The Senate was not alone in awarding merit increases to legislative employees this year. The Assembly has done so, too, with hundreds of employees seeing salary hikes ranging from 3.6 percent to 5 percent. Employees were eligible if they had not received a raise in three years.

The total number of Assembly aides who saw their pay rise in the past year was not immediately available Wednesday.

University of California's governing board today approved higher fees for 57 graduate professional schools while freezing tuition for undergraduates.

UC regents, meeting in San Francisco, voted to freeze tuition at $12,192 for the coming school year pending the outcome of the November election. If voters reject Proposition 30 - Gov. Jerry Brown's tax increase - UC will likely raise tuition mid-year. The resolution they approved also gives UC's formal endorsement of the ballot measure.

"This tax initiative affects us. It deeply affects us," said Sherry Lansing, chair of the board of regents. "I enthusiastically endorse support for this."

Regent Russell Gould cast the only vote against endorsing Proposition 30.

Two regents - Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and student regent Jonathan Stein - voted against raising fees at UC professional schools. The proposal calls for steep increases at some UC business, law and nursing schools, and expanding the number of programs that charge professional school fees.

UC's endorsement of Proposition 30 follows a similar move Tuesday by the California State University's board of trustees.

PHOTO CREDIT: University of California President Mark Yudof gestures during a news conference at a UC Regents meeting in San Francisco, Wednesday. AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning authorizing initial construction of California's $68 billion high-speed rail line.

The signature comes less than two weeks after Brown and the California High-Speed Rail Authority pushed the project through the Legislature by a bare majority, a major victory for the Democratic governor.

The bill authorizes $5.8 billion to start construction of a high-speed rail line in the Central Valley, including $2.6 billion in state rail bond funds and $3.2 billion in federal aid. To gain political support for the project in the state's most densely populated areas, the administration also included $1.9 billion in state rail bond proceeds to improve urban rail systems and connect them to high-speed rail.

"This legislation will help put thousands of people in California back to work," Brown said in a prepared statement. "By improving regional transportation systems, we are investing in the future of our state and making California a better place to live and work."

Brown signed the rail bill at an event at Los Angeles' Union Station, his office said. He is scheduled to fly this afternoon to San Francisco, where he will hold a similar event at the construction site of the city's new Transbay Transit Center.

The appearances will keep Brown conspicuously away from the Central Valley, where opposition to the project remains fierce. Farmers and other groups there are suing to block the project.

The National Journal has included 10 California districts in its new ranking of congressional seats most likely to change partisan control in the November election.

The rematch between Republican Rep. Dan Lungren and Democrat Ami Bera in East Sacramento County's 7th Congressional District was ranked the most competitive California seat, coming in 15th out of 75 hot races on the Washington, D.C.-based publication's list.

Other area races to make the most likely-to-flip list include the 9th Congressional District battle between Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney and Republican Ricky Gill and Democratic Rep. John Garamendi's re-election bid against Republican Kim Vann in the 3rd Congressional District.

Click here to see the full list.

Dan Walters lays out the tax-measure battle between California Gov. Jerry Brown and wealthy civil rights attorney Molly Munger.

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

See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

VIDEO: In today's report, Dan Walters talks about California's ballot fight over taxes.

Gov. Jerry Brown will be in Los Angeles this morning and in San Francisco this afternoon as he signs legislation authorizing funding to start construction of the state's controversial high-speed rail project.

The Los Angeles ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St., and the San Francisco event is set for 2 p.m. at Transbay Transit Center construction site on Howard Street between First and Second streets.

Senate Bill 1029 squeaked out of the Senate earlier this month with the bare minimum of votes to authorize $5.8 billion to begin construction in the Central Valley.

That money includes $2.6 billion in bond funds with the rest coming from the federal government, David Siders reported, noting that lawmakers tied that money to nearly $2 billion slated to spruce up regional rail systems and connect them to the high-speed rail project.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County elections officials in 191 precincts could start a manual recount as early as today of votes for Proposition 29, the tobacco-tax measure on the June 5 ballot.

Alert readers will recall that Prop. 29 was losing by less than 30,000 votes out of more than 5 million cast. Torey Van Oot reported last week that those 191 precincts account for about 48,000 of the votes cast on the measure.