Capitol Alert

Two-thirds of likely California voters say global warming is a threat to the state's economic future and quality of life, and a wide majority -- 62 percent -- continues to favor the state's greenhouse gas reduction law, Assembly Bill 32, according to a new Public Policy Institute of California poll.

The electorate's attitude about the environment colors its view of President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, according to the poll. Nearly three-quarters of likely voters say the presidential candidates' positions on climate change and energy policy are very important or somewhat important to how they will vote.

Not surprisingly in heavily Democratic California, a majority of likely voters -- 54 percent -- trusts Obama more than Romney to handle these issues, while 33 percent of likely voters trust Romney more.

Likely voters favor Obama over Romney in their presidential matchup by 11 percentage points, 51 percent to 40 percent.

Fifty percent of likely voters approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, according to the poll. Likely voters are evenly split on his handling of environmental issues.

Gov. Jerry Brown's public approval rating is slightly up from May. Forty-six percent of likely voters approves of the job he is doing, up from 42 percent. Likely voters approve of the Democratic governor's handling of environmental issues, 41 percent to 36 percent, according to the poll.

The state's Legislative Analyst's Office said Wednesday that "hundreds of millions" of dollars in assumed tax revenues may never materialize due to the continued slide in Facebook's stock price.

Menlo Park-based Facebook closed Wednesday trading at $20.88 per share, a new low 45 percent below the initial price. The state Department of Finance assumed the social media giant would trade at $35 by November, while the Analyst's Office believed it would trade at $42 at that time. The November marker is significant because another wave of insiders becomes eligible to sell shares at that point.

The Analyst's Office said today that much of the Facebook income tax revenues will still come in. But the LAO added that "if the company's stock price remains depressed, hundreds of millions of income tax dollars assumed in the 2012-13 state budget plan are at risk."

Despite a recent flood of state accounting questions, Standard & Poor's gave its highest rating Wednesday to $10 billion in short-term notes California will issue this month to ensure it has enough cash to pay its bills through next June.

Standard & Poor's ran several stress tests on the state's cash situation and determined that California should have more than enough money in its coffers to pay back $10 billion next spring, issuing an SP-1+ rating to the state's short-term notes. California borrows money in the first half of each fiscal year because the bulk of its revenues come in the spring.

The state plans to begin selling the notes to investors on Aug. 14, with the interest rate determined two days later.

To help pay general fund bills for schools, health care and prisons, the state not only borrows from Wall Street but relies heavily on internal special fund accounts, which come from dedicated user fees or payments from regulated industries. The state is already borrowing $9.6 billion in cash from these special funds and has indicated that it can tap nearly $9 billion more if necessary, according to S&P analyst Gabriel Petek.

Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway is asking donors of a GOP candidate to help push him out of a Sacramento-area Assembly race.

Conway is taking aim at Andy Pugno, a Folsom attorney who is set to square off in November against another Republican, Assemblywoman Beth Gaines of Rocklin, for the 6th District Assembly seat based in Placer but stretching into Fair Oaks, Folsom, Orangevale and El Dorado Hills.

The oddity of two members of the same party squaring off in a general election was created by the state's new "top two" primary system, which creates a runoff between the top two finishers in primary elections, regardless of party.

Conway, in her letter dated July 30, noted that Pugno finished "far behind" Gaines in June balloting and that he had pledged not to launch an "expensive and counter-productive campaign" against Gaines if she topped him in the primary.

"I and other Republican Party leaders have asked him to keep his pledge, but so far he will not commit, and he continues to raise money for a campaign. He may have even asked you for money again," Conway's letter told donors. Read the full letter after the jump.

"As the Assembly Republican leader, I hope you will join me in urging Andy Pugno to keep his pledge and suspend his campaign, so we can all come together and concentrate on restoring conservative leadership to the state."

Pugno predicted that Conway's appeal will backfire against Gaines and party bosses, saying it demonstrates arrogance and "the establishment's lack of awareness of how unhappy voters are with incumbents."

"Eveyone knows I've been running against the establishment," Pugno said. "So contacting my supporters, urging them to back a Capitol insider, is a blunder that highlights they've lost touch with real people who are sick and tired of business as usual."

Pugno also has been in contact with his donors. He sent them a fundraising appeal shortly after the June primary, noting that it's time to "start thinking about the November runoff election" and asking for donations to "help us finish the job."

Pugno later characterized his fundraising letter as exploratory. He said Wednesday that, despite his previous pledge, he has not yet decided whether to run against Gaines in November.

On the same week Proposition 39 backers attacked four companies for opposing a corporate tax change, a Democratic lawmaker is writing legislation to ban state contracts with such out-of-state firms.

Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, has drafted amendments that attempt to end state contracts with companies that legally choose to pay taxes under a longstanding formula that out-of-state companies generally find more beneficial. His proposal, Senate Bill 911, would also authorize the state Franchise Tax Board to disclose which formula companies use to calculate their taxes, information currently shielded under taxpayer privacy laws.

State lawmakers in 2009 allowed corporations to choose between two different formulas - one based solely on a firm's sales in California, which tends to be more favorable to in-state companies; or a formula that also accounts for property and payroll, some form of which has been in place for decades.

Democrats since 2009 have tried to require all companies to move to the sales-based formula, which the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimates would generate $1 billion in additional taxes, mostly from out-of-state firms. California is unique in allowing firms to choose the cheaper of two formulas rather than making one system mandatory. Business groups have argued that the state should not raise taxes on any companies in this economy because they provide jobs in California even if based elsewhere.

Lobby firm revenue for the first half of the year is down ever so slightly compared to the same period last year, with Sacramento firms taking in $85.5 million so far this year.

The firm bringing in the most money during the first half of 2012 is Lang Hansen O'Malley Miller, according to the latest reports from the Secretary of State's Office.

Joseph Lang's company picked up several new clients in recent months, including the American Council of Life Insurers, Pacific Ag Management and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (part of the AFL-CIO).

Filings show the firm earned substantial fees and retainers during the second quarter from horse racing tracks, a group that promotes the use of flame retardants, the Altria cigarette company and Education Management Corp., which runs several for-profit colleges.

Here's a look at revenues from the 20 lobbying firms that have brought in the most money so far this year. Click on the blue bars for details:

And here's a look at total lobby firm revenues for the first two quarters over the last eight years. Click on the red dots for details:

Editor's note: This post was updated on Friday Aug. 3, 2012, with data for individual firms from the first half of 2012.

Candidates running in four hotly contested California Senate districts reported having more than $2 million on hand heading into the general election, newly filed campaign finance reports show.

The swing seats are a priority for both parties because they will determine whether Senate Democrats capture a supermajority, hitting a threshold that could allow the upper house to approve tax increases without Republican support.

Democrats need to win one of the four targeted seats to control two-thirds of Senate seats. The Assembly is expected to remain several votes short of a supermajority after the November election.

Responding to a lawsuit filed by an anti-tax group, attorneys for the Secretary of State's Office and Gov. Jerry Brown's tax campaign said this week it is too late to renumber the November ballot initiatives.

In a filing with California's Third District Court of Appeal last month, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association alleged that state lawmakers illegally used majority-vote budget powers to change the order of ballot initiatives for the November election. Assembly Bill 1499 had the effect of moving the governor's late-qualifying tax initiative to the favorable top position on the November ballot, Proposition 30.

Attorneys for Brown's tax initiative and Secretary of State Debra Bowen offered no legal arguments defending AB 1499 in their appellate court response. They instead focused on logistical problems that would result from rescinding ballot numbers that Bowen assigned to 11 initiatives last month. Brown initiative attorneys said that would disrupt the elections process and cause chaos among campaigns.

"Beyond the printing and distribution of ballot materials, any change in the proposition numbers would also cause voter confusion," wrote attorney Thomas A. Willis. "The media and campaign committees that have been formed to support and oppose the 10 initiatives have been referring to the measures almost exclusively by number over the last three weeks."

Willis also said that because campaigns generally print materials in bulk early on, rescinding the ballot numbers would cause "significant financial loss to most of the campaign committees."

Lawyers for Bowen said the secretary has no authority to ignore laws passed by legislators. Elections Division Chief Jana M. Lean noted that Brown's initiative has already been labeled Proposition 30 and that the Secretary of State's Office must send voter guides to the state printer no later than 5 p.m. on Aug. 13.

The House Ethics Committee has completed its investigation of Rep. Laura Richardson and the verdict isn't good for the California Democrat.

Here's a snippet from the Associated Press report, which is posted in full on SacBee.com:

WASHINGTON -- The House Ethics Committee says California Democratic Congresswoman Laura Richardson should be reprimanded for misusing her staff.The committee found she improperly compelled staff to perform campaign work and obstructed the internal investigation by altering or destroying evidence, failing to produce subpoenaed documents and attempting to influence testimony of witnesses

Read more at this link.

Dan Walters says Indian casinos, construction unions and big businesses have contributed the most to aid Gov. Jerry Brown's November tax measure.

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 says Gov. Jerry Brown has raised $6 million for his tax initiative.

Today marks the first time state employee paychecks will show the 4.62 percent furlough pay cut that began last month in an effort to balance the budget. This is the first time wages have been reduced for all 214,000 state workers under gubernatorial authority.

Unions that did not reach side-letter furlough agreements with Brown will see their checks drop under an imposed furlough.

For top-step employees, the furlough reduction will be offset by 3 percent to 5 percent - but not until next year. The raises, which had been previously negotiated, kick in July 1, 2013. The amount of the pay increase varies by union contract.

For example, the contract SEIU Local 1000 (which covers nine bargaining units) signed a deal with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that gave workers at the top-step a 3 percent hike starting next July 1. Top-step lawyers got a 4 percent bump.

Other unions representing CHP officers, firefighters, doctors and psych techs received top-step increases in January of between 2 percent and 5 percent. Their checks will still see the July furlough hit on their Aug. 1 paychecks.

This page has links to easy-to-read summaries of all 21 bargaining unit contracts.

Also in union-related news, the state's largest state-employee union, SEIU Local 1000, is hosting a telephone town hall about Proposition 32, a ballot measure that would ban unions and corporations from contributing directly to candidates, as well as banning use of money obtained through payroll deductions for political purposes.

The union's president, Yvonne Walker, will host the meeting today at 6 p.m. To listen or participate in the phone-in session, dial 800-290-1471.

Editor's note: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that raises for top-step employees took effect July 1, the same day furloughs started back up. The raises are effective July 1, 2013.

Jon Ortiz contributed to this report.