Capitol Alert

A business-labor-government coalition's proposed overhaul of the landmark California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been amended into a Senate bill, the group announced late Wednesday.

The amendment touches off what could be the fiercest battle of the 2012 legislative session's final days because environmental groups have vowed to resist any major changes in the 42-year-old law, one of the oldest and most comprehensive such statutes in the nation.

Gov. Jerry Brown strongly supports CEQA reform, calling it "the Lord's work" earlier Wednesday during a campaign stop for his tax increase measure. But he has not endorsed the CEQA Working Group's version of reform. Democratic legislators appear to be deeply divided on changing CEQA while Republicans have been demanding it for years, echoing complaints from business that it makes construction of much-needed public and private projects too difficult and discourages investment..

The CEQA Working Group's four-point proposal, aimed at reducing frivolous litigation and duplication of government oversight of projects, has been placed in Senate Bill 317, a measure by Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter, that has been languishing in the Assembly's inactive floor file after clearning the Senate and Assembly committees.

The measure had dealt with fisheries management on the Kings River, but its contents are being stripped out and the new CEQA bill inserted, a process commonly used late in a legislative session called "gut-and-amend."

The new bill's provisions are exactly what the group said it wanted Monday when it made its public announcement. Rather than change CEQA itself, it would enact a new law, the Sustainable Environmental Protection Act, that changes how it's to be enforced, including integrating its provisions with other planning and protection laws, and placing restrictions on CEQA lawsuits that don't specifically address environmental matters.

Given the decades-long conflict over CEQA's provisions and effects, however, winning legislative approval in a session that's due to end Aug. 31 will be difficult. A majority of the Assembly's Democrats have already signed a letter pledging opposition to changing CEQA.

One of the prerogatives of the governor, Jerry Brown said at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory this afternoon, is to issue proclamations, even if most of them "don't mean a hell of a lot."

The rhetoric, he said, is "generally deficient and uninspiring."

Nevertheless, as the Mars rover Curiosity finished its first test drive on the Red Planet, Brown proclaimed today "Space Day" in California.

He read a line from his text: "The challenge and the promise of outer space unites all of humanity in a shared sense of curiosity, hope and wonderment."

It was not the first "Space Day" Brown has declared. He reminded the crowd in Pasadena that he had done so when he was governor before in 1977. That year, Brown hosted an event on the eve of the space shuttle Enterprise's first free flight.

"We talked a lot about space and the future," Brown said. "Of course, I talked a little bit too much about space, and they began to think I might be a little spacey. And that's where I got this moniker called 'Governor Moonbeam.' "

It was Brown's unorthodox appointments -- as much as his interest in a state satellite program -- that inspired Chicago columnist Mike Royko to give him the nickname. Brown, who has embraced the name, suggested there might have been other reasons to call him that, too.

"There's a lot of other ingredients into my Moonbeamship," he said, "only one of which was my interest in space."

PHOTO CREDIT: California Gov. Jerry Brown, center, tours NASA's Mars Curiosity rover mission In-Situ Instrument Laboratory room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012. From left is Dr. Charles Elachi, director of JPL, Gov. Brown and Richard Cook, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Deputy Project Manager. (Associated Press Photo/Damian Dovarganes, Pool)

Dogs could not be used to hunt bears or bobcats under controversial legislation that was passed today by the Assembly.

Senate Bill 1221, approved 44-29, now goes to the Senate for concurrence in amendments.

The measure, by Democratic Sen. Ted Lieu, pitted hunters against protectors of wildlife in legislative committee hearings.

Supporters of SB 1221 characterize the practice of using dogs in hunting bears and bobcats as unnecessary, cruel and inhumane.

Opponents counter that using dogs is a valued tradition and way of life. The practice also helps with management of the bear and bobcat population, which are animals that endanger livestock and public safety, opponents contend.

SB 1221 exempts use of hounds in hunting bears or bobcats in cases of depredation, scientific research, or when protecting the owners' livestock or crops.

Lobbyists in California will see their registration fees double under a bill on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Senate Bill 1001 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, requires lobbyists and political candidates to pay a $50 annual registration fee to the Secretary of State. It's expected to generate $600,000, which would go toward improving the Cal-Access online system that tracks lobbying activity and campaign finance. Right now lobbyists pay $25 a year to register and recipient committees don't pay a fee at all.

The bill, sponsored by government watchdog group California Common Cause, was inspired by problems with the Cal-Access system.

"At a time when the Secretary of State's campaign and lobbying transparency website is outdated and constantly crashing, this common sense and long-awaited bill will make sure lobbyists and special interests pay their fair share in maintaining this essential public service," Phillip Ung, a lobbyist for California Common Cause, said in a statement.

The bill was supported by the lobbyists association. It required a two-thirds vote in both houses because it amends the state's Political Reform Act. SB 1001 cleared its final legislative hurdle today when the state Senate approved it on a concurrence vote of 31-5. Republicans Joel Anderson, Bob Dutton, Ted Gaines, Doug LaMalfa and Mimi Walters voted against the bill.

A late-blooming legislative measure that would intervene in a decades-long squabble among cities over allocation of sales taxes was turned back Wednesday by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.

The measure, Assembly Bill 658, didn't even get a motion for approval in the committee during a hastily called hearing.

It had surfaced just Monday as a "gut-and-amend" maneuver by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, aimed at overturning a July 31 San Francisco Superior Court decision that reversed a long-standing Board of Equalization rule on sales tax allocation.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Jerry Brown, visiting a school this morning to promote his November ballot initiative to raise taxes, stepped inside for a moment before the media with a sixth-grade math and science class.

It was first period, so the Democratic governor asked the students what they'd learned the previous day.

"We learned about, like, some poems and stuff," one student said.

"Poems?" Brown said. "I thought this was math."

"Yeah," the student said.

Brown said he'd "like to learn more about that," then went on to call Spanish "cool" and to say he was "very excited" to be visiting.

But the thought of poems preoccupied him.

"I want to find out more about these mathematical poems," Brown said. "What is an acrostic?"

The student offered an explanation. An acrostic poem is one in which the first word or letter of a line or paragraph can be used to spell a word or other message.

Brown's predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, once made headlines with an acrostic veto message starting with "F" and ending with "you," though that hasn't been Brown's style.

"That's hard to do that, isn't it?" Brown asked the student. "I think it's hard to do that."

Democrats are working to make a Missouri congressman's controversial comment about rape an issue in the heated 7th Congressional District race.

Republican Rep. Todd Akin has come under fire from politicians on both sides of the aisle for saying in a televised interview that a woman's body has the ability to block pregnancy in cases of what he called "legitimate rape." He has apologized for the remarks, but rejected calls from Republican leaders and politicians, including presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to drop his U.S. Senate campaign against Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, denounced the comments in a statement posted to his campaign Twitter feed Tuesday.

Legislation to eliminate a perk of elective office by raising fees for legislative and congressional license plates was sent to the governor today.

Assembly Bill 2068 cleared its final legislative hurdle when the Assembly concurred in amendments, 69-0.

The measure by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, would eliminate bargain rates for current or former legislative or congressional members to acquire specialty license plates commemorating their service.

The bill would take effect in January 2014 if signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.
California's current charge of $12 to acquire legislative or congressional license plates would quadruple, to $48, under the bill.

The measure also would add an annual renewal fee of $38, and a new fee of $38 for a duplicate plate.

Revenue generated by AB 2068, in excess of DMV costs, would be deposited in the California Environmental License Plate Fund. A legislative committee estimated that less than $30,000 annually would be generated for the environmental fund.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Jerry Brown said this morning that changing the California Environmental Quality Act is "the Lord's work," but he was noncommittal about the proposal currently percolating at the Capitol.

"To tell you the truth, I have not read it," Brown told reporters in San Francisco, where the Democratic governor was campaigning for his November ballot measure to raise taxes.

"In fact, it's not even clear we've got a final draft yet," he added. "But, look, CEQA reform is the Lord's work. Whether this is the perfect vehicle, I'll be in a better position after I've read it."

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group and other business interests on Monday aired a proposal to dramatically limit the reach of the state's signature environmental protection. The group is being advised by Brown's top political adviser, Steve Glazer, and its proposal resembled draft bill language that would exempt from CEQA certain projects that complies with a city general plan or other planning document for which an environmental review already has been done.

More than 30 Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez on Tuesday objecting to the proposal, and environmentalists were lobbying against it.

A bill is expected to come up in the Assembly before the end of the legislative session next week. Brown has previously been critical of CEQA, and he signed three bills last year limiting the law.

California lawmakers are sending Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that will prohibit regulation of a type of phone service known as "voice over Internet protocol," or VOIP.

Senate Bill 1161 by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, was pushed by the telecom industry and high tech companies, which stand to benefit from the growing use of VOIP technology. It was opposed by consumer groups and labor unions, who argued that the bill doesn't give customers enough protection to lodge complaints about service.

The bill passed its final legislative hurdle today, when the Senate approved it on a concurrence vote of 28-7. Democrats Ellen Corbett, Noreen Evans, Loni Hancock, Mark Leno, Joe Simitian, Lois Wolk and Leland Yee voted against the bill.

VIDEO: Dan says lawmakers have little time left this session if they want to alter California's 42-year-old California Environmental Quality Act.

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A new campaign finance web site is circulating the Capitol Twitterverse. Dollar, Dollar, Bill allows users to see in graphic format how contributions are stacking up in California political races. The site scans the Secretary of State's database every 20 minutes and displays contributions to campaigns and IEs associated with legislative races and ballot measures.

The tool is the brainchild of Ryan Hughes, a staffer in the office of Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez. Hughes says Dollar, Dollar, Bill is nonpartisan. "This project is completely objective and without commentary," he said in a statement announcing the site. "It's designed to give everyone an intuitive look at how much money is being raised and spent in our elections."

Speaking of campaigns, Gov. Jerry Brown will criss cross the state today. He'll spend the morning in San Francisco stumping for Proposition 30 . In the afternoon, the man newspaper columnist Mike Royko once dubbed "Gov. Moonbeam" will head to Pasadena to tour NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Speaking of cash, a noon-time fair outside the Capitol will kick off the annual drive for state employees to give charitable contributions through payroll deductions, a process that now generates $6.9 million for nonprofit groups throughout the state. More than 100 nonprofits will be displaying their causes and asking state employees for support.

Back under the dome, the end-of-session march continues in both houses. The floor session gavel comes down in the Assembly and Senate at 10 a.m.