Pancakes with Perata
Senate Leader Don Perata invited the press to come to IHOP (the Informational House of Perata) this morning for some hot-off-the-griddle discussion of the coming legislative session. Unfortunately, neither the pre-made pancakes nor the remarks were particularly hot-off-the-griddle. Perata adopted a tone of working with the governor this year and putting the special election debacle of 2005 behind. His top priority remains the infrastructure bond, and intends to put it on the June ballot, if at all possible. He estimated California's additional bond indebtedness borrowing capacity at another $20 to $25 billlion, though he said there is no definitive number. He also did not reveal the specific size of his bond proposal, but said that all the details would be hammered out in a conference committee where all the various bond proposals would end up. As for why the urgency of a June ballot, he compared legislators to college students, saying that people in the Capitol simply work better with an impending deadline. |
Comments on "Pancakes with Perata"
LOL - I'm sure that Perata doesn't want to throw out another big dollar figure for his "ideal" bond package, and risk having the Governor out-do him again. I'm sure he will wait to see how much the Governor is willing to take on in debt, and then call for more. I don't mean to sound cynical. But as a member of the speakers bureau for the Governor's Proposition 76, no one has explained to me how we 'live within our means' and incur tens of billions of dollars in debt - all without addressing any of the state's structural financial problems?? - Jon