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April 25, 2024
California Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA Will Honor Workers’ Memorial Day at Four Events in California on April 28th-29th 2024. Cal/OSHA Joining Partners in Arcadia, Richmond, San Diego and San Francisco.

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SACRAMENTO (AP) _ Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can't say his public works bond proposals aren't getting thorough consideration by the Legislature. Whether he'll like the final product is another question.

Legislative committees held nine hearings last week on various aspects of Schwarzenegger's plan, which includes selling $68 billion in bonds to help pay for transportation improvements, water and flood control projects, new schools, courthouses and certain other facilities.

There are another 11 hearings scheduled this week, including the first meeting of a two-house conference committee that will try to put together a bond package for voters to consider, possibly in the June primary.

"We're doing our due diligence," said Alicia Dlugosh, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.

But what comes out of conference may not look much like what the Republican governor proposed.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said last week that he thought Schwarzenegger wanted to sell too much in bonds, and Assembly Republicans are pushing pay-as-you-go legislation that would earmark a percentage of annual state revenue for public works, a step they say would reduce the state's need to borrow by selling bonds.

Also, Schwarzenegger's proposals, which administration officials acknowledge would virtually tie up the state's ability to sell bonds over the next 10 years, are in competition with measures that would authorize bonds for housing, hospital earthquake upgrades, parks, wildlife habitat, high-speed rail and other proposals championed by lawmakers.

Lawmakers need to reach an agreement by March 10 to get bond measures on the June ballot. They face a closer deadline this week on dozens of other bills that were introduced last year. Those measures need to get out of their first house by Tuesday to have a chance to become law.

Among the approximately 50 bills facing the Tuesday deadline are measures that would require the wealthy to pay more income taxes, impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies, regulate patients' deductibles and co-payments in health insurance plans and allow public financing of campaigns for state offices.