CalWatchdog Morning Read – June 15

15 Jun, 2016 by CalWatchdog Staff

Transparency duel
Budget by midnight
Welfare rule to be repealed
Gun control advances
Crisis looming for energy grid expansion?

Lawmakers will consider two transparency bills today in an effort to head off a ballot measure that would go to greater lengths.

The Constitutional Legislative Transparency Act, backed by Republican donor Charles T. Munger, Jr., is a constitutional amendment requiring the Legislature make available online the final version of a bill at least 72 hours prior to a vote on either the Assembly or Senate floor. The Legislature-introduced versions, however, would make this apply to only votes in the second house.

CalWatchdog has more.

In other news:

Midnight is the deadline for the legislature to pass a budget, which should avoid any major drawn-out battles, writes The Sacramento Bee. Highlights of the budget deal include: “a hefty deposit into the state’s rainy day fund, $1.3 billion for new state office work (potentially including Capitol renovations) and the repeal of a rule denying welfare payments for new kids that lawmakers have attacked for years as cruel and counterproductive.”
And about that welfare rule, “Gov. Jerry Brown has agreed to repeal the so-called maximum family grant policy that prohibits people from receiving increased welfare income if they have more children while receiving public assistance,” writes The San Jose Mercury News/AP. “The change would cost the state about $220 million a year.”
The legislature advanced a dozen gun-control measures on Tuesday, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Gov. Brown’s plans to expand California’s energy grid is being panned by critics who say “it isn’t so much about spreading the clean energy gospel but returning the state to the era of manipulated energy markets that led to the 2000-2001 energy crisis,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

Assembly: