Okay, I promised myself I would NOT, repeat not blog any more until I got home, but this story about Schwarzenegger facing a recall is too peculiar and ironic not to at least note.
Anyway. For those of you who have not already heard, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who was swept into office by the force of the recall fury that blew former Governor Gray Davis out of office, may face a recall of his own launched by….the extremely powerful correctional officers union. (As lobbies go, only the Indian gaming interests wield more monetary power in the state.)
Here’s part what the Sacramento Bee had to say:
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association will begin the process to recall the Republican governor, a spokesman said today, calling the 2003 recall “a mistake.”
“In the history of bad governors, this is the worst governor we’ve ever had,” said Lance Corcoran, a spokesman for the union. The union is collecting the 65 necessary valid signatures to serve Schwarzenegger a notice-of-intent-to-recall. “This is a man who is a poser. That’s what he did, that’s how he made his living, posing.”
Asked if the union was prepared to dedicate the more than $1 million likely necessary to gather the 1,041,530 signatures to qualify a recall for the ballot, Corcoran said, “We are 100 percent committed and we’ve never been shy about investing in our commitments.”
The move comes as California hits the 70th day of the 2008-09 fiscal year without a budget. The standoff is the longest in California history.
California voters recalled ex-Gov. Gray Davis one year after the second-longest budget impasse, the 2002 budget, which lasted until Sept. 5.
The guards union has sparred with the Schwarzenegger administration over multiple issues, most notably prison policies and correctional officers’ salaries.
Schwarzenegger suggested that the recall was part of CCPOA’s “intimidation tactics” to pressure him into a contract deal.
“I will not be intimidated by anybody that is demanding more money than the state can afford and that demands deals more than the state is wanting to give,” Schwarzenegger said. “So the prison guard union is not going to intimidate me with their kind of action.”
“This is a different governor sitting here,” he added. “I will not get intimidated.”
The AP has some additional details:
But here’s the deal: it seems that what the CCPOA is most furious about is the governor’s ploy of dropping the state workers’ salaries down to minimum wage until the legislature passes a budget—including the salaries of the corrections workers (who had assumed they would be exempted).
But speaking of ploys: Pot meet kettle. According to the guys calling me from prison, the temporary salary cut (all back salaries are to be paid retroactively once there is a budget) has caused the guards to institute a little negotiating strategy of their own: Until Schwarzenegger gives them their normal monthly checks, many corrections officers are calling in sick and/or taking unscheduled vacation days. This causes the prisons to be so short handed that officials have put inmates into repeated conditions of “lock down”—meaning even the most basic privileges of the prisoners are drastically curtailed.
This is not something the CCPOA or anyone else is talking about, of course. (And I wouldn’t know anything about it were it not for my callers.)
For the moment I guess all that the rest of us can do is to place our bets, get our beer and popcorn, and settle down for the fight—and hope that the state of California is not the ultimate loser.
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(Photo by Rich Pedroncelli for the AP)
Running Schwarzenegger as a Republican was a Democratic trick to get back into that office.
C: …many corrections officers are calling in sick and/or taking unscheduled vacation days. This causes the prisons to be so short handed….
I’d take a chapter from the Ronald Reagan handbook and fire those union workers who refuse to show up for work.
Who asked the CCPOA if they’d commit the ‘likely $1 million’…?
No one is going to run a recall petition against Arnold for that price.
It would probably cost more like $5 million. Maybe six…
Let them go ahead and try it. They’ll burn through their dough and will probably fall short anyways.
Maybe then the CCPOA will shut up.
Arnold is the only one trying to balance the budget without raising taxes again — all the Democrats could think of was to add a 1c sales tax “for a few years” that would become indefinite, so they can keep spending. Including for unions like the CCPOA. Their selfishness is reflected in letting the prison conditions get even more out of hand while they stage sick-outs — just like the MLK union healthcare providers did, precipating its total failure. It’s the public who’s sick of paying more and more in taxes for these union workers, with their generous benefits and pensions, while the average person has to work into their 60’s and beyond to get by.
Like Jonah Goldberg says in his LATimes editorial today, Arnold can use the CCPOA’s tactics to his advantage. Instead, Controller Steve Cheung is using the budget crisis to grandstand himself into higher office, maybe Governor, by acting like Robin Hood with money we don’t have. All sides must agree to balance the budget ASAP, and agree to freeze future spending programs.
Bill Bradley keeps asking the “no new Taxes” crowd in the GOP what they’s cut. No answer. So WBC be specific. What would you cut out of the budget?
Arnold’s approval/disapproval numbers are now the same as those of Grey Davis when he was recalled.
Kind of a strange situation with the budget minded Governator in a power struggle with the CCPOA (Prison Guards Union), whom are not only one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the state but one of the most secretive and right wing labor unions in the USA.
If you read their website commentaries and positions you might think you were reading something from The John Birch Society or the Aryan Peoples Party.
They loved the former Democratic Gov “Gray Davis” though, as he couldn’t get enough of their money and they both lobbied and proposed some of the most draconian and overly punitive laws and sentencing guidelines in the nation.
Very vindictive drug sentencing laws, the infamous “Three Strikes Law” that allows a judge to give a two time loser life in the joint even for non violent offenses such as stealing a bicycle or a piece of pizza.
And both fully supported the huge escalation of the prison building industrial complex (In Ca in the last 25 yrs close to 30 new prisons constructed and only 2 colleges built).
These penal and punishment policy’s together helped create the prison system in Ca that is populated by close to 175,000 inmates who reside in grossly overpopulated and medieval conditons so bad that the Federal Govt has taken over and has mandated the State to spend 6 Billion dollars on upgrades to medical care alone.
The CCPOA has the power to really put the hurt on Gov Ahnold and if they get enough support maybe to recall him, of this there is no doubt.
One has to hope though that the Prison Guards have enough sense and decency to not create a situation that could escalate into a bloody and violent disaster in the grossly overcrowded prisons of Calif., where powerful prison gangs would take advantage of understaffed facilities due to “Blue Flu” strikes.
I think the sparks are going to fly and could catch things on fire during this power struggle.
DQ, that “only 2 colleges built” while 30 prisons were is a red herring: the community colleges keep wasting billions in bonds that they got for new school construction. Just a few years ago they received some $3.5 billion in bonds for new building, but wasted all of it on designing plans, dithering, consulting etc. while construction costs escalated so much that they’re now coming back to the voters for billions more on the next ballot. You can thank their wasteful incompetence for not having built anything with all that money.
And rl, Arnold has made his specific suggestions for cuts clear all along, starting with union raises, perks and lifetime pensions at nearly full salary. He has singled out certain social programs which include spending on illegals but even Arnold isn’t broaching the elephant in the room: If the Democrats, headed by people like Gil Cedillo — whose Cal version of the costly Dream Act for illegals just passed and Arnold will have to veto it again — Nunez, Padilla, Fuentes, Gloria Romero and other liberals didn’t insist on free social benefits to illegals as well as citizens, they’d be less attracted to California and we’d save a lot of money as do cities and states which put legal residents first. With half of Cal’s K-12 students, and 3/4 of LA’s being kids of Latino immigrants, most coming illegally (vs. 20% nationwide), and public healthcare facilities overburdened, our own middle class students and elderly are suffering.
And rl that’s ALL I’m saying about this to you: you, Randy and “reg” like to nag people into providing all kinds of facts and figures (which you never provide for your side) and then denigrate it anyway. Woody’s even tired of playing that game and I have neither time nor interest to do so. Not that I agree with him on most social issues, but when it comes to spending, you lefties put forth billions in spending on programs that promise nothing but hope and change, and more financial crisis.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, brothels with bricks of Religion.
William Blake
And rl that’s ALL I’m saying about this to you: you, Randy and “reg†like to nag people into providing all kinds of facts and figures (which you never provide for your side) and then denigrate it anyway.
I call bullshit. Here’s where I provided some actual numbers and your response was to accuse me of being snotty.
The only reason why you’re tired of it is because you don’t have a response other than bombast and self-proclaimed victimhood. I asked you what was wrong with what I said and your response was more bombast.
reg is right: this is projection on your part.
NOt a red herring at all WBC, and if you just want to whine and not provide any argument or back up your point of view with facts only empty rhetoric then thats your problem but the facts speak for themselves
San Francisco Chronicle:
As the costs for fixing the state’s troubled corrections system rocket higher, California is headed for a dubious milestone — for the first time the state will spend more on incarcerating inmates than on educating students in its public universities.
Based on current spending trends, California’s prison budget will overtake spending on the state’s universities in five years. No other big state in the country spends close to as much on its prisons compared with universities.
But California has all but guaranteed that prisons will eat up an increasingly large share of taxpayer money because of chronic failures in a system that the state is now planning to expand.
Under a new state law, California will spend $7.4 billion to build 40,000 new prison beds, and that is over and above the current annual operating budget of more than $10 billion. Interest payments alone on the billions of dollars of bonds that will be sold to finance the new construction will amount to $330 million a year by 2011 — all money that will not be available for higher education or other state priorities
I hate the prison guards union – and DQ is right that Gray Davis had a Faustian bargain with them. I was very skeptical about Arnold – the “celebrity gimmick” thing and some of his utterly nonsensical rhetoric and poses – but I have to say, I don’t miss Davis one little bit and it’s nice to see a guy from the GOP tell his buddies to go to hell on stuff like fuckng with our coast so we can put off developing a serious alternative energy agenda until it’s too late…again.
Don Quackers, just because the prison building may exceed cost for college building this year doesn’t in any way refute the fact that so few new colleges have been built despite numerous bond measures raising billions in property taxes due to waste. There have been numerous articles detailing the waste — an easy read which even you can manage is to start with the Daily News 4/24 this year by Connie Llanos, about how the Community College board is putting another $3.5 Bil bond on Nov. ballot even though “past audits have shown inefficient spending of funds,” wasting at least half the money, article says. That’s just the Cliff notes: fact is, they built virtually nothing with the Prop A and AA monies, though they have lots of “plans” for which they want this new money.
Article notes that if passed, the Nov. Bond Measure would cost homeowners $100 per year for every $500,000 assessed value, not even a starter house in metro LA. On top of huge school bond measures, Janice Hahn’s property tax for gang programs, recently hiked trash fee hikes allegedly for cops (of which there still aren’t enough in the single-family areas who pay the increase, so burglars are having a field day) and if passed, a 1/2 sales tax for transit. (Though of all the taxes, a sales tax affecting everyone for a change, not just homeowners, is the fairest one of all and most needed to relieve traffic congestion.)
Sure “no other state spends close to as much on its prisons as universities.” Duh, because we have the most prisoners? Apart from the dumb Three Strikes Law, we have the most illegals, among which we have the most recidivist gangbangers — they’re about 1/4 LA prisons’ population, by Baca’s own account. Even Latino officials Baca and Rocky Delgadillo agree that these illegal gangbangers from Central America and Mexico have mushroomed in the past 5 years into the most dangerous in the country, and as Rand confirms, even if they’re deported, they’re right back needing more prison beds until DA Cooley releases them again. If half the rest of the population are in for substance addiction or mental illness, that means a minority of non-illegal felons who should be in our jails. But because the rest ARE there, creating overcrowding, California is being ordered to spend 7 billion more to upgrade standards for the substance abusers and mentally ill.
None of this in any way justifies the waste in building Bond monies for community colleges. Your argument that if one area wastes more money, it’s okay for another to waste more to keep up, is just stupid.
Can’t believe I’m responding to someone who’s shown to be a bona fide nutjob on other blogs, blowing them into oblivion along with the multiple personalities he inhabits or who follow him. Lucky Celeste has invited y’all now.
Let’s recall Schwarzenegger so Garry Coleman will have another chance.
This is pretty sad. Are Californian’s going to keep recalling our Governer’s until every celebrity and has their shot at running the state? Whether we like it or not, Arnold was VOTED in, deal with it. If you don’t like it , vote for somebody else come election time.
Gangs of chain wielding priests. Next on Geraldo.
Another “brilliant” deduction and smokescreen from WBC,
“Sure “no other state spends close to as much on its prisons as universities.†Duh, because we have the most prisoners?”
Uhhh, WBC, you might want to actually think about what you say before you embarrass yourself with such inane statements.
The real issue isn’t that Calif has a large prison population (Duh it’s the most populated state!), the issue is that because of overly zealous laws, recidivism, petty parole violations, and overly long and severe sentencing for crimes committed, the rate, length and causes of incarceration are out of whack in comparison to other states in the USA and world, thereby creating the budget mess and the completely ass backwards situation where we in Calif spend more for prisons that for education!
And, this draconian rate of incarceration, prison building, and maintenance, has put such a strain on the Calif Penal System and now the Calif. State Budget that we are seeing the ugly results, which include;
Schwarzenegger’s battle with the CCPOA and their recall attempt and “blue flu” strikes, escalating and out of control prison cost’s, the number of prisons built vis a vis State Colleges, The disgraceful fact that Calif spends more on Prisons than on Higher Education, the Federal Govt’s conservator-ship and mandate for Calif to spend 6 Billion dollars immediately on upgrading inmate care, severe prison overcrowding and inhumane draconian conditions, the well known prison gang situation,
Whew!!, segregation in prisons , the Calif Budget impasse and the Governors consequent battles with various state employees including the powerful CCPOA (prison guards), the Governors plan to soon free 22,000 prisoners with an early release, the rumor Ahnold will “lay off” thousands of prison staff.
And more to come.
WBC mentions Community Colleges ( half funded by Local Communities and approx half by State and Federal funding), in your weak attempt at clouding the issue, while I quoted the true fact that in the last 25 years while nearly 30 prisons have been built only 2 State Universities were constructed, and this is no red herring but an ugly statistic we should be ashamed of.
All the above deals with the real issue’s and Celeste’s topic of the Schwarzenegger recall attempt, financed and pushed by the CCPOA, the Calif budget crises fueled in large part by rapid prison population and building expansion, California’s powerful CCPOA prison guards pushing their weight around, The three strikes law, etc, etc,ect,.
All these factors weigh heavily in this new Calif crisis and budget impasse.
So WBC, Duh!! the fact that Calif, spends the most money on Prisons at the expense of higher education isn’t because there are more prisoners in Calif, Einstein, it’s because of the rates of incarceration as a percentage of the population and the costs to the public to support this incredible medieval situation, Get It?
And the catalyst for this startling increase in the prison population isn’t due to as you say “Illegal Aliens”, (a genuine”red herring”), it’s due to a combination of insidious and blatant actions taken by the prison industrial complex, actions that resulted in the now out of control cost’s of manning and maintaining this huge prison industry.
In 1977, California housed 19,600 inmates. A decade later in 1998, the inmate population skyrocketed by an astronomical 811 percent to 159,000. By February 2000 that number had jumped to 161,000. In 2008 to nearly 175,000. California now runs the largest prison system in the Western world. It houses more prisoners than do the countries of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Singapore combined. California has spent billion’s on new prisons since 1977, yet it still has the most overcrowded system in the United States.
The state of California incarcerates one out of every eight prisoners in the United States. It is estimated that California will eventually need 30 to 50 new prisons at this rate of incarceration to accommodate the influx of prisoners dictated by mandatory sentencing, stiffer enforcement of parole violations, and the three-strikes law.
And this is why the disgraceful condition exists where the State of Calif spends more money on building prisons than State Colleges and spends more money on the Prison system than for higher education.
PS: WBC,Since you brought up the Community College’s, due to budget cuts it’s estimated that 52,000 students will be shut out of an education this year.
Funny thing – Me and my family members have never been in any jail or prison. I would recommend more people not commit crimes, it’s really pretty easy to stay out of jail.
And is every three-strike offender in prison for stealing a piece of pizza? I would recommend they BUY DiGorno frozen pizza they are cheap and edible and will keep you out of jail. My abuleita taught me to cook some cheap huevos rancheros instead of stealing pizza. I also wonder how the pizza thiefs manged to get caught the only three times they were starving for a slice of pizza?
Were the Robin Hood democrats ever in the white house during the increase in prison populations, because I’m sure some of us want to blame this and everything else on the Robber Baron Gavacho Republicans.
Could it also be that the anglo-europeans in mexico are responsible for all corruption and crime in mexico and causing “undocumented” persons to flee the injustice and danger? And then the innocent “indito” mexican gets arrested by other U.S. anglo-europeans simply for snatching a piece of pizza. Could the insidious and blatant prison industrial complex also be part of this explotation of “indito” mexicans to keep the CCPOA prison guards employed?
you guys must understand that don quixote wants all illegals(mexican ones that is) to be able to stay and not pay taxes but enjoy all benifets, and he loves the mexican mafia so he is anti prison.he beleaves we should give criminals money to not commit crimes.
“Funny thin’ – Me an’ muh ma fuckin family members gots never been in any jail or prison. I would recommend mo’ peeps not commit crimes, it’s really fine ass easy ta stay out o’ jail.”
what the fuck sup now Funny Thing?
“Bless your pea-pickin’ hearts Roy and Woody”