Schwarzenegger looks back on his seven years in Sacramento

Jerry Brown = Ahnuld Redux?
Perhaps incoming California Governor Jerry Brown’s most effective ad in his successful fall campaign against Meg Whitman was the one where he used side-by-side clips of his Republican opponent saying the same things as the Republican Incumbent. People chose Brown because they wanted a change in Sacramento and believed Brown would be the least like outgoing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Yet, as he prepares to take office tomorrow, there are few signs that he will do things much diffe...

Schwarzenegger's Last Day Commutations
Sacramento - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday commuted the Manslaughter sentence of the son of California's former Assembly Speaker and also granted Clemency to a woman who killed her former pimp in a motel room when she was 16. The moves come just hours before Schwarzenegger is scheduled to leave office on Monday. Schwarzenegger said he believed the 16-year Prison sentence that Esteban Nunez was serving was "excessive" in reducing his sentence from 16 years to seven years. Nunez is the son ...

Gov. Schwarzenegger issues last day commutations
(01-02) 19:45 PST Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday commuted the Manslaughter sentence of the son of California's former Assembly Speaker and also granted Clemency to a woman who killed her former pimp in a motel room when she was 16. The moves come just hours before Schwarzenegger is scheduled to leave office on Monday. Schwarzenegger said he believed the 16-year Prison sentence that Esteban Nunez was serving was "excessive" in reducing his sentence from 16 years...

Schwarzenegger looks back on his seven years in Sacramento
Source: LA Times State Government was failing at every level. There was an electricity crisis, a water crisis, a Prison crisis. Car taxes had tripled. State contracts were tainted by Corruption. Financial Ruin loomed. In the state's historic recall election, voters turned to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a movie star whose brand was blowing stuff up, flexing muscles and delivering goofy one-liners. Seven years later, with Schwarzenegger's tenure in its final day, the state's schools are in poor shape, ...

Cuomo to Freeze State Worker Pay
The New York Times reports: ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will seek a one-year Salary freeze for state workers as part of an emergency financial plan he will lay out in his State of the State address on Wednesday, senior administration officials said. The move will signal the opening of what is expected to be a grueling fight between the new Governor and the public-sector Unions that have traditionally dominated the state’s political establishment. It will also come days after the Ne

Gov. Schwarzenegger acknowledges errors
SACRAMENTO, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Outgoing California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says while he certainly made some mistakes in office, he's proud of his accomplishments. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, the former actor said his economic plan to get the state out of Debt took a pounding with the 2008 Recession. "If I had known then what I know now, that we would have another recession, I would not have signed the Budget that year," he said. Schwarzenegger was first elected Oct. 7...

Good-bye Governator
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will turn over the keys to the state Monday morning in Sacramento. By the afternoon Jerry Brown will be in the driver's seat. Schwarzenegger is known for using the famous saying from one of his blockbuster movies,"I'll be back," as a tag line, but in recent interviews he is remaining noncommittal on the subject of his future. He isn't saying if he'll ever be back in politics, no matter how loud the speculation chatter gets. The former actor has talked about t...

Schwarzenegger Exits, Legacy Vague
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former action-movie hero, said he would "blow up the boxes" of State Government when he became Governor of the nation's most populous state more than six years ago. View Full Image ...

Republicans insist tax increases are off the table for Ohio
COLUMBUS — Republicans had a lock on Ohio’s State Government for 12 years from 1995 to 2007, but the new GOP-led government that begins taking over today with the start of the 129th General Assembly will have a new look. The Republican Governors during those earlier 12 years, George Voinovich and Bob Taft, pushed Tax Increases through the legislature to keep state Budgets in balance and protect what they considered to be essential state services. This time around, any kind of tax inc...

No Hollywood Ending To Schwarzenegger's Term
When Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves California's Governor's office on Monday, he leaves behind a $28 billion Budget shortfall. "The Governator" came into office with sky-high Approval Ratings, but he leaves office with a near-record low approval of just 23 percent — and a mixed political legacy. A Look Back Many politicians say they thought long and hard about their decision to run for office, but no one said it quite like bodybuilder-turned-movie star Schwarzenegger did when he announced h...

Arnold Schwarzenegger can write his own script as he bows out of US politics
California'S Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is sifting through a pile of offers as the celebrity politician nears an inevitable career crossroads: at the end of today, he's out of a job. His next act? After seven years as governor in Sacramento, the former body builder and film star will by his own account hit the Speech circuit, keep a hand in political Activism and possibly write his Autobiography. Austrian-born Schwarzenegger s ADVERTISEMENT ays he even might get back into acting if the r...

Cuomo's gal not a first lady
The issue of whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo's girlfriend, TV cooking show celebrity Sandra Lee, will spend nights at the state-owned Executive Mansion with the father of three is a ticklish one for the new administration. Inquiries about the subject to Cuomo's spokesmen are not greeted enthusiastically. The only thing Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for the Governor, will say on the record is that Lee's residence will continue to be the one she shares with Cuomo in Mount Kisco in Westchester County. USA Tod...

Woman in prison for killing pimp granted clemency
Sacramento, Calif. — A woman who was 16 when she ambushed and killed her former pimp in a Southern California motel room has been granted Clemency by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sara Kruzan, now 32, was sentenced to life in Prison without possibility of Parole for the 1994 shooting death of George Gilbert Howard. Prosecutors said Kruzan was no longer working for Howard when she killed him. Calling it "excessive," Schwarzenegger commuted Kruzan’s life sentence to 25 years to life in ...

The top ten stories of 2010.
Everyone else is doing it... why not me? Luke Jensen - He was the best and brightest and I will miss him. Take a moment and look over his memoprial blog. The Liar Leavitt's public bridge toll flip - As this blog pointed out repeatedly, Steve "Easy Money" Stuart's direct involvement in The Liar's campaign mkeant that The Liar NEVER opposed tolls... because if he had, there's no way Stuart would even talk to him. The Liar used that as his only real wedge issue, since he and Pollard were two peas i...

Synder Has One Tough Row to Hoe
Michigan’s 48th Governor, Rick Snyder, is no H. Ross Perot. But he had a certain similar appeal during the campaign and enough Michiganders are fed up with business as usual that he won the election. I’m pleased he edged past charlatans like Mike Cox, Pete Hoekstra, and Mike Bouchard. But Snyder will need more than optimism from his inaugural address if he is to succeed. We need to move from negative to positive. We need to stop looking in the rearview mirror and look toward the fu...

Schwarzenegger out like a lion - And why Jerry Brown doesnt mind
These strange dynamics do not indicate any conflict between the two men. To the contrary, relations between the two Governors have been described as smooth and cordial, with Brown deciding to keep on Schwarzenegger’s Budget director as his own. California’s upside-down transition reflects the very different personalities and political needs of these two peculiar men. It also demonstrates how deep and intractable California’s troubles are, and how little maneuvering room any gov...

Gov. Schwarzenegger issues last day commutations
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday commuted the Manslaughter sentence of the son of California's former Assembly Speaker, drawing criticism from the Victim's family. The outgoing Governor also granted Clemency to a woman who killed her former pimp in a motel room when she was 16. The moves come just hours before Schwarzenegger is scheduled to leave office on Monday. Schwarzenegger said he believed the 16-year Prison sentence that Esteban Nunez was serving was "excessive" in...

Obama ready to make tough choices on budget: Aide
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is willing to make difficult choices on Spending Cuts when he unveils his Budget next month, a senior aide said Sunday. But White House Economist Austan Goolsbee said it was important not to “skimp” on important investments like education. “We are going to have to make, in the medium run, a series of tough choices, and the president’s not afraid to do that, and I think you will see in his Budget that he’s willing to,”...

Selling State Buildings: Penny Wise and Pound Foolish?
Once again the state has found itself short on revenues and long on expenditures, and once again Governor Schwarzenegger and the State Legislature have settled on an approach which temporarily dodges a bullet, only to be broadsided by a howitzer down the road. What's the shortcut scheme this time? This time it is the sale of state buildings. The idea is to sell 14 state buildings to companies that would become the state's landlord. In exchange for a sales price of $2.1 billion now, the state wou...

Five Key Questions About Krustys Inaugural
As the Calbuzz National Affairs Desk braved torrential rains and terrific hangovers to lurch into Sacramento for today’s inauguration of Jerry Brown as California’s 39th Governor, one key question kept bothering us: Why are we doing this? True, there’s value in being able to tell the grandkids we were eyewitnesses to history, as Krusty becomes the longest-toothed person ever to be sworn in (“ooh. that’s sooooo interesting, grandpa”). Plus, it’s been years since...

CA state prison projects funded but not completed
In 2007, under increasing pressure to reduce crowding in the state's Prisons, lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized $7.4 billion in bonds to expand the prisons and local jails to add 53,000 new beds. Nearly four years later, as Schwarzenegger leaves office today, the state has not completed a single project authorized by that bill, AB900, and has begun planning or construction for only about 8,400 beds. Most of the projects in the Pipeline - which include adding beds to existin...

Resolved: Fix the Filibuster
By WALTER F. MONDALE NYT Minneapolis WE all have hopes for the New Year. Here’s one of mine: Filibuster reform. It was around this time 36 years ago — during a different Recession — that I was part of a Bipartisan effort to reform Senate Rule 22, the Cloture rule. At the time, 67 votes were needed to cut off debate and thus end a filibuster, and nothing was getting done. After long negotiations, a Compromise lowered to 60 the Cloture vote requirement on Legislation and nominations. We ho

Insurers To Pay NY $120M For Premium Overcharges
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York officials said four Insurance groups have agreed to pay a total of about $120 million in excess workers’ compensation surcharges to the state. Then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the companies collected too much in surcharges on premiums from policyholders after the state Workers’ Compensation Board in 2000 changed the way it calculates the annual fees it charges worker’s comp insurers, charges the insurers pass along to policyholders. The...

Print view: House Democrats have screeched and yelled. So why is their own plan so soft?
KLEIN (12/15/10): The way it works is simple enough. There's an exemption level beneath which estates are not taxed, and a Tax Rate that applies to every dollar the estate is worth above the exemption. In 2001, we had a $675,000 exemption and a 55 percent tax rate. So if you were inheriting an estate worth $700,000, you had to pay a 55 percent tax on that final $25,000. At the end of the Clinton years, only the first $675,000 of an estate was exempt from taxation. (That rose to $1.35 million if ...

Unions and Brown II rule the roost in California
What now will haunt Brown will be union Collective Bargaining for government employees that found its beginnings in, well,  … Jerry Brown's first eight years in Sacramento.  The child has now grown to adulthood and beyond.  The adult is now past its prime and the once true meaning of life now wallows in Debt and despair leaving others to clean up the mess. “I'm very proud to have created this system that gave workers a choice,” Brown proclaimed with a luminescent...