High Speed Rail

Rex Babin, cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee, offers up this take on the lack of fiscal discipline of California voters, who love to approve new, extra-budgetary spending at the ballot.

That's today's California quote of the day from Democratic spinner extraordinaire Steve Maviglio. He's talking about Monday's supposed 5 p.m. deadline to remove a high-speed rail bond measure from the November ballot and replace it with a more carefully drafted bond on the same subject. The legislature, which is facing Gov. Schwarzenegger's threat to veto every bill that reaches his desk until there's a budget deal, failed to pull the switcheroo yesterday. But there may still be more time. Secretary of State Debra Bowen has set Saturday as a deadline for adding measures, but the problem in this case is that the measure being removed is scheduled to be in the voter guide. There is no precedent for removing a measure from the ballot that's already appeared in the guide sent to voters.

THE GROWING BALLOT: Friend of the blog Robert Greene has this excellent update on the rapidly expanding California ballot. The voters have done their part through signature gathering; now the legislature adds its own measure to the ballot.

HIGH SPEED RAIL: The much delayed bond measure establishing a high-speed rail system in California will finally appear on this November's ballot. But the legislature can't reach a compromise on oversight for the funding.