Watching the news out of Sacramento is like watching a train barreling down the tracks at you. Here's the latest scary news out of the controller's office:

Dear Governor and Members:

... Based on the May Revision revenue and expenditure estimates provided to us late last week by the Department of Finance and taking into account the actual cash receipts and expenditures my office tracks, it is clear the health of the State's treasury has significantly
deteriorated since the adoption of the 2009-10 Budget Act a mere three months ago.  Our latest projections show that beginning on July 29, California will not have the cash needed to meet all of its payment obligations.  On that date, the State will be in the red by $317.1 million; two days later, on July 31, our cash deficit increases to a negative $1.02 billion. 

As the attached chart demonstrates, the State's cash problems will only grow in severity in the subsequent months without Legislative action.  The State will reach its lowest cash balance in April 2010, when we will fall short of meeting our payment obligations by nearly $22 billion.  That is more than four times the $5.1 billion cash deficit we faced this past spring.  But the painful options we used in February to ensure we had sufficient cash to make education and debt service payments required by the Constitution, federal law and court rulings - including delays in tax refunds and vendor payments and shutting down 5,300 public works projects - will not come close to providing an adequate solution in the coming months.

 ... Because of these reasons, I strongly urge you to take action no later than June 15th.

Failure to immediately address the budget deficit and cash shortage will severely damage our already fragile fiscal position.  A protracted stalemate would do immeasurable harm to our economy by potentially extending a recession that many economists predict will bottom out by early 2010.  Inaction would create an even greater fiscal hardship for Californians, especially those businesses that provide goods to the State and those vulnerable individuals who depend on public health and social services.  The ability of the State to discharge its most fundamental duties of protecting its citizens, educating its youth, and safeguarding its natural resources will be compromised.

Please recognize that only you, the Legislature and the Governor, can prevent the fiscal catastrophe that we face.  You have a narrow window to address the State's budget and cash challenges, and I respectfully urge you to take prompt action.

JOHN CHIANG
California State Controller

— Posted by government team leader Christine Bedell

Proposition 8, the Nov. 2008 measure that made same-sex marriage illegal in California again, was ruled a valid amendment to the California Consitution by the California Supreme Court in an opinon released just minutes ago.

But the court refuse to invalidate the 18,000 same sex marriages enacted.

"In summary, we conclude that Proposition 8 constitutes a permissible
constitutional amendment (rather than an impermissible constitutional revision),
does not violate the separation of powers doctrine, and is not invalid under the
“inalienable rights” theory proffered by the Attorney General.  We further
conclude that Proposition 8 does not apply retroactively and therefore that the
marriages of same-sex couples performed prior to the effective date of Proposition
8 remain valid."
 

I've attached the full text for folks who have some free time to read....

Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter, is going to write a weekly column for us on what's going on in Sacramento, similar to what Congressman Kevin McCarthy writes on the Bakersfield Observed blog each week.

We're planning to post Florez's columns here as we get them and in the paper on Tuesdays.

First up, swine flu. Next week, the budget.

Here's the first one:

Recently, as we watched the devastating killing power of a mysterious flu in Mexico, we knew that it could only be weeks or even days before it swept into border-states like California.   Thousands of people cross the joint California-Mexico border every day.

Seeing images of Mexicans dawning surgical masks and Mexico’s capital literally closing under government orders, Californians rightly had questions about our own state government’s capacity to respond to this fast moving and lethal flu.

What could we expect from our government officials?  Are we prepared?  Do we have the resources, medicines and health personnel necessary to save lives, and deal with the sick?  Should Californians also wear masks like the Mexican public?  These were all important questions that needed answers quickly to ensure that we took sensible steps and not panic. 

In any emergency, communication is key. And getting information to the public quickly was the reason I convened a senate hearing within days of the governor declaring a state of emergency.

At the hearing we heard directly from front line health care responders including public health workers, hospital officials and community clinic leaders.  And what we found out was disturbing. 

While state public health officials claimed that they had been preparing for a flu outbreak for the last ten years, we heard a much different story from the front line folks.

Hospital representatives told us that there was a wide gap in communication and direction from the state.  They also questioned their capacity to respond in the event of a surge of patients at their emergency room doors.  There was even confusion over whether sick patients should be isolated from others while waiting to see a doctor in the emergency waiting room.

Our community clinics, which serve large swaths of rural California, told us that they were even lacking basic equipment like gloves and face masks, let alone access to the powerful anti-flu medicines needed to control the virus.

The senate hearing gave us a window into the gaps in our public health system and improvements are already being worked on as a result.  While the deadly flu we saw in Mexico has turned mild in California, getting answers now will help ensure that we are better prepared for the next crisis around the corner.

Dean Florez represents the 16th Senate District. He is also a candidate for lieutenant governor.
 

Now here's something y'all can probably get behind: a commission voted today to cut the pay of statewide elected officials and all legislators by 18 percent.

The The California Citizens Compensation Committee made the cut after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's announced he's laying off 5,000 state workers.

Here's the Sacramento Bee story.

And here's what the pay was before the cut, according to an AP story we ran the other day:

Lawmakers make $116,028 a year, and most take an additional $35,000 a year in per diem payments.

The legislative leaders of each house make $133,639.

Salaries for the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, insurance commissioner, treasurer, controller and superintendent of public instruction range from $159,134 to $184,301.

The governor is entitled to $212,179, although Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t accept state pay.
 

We grumbled about Meg Whitman not talking to us when she was in Bakersfield for a political convention a couple weeks ago so we thought we'd share her chat with Wolf Blitzer on CNN today (rough draft sent out by CNN):

BLITZER:   One of the largest states in the nation sits on the brink of financial disaster.  That's what California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is saying.  Literally hours from now, Californians vote on a host of measures intended to take the state off a road to ruin.
 
   Opponents are urging defeat, but Schwarzenegger warning of doomsday consequences for California if these measures don't pass, at stake, possibly ballooning California's $15 billion deficit.  The state’s already saddled with an 11 percent unemployment rate and it had the third highest foreclosure rate last month.
 
    My next guest would be dealing with all of this if she becomes governor of California.
 
    Meg Whitman is the former CEO of eBay.  Meg, thanks very much for joining us.
 
    You sure you want to be governor of California?
 
    MEG WHITMAN (R), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE:  Well, thanks for having me, Wolf.
 
    Yes, I do, because I think California is on a terrible path.  And I think someone needs to step in and -- and try to right it.
 
BLITZER:  What is the governor, the current governor, doing wrong right now?
 

WHITMAN:  Well, I -- first of all, I have a lot of respect for Governor Schwarzenegger.  He's done a number of good things, workman's compensation, the redistricting initiatives.
 
    But, in the end, he has not stepped forward to cut government the way it needs to be cut.  We have a bureaucracy that has 345,000 people who work in it, 2,000 more than just a year ago.  And think about it.  Two million Californians are unemployed, 176,000 have lost their jobs in the last two months, and, yet, the bureaucracy is untouched.
 
    And I think, you know, what has to sit at the feet of the governor is the financial situation in the state.
 
   BLITZER:  He says -- you know, last week, he said he would like to lay off 5,000 of those state employees.  How many would you like to see laid off?
 
   WHITMAN:  Well, I know, from my experience, that almost any organization, you can lay off 10 percent of the bureaucracy, and actually -- maybe it's easier, actually, with fewer people, and it will not be a hardship on the state.  And, so, that would say that you want to lay off between 30,000 and 40,000 people.
 
    And while I feel terrible for those individuals who would lose their job, it is in the long-term health of the state of California to get the government to a place where the people of California can actually afford the government that they -- that they -- that they deserve.
 
   BLITZER:  There's a limit to what he can do.  There's a limit to what he can do, given the role of the state legislature in all of this.  How would you be able to deal differently with a state legislature that wouldn't necessarily want to lay off 30,000 or 40,000 state employees?
 
   WHITMAN:  Well, you know, at some point, you have to take the hard medicine and do what is right for the state.
 
    And I think the governor has a number of different levels.  First is the appointments that you make.  The governor can make 4,000 appointments.  And those -- and 400 of those are incredibly important, because they're your agency heads and your department heads.
 
    And there's at least $15 million of cost savings that can be done by streamlining purchasing, by employing technology to pull this government into the 21st century.  And that can actually be done without the state legislature.  It -- it takes leadership.  It takes courage.
 
    But a number of -- a large amount of savings can actually be done without the legislature.  And then...
 
   BLITZER:  Are you one -- are you one of those -- well, let -- I interrupted you.  Go ahead.  Finish your thought.
 
   WHITMAN:  No, that's OK.
 
    I was just going to say, you know, you have got to go to Sacramento with, I think, a very focused agenda.  And the agenda right now has to be job creation and job retention.  We have to get the economic engine going again, because the only way to sustainably grow revenues is to grow the people who are working in good jobs.
 
    The second priority has to be getting government spending under control.  On a per capita basis, we're among the highest in the nation in terms of government spending.  And then my last piece of the agenda would be public education, K-12.  In addition to all of California's fiscal problems, as you know, we were just rated 48th out of 50 states in our K-12 public education system.
 
   BLITZER:  Well, are you one of those Republicans who would make a no-new-taxes pledge to the people of California?
 
   WHITMAN:  I would make a no-new-taxes pledge.
 
    You know, when you actually look at the documents that you're asked to sign, there's a lot more in those documents than just no new taxes.  But we should not be raising taxes on average Californians.
 
    Here's a really interesting statistic.  Barack Obama is about to give $800 back to the average Californian make $45,000 with two children.  And that same family is going to get $800 from the Obama administration and is going send $732 of it to Sacramento.
 
    I mean, we just might as well have just done a wire transfer from Washington to Sacramento. I mean, to the extent that there is a benefit from the Obama stimulus plan for hardworking Californians, we're not going to see it, because it's not going to land in people's pockets.
 
   BLITZER:  He supported -- the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, he supported the governor's economic stimulus package, even though a lot of other Republican governors did not.
 
    Where would you have stood if you had been governor of California when the president was making his announcement?
 
   WHITMAN:  Well, it was an extraordinary stimulus package.  And I agree.  Given the economic situation, something was absolutely required.
 
    I probably would have done it a little differently, and I would have focused all my economic stimulus on one metric, which is, can we increase the number of people who have jobs or decrease the unemployment rate?
 
   Because, as you know, Wolf, we're in now a consumer-led recession.  And unless we put people back to work, and they are put in productive jobs, I think a lot of the other elements in the stimulus plan are actually not going to help the fundamental problem, which is that employment is too high in the United States and in California.
 
   BLITZER:  One final question -- among the various Democratic names out there that may be running, Jerry Brown, the attorney general, the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, the San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom, who -- who do you see as your biggest threat?
 
   WHITMAN:  Well, I think, you know, the Democratic field is very powerful.  They -- they're -- you know, have been in politics a long time.
 
    But I think, you know, by June -- by November of this year, this will still be all about the economy.  And the question Californians will have to answer is, who do they think is best-equipped to create jobs, to balance the budget, to put California back on a sure financial footing?
 
    And, actually, my 30 years in business and the outsiders' perspective of having created jobs, balanced budgets, will actually stand me in good steady vs. any of those three.
 
   BLITZER:  Creating jobs, but you -- but I just want to reiterate, you are saying you would eliminate 30,000 or 40,000 state jobs?
 
   WHITMAN:  Yes.
 
    But, as you know, Wolf, actually, the private sector pays for the public sector.  So, what you want is, you want the public sector jobs to grow, and you want to run an energetic and efficient and streamlined government.
 
    I'm not for no government, but I am for energetic and efficient government.  So, if you could actually take 30,000 employees out of the bureaucracy, get the cost structure of the state of California into a good place, so that we could stand up and compete -- you know where we are losing jobs the most?  We are not losing them to India or China.
 
    We're losing them to Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Texas. It's inexcusable.  We have to stand up and compete.  And we have got to be a much more competitive state, because those states are -- are -- are stealing our jobs.  And if we're going to have California's economy be strong, we cannot lose another job to a neighboring state.
 
   BLITZER:  Meg Whitman wants to be the governor of California.
 
    Good luck.  Thanks for coming in.
 
   WHITMAN:  Thanks a lot, Wolf.  Good to see you.
 
   BLITZER:  Thank you.

FYI, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to talk to reporters about his two revised budget proposals for 2009-10.

He'll be there with Department of Finance Director Mike Genest.

You can watch it here live at 2 p.m.

And here is a look at the governor's proposal.

That's the take of the Calbuzz bloggers on former eBay chief Meg Whitman declining to talk to our city government reporter, Gretchen Wenner, when she was in town for the California Republican Assembly convention last weekend.

Calbuzz, which refers to Whitman as eMeg, took her to task for "ducking serious questions from California political writers for months" then just being "interviewed" on Fox News by Neil Cavuto.

For the record, Whitman's people told us ahead of time she didn't have time to talk to us because she was making a quick stop in Bakersfield on her way to a family event.

it didn't look very good as many of the other leading candidates made time for us in stops here last week: Democrat Gavin Newsom Wednesday, Republican Steve Poizner Thursday and Republican Tom Campbell Sunday.

You can read all the stories here.

Whitman's people did tell us she would sit down with us in the future.

— Government team leader Christine Bedell