Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. With the state’s budget deadline fast approaching, Governor Jerry Brown and GOP lawmakers remain at loggerheads over whether to extend several tax hikes until a special election in September, the SacBee reports. Brown has been trying to convince a handful of moderate Republicans to agree to vote for the tax extensions until voters weigh-in, but has failed to convince any of them. If Republicans continue to refuse, it likely will result in $10 billion in more cuts, including severe cuts to K-12 education.
2. Brown and Democratic leaders, meanwhile, are attempting use the recent US Supreme Court decision that requires California to release 30,000 state prison inmates as a reason for why Republicans should go along with the tax extensions. The Chron reports that Brown wants to transfer thousands of prison inmates to county jails — a move that would satisfy the Supreme Court ruling — but says he needs the tax measures to pay for it. Without the tax measures, Brown’s administration is warning that it may have to release the state prisoners outright, an action that would upset law-and-order Republicans.
