Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Jerry Brown and Democratic lawmakers called off plans for a June election that would have asked voters to approve the governor’s proposed tax-extension measures after Brown declared yesterday that budget talks with Republicans were dead, the Chron, CoCo Times, and SacBee report. Brown and organized labor are now looking at launching an initiative drive for a November election. But such a move likely would require the state to issue IOUs this fall to stay afloat financially.
2. The move also means that redevelopment agencies throughout the state are safe — at least for now. Brown needed Republican votes to kill redevelopment and for his tax measures proposal. Brown blamed the Republicans’ last-minute laundry list of demands, including tax breaks for corporations, for his decision to end the budget talks. The GOP leadership had issued a seven-page list of demands last Friday. Republicans, meanwhile, blamed labor unions and other Democratic constituencies for allegedly failing to compromise on their proposals to slash public-employee pensions and enact a state spending cap.
