Legislators

State lawmakers hunting for revenue are eyeing one source that could prove costly to millions of California consumers: Amazon .com. The online retail giant has enjoyed an edge over many competitors in the state because it is not required to collect sales tax from residents who buy books, top-of-the-line plasma televisions, cases of diapers and thousands of other products from its website. The Seattle corporation has no store, warehouse, office building or other physical presence in California, and the state cannot tax such businesses under a 1992 Supreme Court decision.

SACRAMENTO — Some of California's share of the money from a national legal settlement with big mortgage lenders can be used to help fill a hole in the governor's proposed budget, the Legislature's nonpartisan policy advisor recommended. The legislative analyst's office reported Tuesday that $411 million should be used for a variety of purposes. Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, who reached the settlement together with other state attorneys general, wanted to use most of the $411 million on financial counseling and education.

Here's another Sacramento reform for the long "to do" list -- one that wouldn't require a vote of the people or even the governor's signature. Prohibit the Legislature from voting on any bill after sunset. No exceptions -- and especially not a budget bill. That's a reform the Legislature could enact itself and clearly should. Knock off these incessant all-nighters that increasingly have become a mainstay of the Sacramento playbook.

SACRAMENTO - The state paid a $74,400 settlement to a company co-owned by the husband of state Sen. Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel) after her office repeatedly called the prisons agency to check on a claim filed by the firm. The senator's husband, David Walters, co-owns a company that provides pharmacists to the California corrections system. The firm filed a claim with the state last year contending that the business was underpaid for its services. A spokesman for Mimi Walters said this week that the aide who made the calls, D. Everett Rice, was following the senator's policy to aggressively help constituents deal with state red tape.

In late January, the Indiana House of Representatives adopted a resolution asking Congress to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to stop regulating carbon emissions, declaring that "EPA over-regulation is driving jobs and industry out of America. " Almost identical resolutions have won at least partial approval in a dozen other states, from Virginia to Michigan to Wyoming. And it's no coincidence that the language of these resolutions is similar, describing EPA's plans to curb air pollution as a "train wreck" that will harm the economy.

Fresh off their summer recess, California lawmakers will begin this week trying to salvage a legislative year marked by little more than financial crises and partisan bickering. Their agenda includes upgrading California's water system, crafting a bigger move to renewable energy and reducing crowding in prisons. But Democrats' and Republicans' starkly different ideas about how to meet those goals - along with lingering budget issues - could undermine their ability to get big things done.

Two Montana state legislators have filed suit in federal court against author and philanthropist Greg Mortenson, demanding that donations and proceeds from his book "Three Cups of Tea" be seized by the courts and placed in a trust for construction of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The petition to certify a nationwide class action against Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute is the latest fallout from allegations that his best-selling book contained significant misrepresentations of how Mortenson came to launch his school-building charity, and from revelations suggesting that proceeds from the book went to Mortenson, not the charity.

How The Times assumes that the people of California are willing to pay state legislators, rookies or veterans, $99,000 per year is beyond comprehension ("Legislators Take Stock of Rookie Year," Jan. 19). The people had no say in this matter. A commission sets legislators' pay, which over the last decade has risen from $49,000 per year to the nearly six-figure sum at present. It would be no stretch to say that if it were up to the voters and taxpayers of this state, these lawmakers would be making far less than what they're getting now. Considering the deteriorating state of the state, a sizable rollback of legislators' pay would be appropriate.

California lawmakers must forfeit their pay as of mid-June because the budget they passed last week -- which Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed less than 24 hours later -– was not balanced, the state controller said Tuesday. Since last week, Controller John Chiang, a Democrat, has been pondering whether to pay lawmakers. They passed budget legislation on June 15, meeting their constitutional deadline for only the second time in a quarter-century, but their plan relied heavily on accounting schemes to paper over the state's deficit. In his veto message, Brown said he could not sign such a plan.

It used to be a dream job -- making law in the nation's most populous state. But California voters aren't the only ones who've grown frustrated with the Legislature. Increasingly, lawmakers themselves are giving up on the statehouse. Some are dropping reelection bids. Others are leaving for what was once viewed as a step down: local government. And finding top-flight candidates to run for legislative seats has become a challenge. "It's not as much fun as it used to be," said Kevin Spillane, a GOP strategist who recruits Republican candidates for the state Assembly.

SACRAMENTO - Efforts to ease California's foreclosure woes, among the worst in the nation, are running into roadblocks at the state Capitol. A rare legislative conference committee called to rescue a pair of stalled foreclosure-prevention bills is bogged down in marathon sessions. Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing to use some of California's share of the $25-billion national mortgage settlement to plug holes in the state's budget, dismaying housing activists. Since the start of the real estate bust, foreclosures have been a persistent drag on the state's homeowners and economy.

SACRAMENTO - Twenty-two years after California became one of the first states to limit legislators' terms in office, voters are about to decide whether the rules should be changed. In 1990, voters limited lawmakers to three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year stints in the Senate, for a total of 14 years in the Legislature. Proposition 28, on the June 5 ballot, would limit lawmakers to 12 years in the Legislature but allow all of those to be served in one house. Proponents contend that existing law doesn't give people enough time in one office to fully master complex issues and the lawmaking process.

WASHINGTON - Overcoming objections from conservatives, Congress gave final approval to legislation to reauthorize the nation's Export-Import Bank, sending to President Obama a key legislative priority for the business community. The Senate passed the measure 78 to 20 after turning back several proposed GOP amendments to do away with the bank or scale back its lending authority. Conservatives in the House and Senate have fought the bank as a form of corporate welfare. The bank subsidizes the sale of U.S. exports, which critics said props up some companies and harms others through unfair competition.

Despite strong opposition from environmentalists, the state Assembly on Thursday approved controversial legislation that allows a solar energy developer to bypass local agencies in seeking to build a large-scale power plant in a valley that is home to desert tortoises, golden eagles and bighorn sheep. The nation's leading environmental groups see K Road Power's proposed 663-megawatt Calico Solar plant as one of the most ecologically damaging renewable energy projects in the California desert.

The Obama administration threatened California on Thursday with rescinding $3.3 billion in federal grants to start construction of a bullet train if the Legislature does not act by June to appropriate the state's share of funding. In a series of meetings with key lawmakers in Sacramento, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that the recent proposal by state Senate leaders to delay a $2.7-billion decision on the high-speed rail project until August is not acceptable. "We need the Legislature to make the strongest commitment possible," LaHood said in an interview.

Proposition 28 proposes a tiny tweak in legislative term limits. But it could have a huge impact on legislative quality. Little changes sometimes can result in big improvements. No one knows for sure where Prop. 28 would lead, but simple logic strongly suggests a legislative upgrade. At least the original term-limits author, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, tends to think so. "I'm persuaded it's probably the right thing to do," Schabarum told me, stopping short of a formal endorsement.

Congress returns from a two-week recess Monday facing a landscape scorched from the healthcare battle, partisan gridlock seemingly worse than ever and a pitched battle expected over the Supreme Court. Despite the unfavorable signs, President Obama and Democrats have opportunities to enact major changes -- maybe even with at least a modicum of Republican support. The fierce healthcare fight appears to have drained the desire to tackle politically bruising issues such as global warming this year, but the legislative agenda is laden with popular items that are hard to define in strictly partisan terms: legislation to extend unemployment benefits; a landmark bill to crack down on Wall Street excesses; additional efforts to bolster the still-anemic economic recovery; and possible ratification of a historic nuclear arms treaty.

This letter is in response to Joseph A. Strapac's question (Letters, July 3); "Where were the lobbyists of the auto clubs . . . when (the stop the rocks) issue came to a vote in committee in Sacramento?" As the lobbyist for the Automobile Club of Southern California, I can assure you, Mr. Strapac, that we were there. For more than a year, my colleagues at the California State Automobile Assn. and I have worked diligently with Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) in an attempt to ensure passage of AB 2335.

WASHINGTON - The Republican-led House approved a plan for deep spending cuts in food stamps, Meals on Wheels and other domestic programs - while sparing the Pentagon - in a vote that showcased the party's election-year priorities. The legislation to cut $240 billion over a decade is expected to stall in the Senate, where Democrats have the majority, but the exercise Thursday allowed the GOP to contrast its agenda with President Obama's efforts to reduce the deficit. Democrats decried the bill as "literally taking food out of the mouth of babies," in the words ofRep.

The housing market's boom and bust exposed stunning flaws in the housing finance system, from lax underwriting to sloppy record-keeping to incompetent loan servicing. California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris is pushing lawmakers to incorporate some of the lessons learned into a new state law governing foreclosures, but lenders are resisting, arguing that the mortgage meltdown was just a "temporary" crisis that doesn't justify a permanent change in law. That's wishful thinking, and legislators should give troubled borrowers more protection against lenders' procedural shortcuts.