THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:Republicans push major cuts

Republican state senators on Wednesday proposed cutting $842 million from the state budget, after blocking the Democrats’ budget last week because they said it spends too much.

Some of the biggest cuts come from ending a welfare program that’s in violation of federal policy, slashing funding for a drug offender diversion program, and trimming public transportation funds.

The welfare cut ends funding to children of welfare recipients who lose their benefits if they don’t return to work after five years. NewportMesa’s Sen. Tom Harman said California is one of two states that provide such funding, and federal officials have threatened to fine California as much as $100 million a year if the law isn’t changed.

“We just have to do it or else we’re going to get fined by the feds,” Harman said. Because it has to do with children, he said, “I think that’s probably the one you’ll hear the most about…. There’s no cuts in education in this proposal, there’s no cuts in public safety, there’s no cuts in environmental programs.”

The Republicans wanted to slash $700 million from the Assembly-approved budget.

The GOP budget proposal would eliminate the operating deficit in the 2007-08 fiscal year, but in 2008-09 legislators still will face a $4.76-million shortfall.

Harman said senators will take up the budget this morning, but it’s not clear what will happen next.

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach knows how to stir things up, and last week he caused something of an explosion with his announcement that a retroactive pension benefit granted to sheriff’s deputies may be unconstitutional.

This week, supporters and opponents lobbed some grenades of their own. The Los Angeles Police Protective League issued a statement calling Moorlach “an enemy to law enforcement in Orange County,” while the GOP power brokers in the Orange County Lincoln Club got Moorlach’s back, calling on other supervisors to challenge the retroactive pension boost.

The league’s statement criticized Moorlach’s “attempts to renege on a pension agreement that was reached through the collective bargaining process,” and added, “If Moorlach was really interested in protecting taxpayers’ money, he would not suggest spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars in court to test the harebrained theory that forms the basis of his claims.”

The Lincoln Club took the opposite position, suggesting supervisors support the legal challenge to the retroactive pensions that Moorlach has proposed.

Supervisors decide Tuesday whether to legally challenge the deputies’ association’s retroactive pension hike.

After a warm reception in May at the Lincoln Club’s annual dinner, undeclared GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson will be back in Orange County Tuesday to tap the financial well.

Among the hosts of Thompson’s private fundraiser in Newport Coast are Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, businessman Buck Johns and Newport Beach City Councilman Michael Henn.

Henn says he thinks Thompson will be able to beat any Democratic candidate — “even Hillary.”