Don't Forget Mr. Kelso

Don Perata can crow about a budget deal all he wants, but a certain prison medical care receiver might throw that into some flux.

California prison medical care receiver J. Clark Kelso filed a legal motion today to force the state to come up with $8 billion over the next five years to fund his plan to build seven long-term care facilities and provide other improvements for inmate patients.

The action filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco also seeks contempt of court citations against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang.

Kelso said he is still talking with the governor's and controller's offices and other officials to resolve the dispute over funding of his medical plan but that he will ask that both Schwarzenegger and Chiang be present at a scheduled Sept. 22 hearing in San Francisco if the issue is not resolved [...]

Kelso said he wants $3.1 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year. The request would increase the projected $15.2 billion spending shortfall for the year by another 20 percent.

Nobody paid much attention to this problem, but it was always there, threatening to blow yet another hole in the budget. Democrats tried to borrow the money to pay for this but Republicans blocked it twice. But this isn't some minor inconvenience that can be flitted away. This is about unconstitutional prison conditions that is causing at least one needless death a week. It would be bad for business to actually remedy this, so lawmakers ignored it. Aggressively.

Kelso blasted the Legislature for failing so far in its current session to provide bond funding for his project. He singled out the state Senate's Republican caucus for holding up the bonds because of its concern that last year's prison construction bond plan hasn't taken hold.

A spokeswoman for Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto did not have an immediate comment on the receiver's motion.

"No comment" has been the watchword of the GOP in this budget year.

Kelso's going to win this case, too. He's operating under a federal court order and his mandate is clear. And yet we're going to put in a temporary regressive tax instead of a structural revenue overhaul.

More great leadership from Sacramento. Hope the cocktail weenies are good at tonight's round of fundraisers!

The NYT has more.