The following notes are from Ken Smith from State Controller Kathleen
Connell's press conference today:

California State Controller Kathleen Connell held a press conference
today.  Although the Dow Newswire said it would be to disclose long-term
contracts, the event focused on what she believes will be an additional
need for borrowing beyond the energy bonds.

She anticipates an additional $4 billion in borrowing will be needed in
February to meet expected costs.  The borrowing should, she said, be
done as Revenue Anticipation Notes (RANs), short-term notes at a lower
interest rates (about 4%) that must be paid back by the end of the year,
rather than as additional energy bonds.  She categorized the current
budget situation as &the same kind of environment as a bad budget year,8
and said California should maintain at least a 3% reserve.

She did not comment on individual contracts except to say there are 17
different contracts.

Charts her office had prepared showed that $5.136 billion had been spent
on energy purchases through 5/17/01; about 99% of that went to spot
market purchases.  There was also a chart that showed projected
expenditures under the Governor,s plan to be $8.349 billion for the
period January 1-June 1, 2001, with about 89% of that going to spot
market purchases.  How these numbers work together was confusing ) I
checked with a reporter, who said he was also unclear.  I,ll try to get
this cleared up this afternoon.

An easel held a large photocopy of a $533 million check to Mirant, which
is the largest energy check written to date.   More has been paid to
Reliant ) she put it at about 25% of total expenditures ) but &we have
never written a check to Reliant over $500 million8 because of the way
they invoice.

She said the Governor,s financial assumptions for power &do not fit into
the most likely scenario8 and that summer conditions will greatly affect
the actual spending needs.  She noted that DWR estimates it will spend
$9.2 billion through June 30, 2002, although the PUC has only authorized
$7.5 billion.

The other significant announcement was that she plans to use her
authority with the Board of Equalization to hold hearings to determine
whether power plants sold by utilities have been properly assessed for
property taxes.  Apparently, they are still on the tax rolls at previous
rates, but she believes the profits recorded by some generators means
the plants may be more valuable than their current assessments.

A press release was not distributed at the event, although there may be
one issued later today.