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Senate Democrats Working With Republicans Toward Budget Agreement Though No Final Deal Yet - No Tax Increases, Borrowing or Spending Cap Will Be In Plan With the California budget crisis continuing into its 74th day without a State budget, a possible budget deal is coming together in the State Senate, with Senate Democratic and Republican leaders agreeing on the broad outlines that could mean a budget agreement and a vote on a revised budget plan next week, possibly as early as Tuesday (September 16th). No details are available and nothing is final - and the situation is fluid and could...

Sacramento - -- The state Senate will vote today on a budget by Senate leader Don Perata that's similar to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest spending plan for California that's 60 days late. But whether Perata will get two Republican votes needed in addition to unanimous support from Democrats to meet the two-thirds requirement in the Senate remains unclear. One significant issue is the Oakland Democrat's proposal to increase the sales tax by a penny per dollar for three years. Republicans have said they will not support any tax increases to help erase the $17.2 billion budget gap that includes $2...

Cancel those Sunday plans: The Assembly and the Senate have tentatively scheduled floor votes on a budget bill that day. It does not mean a deal is imminent. Lawmakers want a floor vote by this weekend to meet a deadline set by Secretary of State Debra Bowen for placing measures on the November ballot. Many see the deadline as a moving target, however, and believe the vote Sunday may be the first in several floor exercises before a final deal is struck. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said lawmakers plan to vote Sunday on a modified version of the...

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata began Wednesday saying he had made enough concessions to secure a budget deal with the governor and called for Republicans to sign on. But the day ended with little progress, as Perata concluded that negotiations remained at "impasse." So goes the topsy-turvy world of California's budget standoff amid a $15.2 billion deficit. "We're huddling now and trying to see what our next step will be," Perata told reporters Wednesday afternoon. Hours earlier, Perata described a compromise with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would temporarily increase the state sales tax by 1 cent and restrain future...

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said today that Democrats have negotiated key points of a compromise state budget with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and that he considers negotiations over. "I think we've, frankly, gone about as far as we can go," the Oakland Democrat said. Perata said the compromise plan includes a major concession by Democrats - a spending cap to limit annual state expenditures. Republicans have been insisting on a spending cap as part of any budget pact. "The question continues to be, are there Republican votes for it?" Perata said of the compromise plan. The ball is in...

2 others also indicted in theft of senator's red Dodge Charger - An Alameda County grand jury has indicted an Oakland man on charges that he carjacked state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and, 12 days later, fired the shots that paralyzed a 10-year-old boy practicing the piano, authorities said Monday. In addition to Jared Adams, 25, two other defendants were indicted in connection with the Perata case, court records show. The indictment, handed down late last month, allows prosecutors to take the case directly to trial. On Dec. 29, carjackers stole Perata's state-issued red 2006 Dodge Charger as...

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata today welcomed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 1-cent sales tax hike as "a start," but declared budget negotiations are at an impasse and said he does not expect a quick resolution. Perata's comments, following a Senate session, were his first since Schwarzenegger proposed the temporary sales tax increase over the weekend in an effort to bridge the state's $15.2 billion deficit and bring an end to the 36-day budget standoff. "I'm glad the governor has come around to saying publicly what we've known all along - that we have to have taxes in order to...

The Democratic majority in the California Legislature is counting on a veteran leader, Don Perata, to see the party through a fight with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the state's $15 billion budget deficit. But a federal corruption investigation of Mr. Perata could stymie his efforts to get the job done... San Francisco federal prosecutors have been investigating whether payments made by lobbyists and others to Mr. Perata in the past four years were improper. Prosecutors have indicated to defense lawyers that they're close to wrapping up their probe, said people close to the defense, who added that they expect...

This week's exhaustively detailed indictment of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens for allegedly failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts from an oil magnate in his home state of Alaska is dismaying enough. But the stench is hardly limited to Stevens and San Diego's own convicted congressman – Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Rancho Santa Fe. There are abundant signs that corruption in Congress goes beyond just trading votes for contributions to actual bribery. Yet public outrage remains disturbingly muted. Unfortunately, this indifference is also the norm in California. Consider the case of Senate President Don Perata. The Oakland Democrat is the focus of...

The Sacramento Bee reports that California State Senator Don Perarta has called off a budget vote, largely because he can’t find more than 25 votes to pass a $9.7 Billion tax increase. Meanwhile, the California Democratic Party has donated $250,000 to help Don Perata pay off his legal bills, as the Senate Democratic leader continues to rack up expenses fending off an ongoing FBI corruption investigation. Time to blow up the box, Arnold.

It has been 44 months since a federal corruption probe of state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata became public knowledge, and 43 months since federal agents searched his and his son's Oakland homes. Witnesses have testified before a federal grand jury. Thousands of pages of documents have been gathered under dozens of subpoenas issued to public agencies and private companies. Perata's legal defense fund has spent about $2 million, much of that either transferred from one of his campaign accounts or given by the state Democratic party. Almost four years on, some wonder whether it's time for the federal...

An indignant Don Perata made fun of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his brigade of "13 armed escorts" today. The Senate president pro tem was mocking Schwarzenegger as out of touch with the average Californian at a rally protesting the plan to temporarily slash the pay of state workers to $6.55 an hour. Visibly fired up, the Oakland Democrat declared he had only one question for Schwarzenegger now that the governor had revealed his plan to conserve cash during the budget crunch by cutting workers' pay. "Who in the hell do you think does the work around here?" he shouted to...

The FBI is investigating state Sen. Don Perata's role in the hiring of a Washington lobbyist to push for a road project sought by a major Perata contributor, documents show. At the urging of the powerful Oakland Democrat, local agencies in 2000 hired former Georgia congressman Dawson Mathis to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration regarding a multimillion-dollar expressway that today links Oakland International Airport with the Harbor Bay Business Park in Alameda. The park's developer, Ron Cowan, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Perata and other politicians, and for years he had sought this access road. Mathis' hiring...

SACRAMENTO — Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has what experts say is a textured approach to dealing with his Republican foes on the budget. The Oakland Democrat simultaneously plays villain and confidante, foe and pal. He's a partisan flamethrower who takes his rivals to breakfast. Take last week, when Perata's opening budget negotiation move — demanding higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations — had the effect of casting Republicans as heartless country clubbers. Even as he attacked Republicans for failing to empathize with the little guy, though, he promised the wine would be flowing freely as budget negotiations...

Prosecutors will probably soon ask a federal grand jury to indict state Senate boss Don Perata on public corruption charges, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. An indictment would culminate a four-and-a-half-year federal probe of California's second-most-powerful politician. The FBI, the US Attorney's Office, and a federal grand jury have been investigating whether the senator took bribes or kickbacks in exchange for providing official government favors to close friends, business associates, and major campaign donors. It's not clear who else may be charged along with the Oakland Democrat. But based on public records and interviews, the feds also...

The California Democratic Party has donated $250,000 to help Don Perata pay off his legal bills, as the Senate Democratic leader continues to rack up expenses fending off an ongoing FBI corruption investigation. The party made the quarter-million dollar donation on July 1, according to campaign filings. The money comes just in time for Perata, who, according to a May disclosure, had only $273 cash on hand in his legal defense fund and $250,000 in unpaid bills. Jason Kinney, a spokesman for Perata on legal issues, said the donation -- and the continuing expenses -- are "no indication of anything."...

Redistricting reform is years, if not decades, overdue in California. Unfortunately, the reason that it's overdue is that while voters have the most to gain from an honest reappraisal of the state's legislative boundaries, the politicians in power keep doing everything they can to prevent such reform. It's no wonder, then, that the California Legislature can't seem to pass a redistricting reform bill with any teeth. Still, watching Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and other partisans prepare a pre-emptive attack on Proposition 11 is both disappointing and disturbing. Perata held a closed-door meeting last Friday with fellow insiders...

The abortive effort to recall Republican state Sen. Jeff Denham this year will occupy a niche in the history of California political oddities. The Democratic leader of the Senate, Don Perata, launched the recall drive last year after Denham joined other Republican senators, save one, in blocking passage of the state budget for weeks, contending that it was dangerously out of balance. The supposed rationale for the recall drive against Denham, a second-termer whose district sprawls over a multicounty swath of Central California farmland, was that he had betrayed promises to be a moderate. And Perata dumped hundreds of thousands...

In an abrupt political reversal, Democratic state Senate leader Don Perata said Wednesday he is ending his campaign to recall a Republican senator. How much good Perata's sudden announcement will do is unclear. The recall against Sen. Jeff Denham of Merced already is on the June 3 ballot and pamphlets have been sent to voters. In a statement, Perata said he was ending the recall campaign "in the spirit of putting politics aside to solve problems." Perata had orchestrated the recall because Denham had angered him during last year's budget stalemate, which lasted roughly seven weeks after the start of...

State Senate leader Don Perata on Thursday said the recall drive he is backing against a Central Valley Republican will help Democrats pass a budget with tax increases if it succeeds. If Sen. Jeff Denham of Merced is replaced by the lone Democrat on the recall ballot, it would leave Democrats just one vote short of the two-thirds majority they need to pass the budget in the Senate. "If I have an opportunity of picking up a Democrat who would support a balanced approach to solving the budget problem, I'm going to do that," Perata, the Senate's president pro tem,...