Posted on 07/19/2007 10:36:08 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO
The Democratic leader of the state Senate on Thursday said lawmakers have reached an impasse in negotiating California's overdue budget and blamed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for not doing more to broker a deal with his fellow Republicans.
The comments by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata came as lawmakers in the Assembly were scheduled to begin a late-night floor session to debate the budget plan.
"The (budget) bill going up tonight is a sign that we are at an impasse, and only the governor can come in and make a deal," Perata said in an interview. He "has not done nearly enough ... He has to come in and bring his colleagues under his wing."
Perata, D-Oakland, described the latest spending proposal as "a Republican budget, and they should be proud of it."
Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear said the governor has been in frequent contact with leaders of both parties all week and was continuing to work in his Capitol office at 9 p.m. Thursday trying to reach a deal on the estimated $140 billion budget.
"The governor is very encouraged by the progress being made by his colleagues in the Legislature," McLear said.
Perata, however, said the latest closed-door meetings between legislative leaders indicated no Republicans supported the plan in the Senate or Assembly. After 19 days of a budget standoff, Perata said he has given up hope that the two sides can reach a deal before the Legislature's scheduled summer adjournment on Friday.
Perata also provided the first outline of the latest proposal, a product of intensive negotiations over the past few days.
He said the budget plan would have an operating deficit of about $700 million, or less than half the $1.5 billion proposed in Schwarzenegger's in May budget revision. It also would increase the state's reserves in the current year from $2 billion under the governor's plan, to about $3.4 billion.
This is a vastly more fiscally conservative budget by those two poles of measurement, which Republicans find so important," Perata said. "This is not a budget that will make a Democrats' highlight reel."
Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, disputed the figures Perata said are contained in the draft budget agreement. He characterized the Democrats' proposals as "just accounting things.
"They were taking one pot of money and moving it over here or over there," he said.
He agreed the talks were stalled but criticized Perata for saying Schwarzenegger must step in to deal with Republicans.
"The governor does not have the responsibility to pass the budget, the Legislature does," Ackerman said. "The state cannot keep spending more every year than it takes in."
Perata, however, said that behind closed doors Republican leaders had strayed from their public message that they were only trying to control spending.
He said Republicans have tried to force Democrats to agree to changes in environmental reviews for local development projects and include tax breaks for energy and movie studios.
"They're holding the budget hostage over policy issues that have no place in the budget," Perata said.
The Assembly and Senate were supposed to pass a budget by June 15, and Schwarzenegger was supposed to have signed it by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
Lack of a budget means hundreds of legislative employees and the state's vendors are not being paid. State rules say the vast majority of the government's civil servants continue to get paid even without a budget in place.
After being criticized for traveling to Europe, Florida and elsewhere during budget negotiations, Schwarzenegger on Thursday canceled plans to attend the Hollywood memorial service of film industry lobbyist Jack Valenti and stay in Sacramento.
Republicans have said they will not support a budget that fails to make significant progress in cutting the state's operating deficit.
Last month, a joint legislative committee controlled by Democrats approved a $140 billion state spending plan similar to the one Schwarzenegger released in May. It balanced revenue and expenses in the new fiscal year in part with the help of billions of dollars left over from a tax windfall from previous years. It also left the state with a projected $5 billion deficit in 2008.
The two Republicans on the committee voted against it, making it clear that party leaders and Schwarzenegger would have to hash out a deal to win the Legislature's required two-thirds majority. Meeting that threshold requires two Republican votes in the Senate and six in the Assembly.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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