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SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Lawmakers on Friday approved a complex package of spending cuts, accounting maneuvers and raids on local government coffers to fill California's gigantic budget deficit, providing hope that the state might begin a slow climb out of a deep financial hole. ... The cuts imposed by the Legislature are extraordinary. The deal will mean teachers are laid off, college students will pay more, parks will be closed, and office buildings will be sold off. Lawmakers agreed the scope of the cuts was distasteful, but most said they had little choice. "The only way to do it is to...

The federal stimulus plan will shower California with tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks and spending. The new state budget would cancel some of that out. Designed to erase a mammoth deficit, the tentative budget plan would effectively take $30 billion out of California's economy through higher taxes and reduced spending. The plan, set for a vote in the Legislature today, would blot out some of the estimated $80 billion in economic impact that California likely will receive as its share of the federal stimulus package – and blunt the ability of the federal plan to reverse the...

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls a special election this year, California voters might be forced to make the hard choices on the budget and taxes that the Legislature won't. State Controller John Chiang said in an interview that he would support putting a tax increase package to voters in an effort to break the long-running legislative stalemate that has left California with a $42 billion deficit and weeks away from delaying refunds to taxpayers and grants to college students and low-income and disabled residents. If Republicans and Democrats can't compromise on budget cuts and tax increases, "they may at least...

Reporting from Sacramento -- California may find it hard to borrow the $23.3 billion that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed to ease the state's financial crisis, the Legislature's nonpartisan analyst said Thursday. The spending plan Schwarzenegger outlined Dec. 31 for the next 18 months relies on borrowing $5 billion against future state lottery earnings, $7 billion in new infrastructure bonds and $11.3 billion in short-term borrowing so that the state does not run out of money. Schwarzenegger has depicted his proposal, which he intends to formally submit to the Legislature today, as the only financially responsible solution to a budget...

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass touted Uncle Sam as a realistic savior Wednesday for California's multibillion-dollar budget shortfall – but critics say the tactic could backfire by raising false hopes. "I'm still concerned that some folks are looking at this in isolation and not in its national and international context," Bass said of a projected budget gap of $27.8 billion over two years. Rather than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approach of bridging the gap by roughly a 50-50 formula of tax increases and program cuts, Bass said it's realistic to turn to federal officials for a bailout that would avoid cuts. "I...

Lawmakers closed a budget deal tonight that all had reason to dislike. With Republicans still opposed, the Senate voted 22-14 and the Assembly 41-30 to approve the final fix of the long overdue package. Republican leaders supported the budget deal reached Thursday, but no GOP members voted for the bill. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is expected to sign the budget next week, said the spending plan is "an improvement" over earlier versions, but still fails to solve California's structural financial problems. "Unfortunately the Legislature was unable to make the hard decisions to end our structural deficit, but this budget is...

SACRAMENTO -- The state is about to pump half a billion dollars into teaching children to roll sushi, juggle pins and master new dance forms, even as spending cuts threaten to erode instruction in reading, math and other fundamentals. That's because the sum scheduled to be spent on such after-school enrichment next year is off-limits for anything else. State law dictates that cooking classes continue even if some calculus courses could be canceled. In good economic times, voters have passed ballot initiatives that devoted billions of dollars to novel social and recreational programs, such as the after-school initiative championed by...

The governor is due to sign off on the plan today, cutting school and healthcare funding. But most of the red ink would be pushed forward with accounting maneuvers and borrowing. Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press State Senator Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, gives a thumbs-up as he votes in favor of one of the measures of a package of emergency spending cuts.************************* SACRAMENTO -- The Legislature passed a package of emergency budget measures Friday, which lawmakers touted as swift, responsible bipartisan action that averts a cash crisis and erases nearly half the state's $14.5-billion deficit. But their move would not...

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told voters the Indian gambling agreements that passed Tuesday would help California close its budget gap. The fact is, the four compacts only get the state budget back to what the governor started with a month ago – a $14.5 billion budget hole. The real dirty work of cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in classroom funding and popular state programs is just beginning. Tuesday's primary cleared one potential land mine before lawmakers' Feb. 23 deadline to make emergency cuts. The agreements allow four Southern California casino-operating tribes to add 17,000 slot machines in...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says California should be more like Arkansas when it comes to putting money in the piggy bank. The governor proposed a constitutional spending limit this week that his administration said originated, at least in part, with a conversation between Schwarzenegger and former President Bill Clinton about finances in Clinton's native state. California should follow Arkansas, Schwarzenegger said, with a budget process that hordes money in good times to cover shortfalls in bad ones, and triggers automatic spending cuts when the economy turns south. Unlike California, Schwarzenegger said, Arkansas only taps its savings to cover deficits. That's not...

Governor Corzine’s plan to hook more immigrants up to public benefits makes no sense. 29 August 2007 It’s hard to imagine a politician with lousier timing than New Jersey governor Jon Corzine. The day before the execution-style killing of three Newark students by several illegal immigrants—at least one sporting a long rap sheet—Corzine formed a commission to study ways of providing immigrants with greater access to public services. In announcing the panel, the governor said nothing about the state’s estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants, and the panel included no experts on law enforcement or national security who might recommend how the...

This was to be the year of big ambitions in California politics. In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ever eager to put his stamp on outsized ideas, proposed a $12 billion overhaul of the state's health care system. It would provide universal coverage and give relief to the state's 6.5 million uninsured, a bold plan he hoped would become a national template. At the same time, he wanted a $5.9 billion makeover of California's complex network of reservoirs, pumps and canals to help the state weather future droughts and accommodate an ever-expanding population. And to increase competition for legislative seats, the...

SACRAMENTO — Whoops. An attempt by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff to show grass-roots GOP support for his call for a quick passage of the state budget backfired this week when an administration e-mail chain was inadvertently shared with the media. The e-mails revealed that a statement backing the governor released under the name of a Republican Party committee member was, for the most part, drafted not by the committee member but by the governor's office. Some things the statement said about the Republican lawmakers who have been blocking the budget's passage for more than a month were not so nice....

Environmental requirements in San Bernardino County. Transportation projects approved by voters last fall. Such mundane matters have little to do with California's annual budget, but they are among the chief reasons the spending plan for the current fiscal year is almost seven weeks overdue. The reason: California's requirement that the budget pass with a two-thirds vote in each house. It is one of only three states to have the requirement, which gives minority Republicans a rare chance to exert influence. "Quite frankly, there are a few places to which we can leverage those kind of policy issues, and this is...

The lone Senate Republican who voted for the long-delayed, $145 billion state budget is one of the few GOP moderates left in an increasingly fractured Legislature. Sen. Abel Maldonado, a farmer from Santa Maria, was the only one of 15 Senate Republicans to vote for the spending plan Wednesday night, leaving it one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to send it to the governor's desk. "I look at myself as an independent," Maldonado said in an interview Thursday. "I've always been independent. I vote my district. If it's good for my district, I'm going to vote aye. If...

That's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's message to the state Senate, as the 26th day of the budget impasse comes... and goes... with no spending plan in place. Schwarzenegger held a news conference this afternoon on the fiscal fight at the state Capitol where he seemed to play the role of The Motivator more than the role of... well... you know. "Pass it and move on and get on to the next thing," he told legislators, "because there's a lot of very, very important issues that we want to tackle." Schwarzenegger focused his attention on the impacts to state government of a...

The state Senate leader on Friday said the package of tax credits the Assembly approved to win passage of a state budget was "dead on arrival," leaving the fate of the $145 billion spending plan in doubt. The announcement left Senate Republicans and Democrats searching for agreements on spending cuts and possibly reforms to environmental regulations so they could seal a deal on California's overdue budget. The fiscal year began July 1, and lawmakers were scheduled to begin their summer recess Friday. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata called a floor session even as he and Senate Minority Leader Dick...

SACRAMENTO – Moving to break a three-week deadlock, the Assembly approved a slimmed-down state budget shortly before midnight yesterday that faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Senate Republicans have been holding out for deeper spending cuts than those approved by the Assembly. The Senate Democratic leader complained that the Assembly also is considering about $500 million in tax breaks for special interests. The budget that passed 60-11 on a bipartisan vote cuts $1.3 billion from the $104.4 billion general fund in the original Democratic budget, which is $700 million short of a $2 billion cut sought by Senate Republicans....

Legislative leaders on Thursday rushed to close a deal on the state's $140 billion spending plan before lawmakers' summer recess, which is supposed to begin Friday. While a final deal remained elusive, lawmakers met throughout the day and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, called a floor session for 8:15 p.m. He was scheduled to brief Assembly Democrats on the status of budget negotiations immediately before the session. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, scheduled a floor session for Friday night, and aides in his office said they did not expect a breakthrough Thursday. The four legislative leaders have...