Marathon State Budget Session Falls Short
Both houses of the state legislature will meet again Monday to try to pass a deal to plug the mammoth hole in California’s budget. An unprecedented weekend-long legislative session came up short.
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(Sacramento, CA)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The session was one for the record books. Over 24 hours, lawmakers took up dozens of
bills aimed at eliminating the 40 billion dollar deficit. Locked in overnight, they dozed at their
desks, while legislative leaders and the Governor tried to corral enough votes
to pass the package. The plan includes
14 billion in tax hikes, 15 billion in cuts and significant borrowing. And it requires 3 GOP votes in each house to
pass. Legislative leaders said Sunday night they
still needed one Republican vote in the Senate.
GOP Senator Sam Aanested voted against the package:
“Why were we
here? At what cost? At what cost to the staff, to the sergeants,
to our families and to the people of
California
?”
Most Republican lawmakers have signed a
pledge not to raise taxes….and a vote to do so is seen as a possible
career-ender. That perennial sticking
point frustrated Democratic Senate Leader Darrel Steinberg. He boiled over at Aanested as session was
adjourning:
“And I wish to God that you could
deviate just a little bit from your philosophy – just a little bit - from the
endless mantra of no new revenue, no new revenue ever and be a participant and
a partner with us in solving this problem.”
Steinberg
is pledging to come back every day until a budget agreement is reached. Meantime, the State Controller continues to
delay tax refund checks and payments to counties who run social service
programs for California. That’s because without a budget solution in
place, the state is still too short on cash to pay all of its bills.