No Deal Yet as Deadline Nears
The California legislature's constitutional budget deadline
has arrived. By midnight Friday, state lawmakers must pass a
spending plan. So far, there's no deal between Democratic
leaders and Governor Jerry Brown. But they aren't far
apart.
Listen now:
"A couple hundred million dollars." That's how Senate
Leader Darrell Steinberg described the gap between the two sides
Thursday, with the remaining differences being welfare and child
care.
Steinberg: "We are close.
We have more work to do. And we are gonna meet our
constitutional deadline, go forward tomorrow, and we'll continue to
talk on a parallel track and see what happens."
Meanwhile, the sides are coming together on other areas of
disagreement. For example, the governor had proposed a seven
percent cut to in-home supportive services … prompting days of
protests from IHSS workers and their clients. Steinberg says
the latest spending plan will have a three-and-a-half percent cut -
with deeper reductions set for future years.
Deal or no deal, Democratic leaders say they'll pass a budget
by midnight.
GOP Lawmakers Upset with Dem Spending Plan, Budget
Process
As the next California budget takes shape, legislative
Republicans who aren't involved in negotiations say the Democratic
spending plan isn't balanced. And they're boycotting budget
hearings to protest what they call a lack of transparency.
Listen now:
Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff says the proposal legislative
Democrats are putting forth doesn't cut enough spending.
Huff: "As we're looking at the
numbers, it's about 90 percent taxes and gimmicks, but then it's
only about 10 percent of structural cuts. So it certainly
doesn't get to the half-half that it's been portrayed as -
half-revenues, half-cuts - and it's another smoke-and-mirrors,
gimmicky budget."
And that's not all Republicans don't like. They say some
parts of the budget get changed on the fly - and other parts aren't
even in print yet. GOP Senators demanded a 24-hour waiting
period to look over the bills … then boycotted a budget hearing to
protest the process.
Democrats say they gave the GOP each budget bill as soon as it
was available - then did wait 24 hours before holding a
hearing.
