Thread: California budget negotiations hit a new snag

California budget negotiations hit a new snag


Senate Republicans oust their leader, who had joined with Democrats to forge a budget package containing higher taxes.


By Eric Bailey and Patrick McGreevy
latimes.com
February 18, 2009



Reporting from Sacramento -- As California's government continued its grinding downshift toward insolvency, efforts to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget gap hit a new snag late Tuesday as Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader.

Around 11 p.m., a group of GOP senators, unhappy with the higher taxes that Senate leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto agreed to as part of a deal with the governor and Democrats, voted to replace him in a private caucus meeting in Cogdill's office.

They chose Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, a staunchly antitax lawmaker from Murrieta, as their new leader.

Cogdill's ouster could be a major setback to budget negotiations. Cogdill was a lead negotiator on the budget package and had committed to voting for it. Hollingsworth will likely try to renegotiate the deal, which lawmakers spent three months forging.

"It's a shame it ended this way," Cogdill said to reporters. "This budget needs to get out, and we need to put people to work again in this state."

Hollingsworth said he does not want to see a tax increase passed, but he offered no plan for resolving the budget crisis.

"All of that will be determined in the next couple of days," he said.

Soon after the leadership change, lawmakers returned to the Senate chamber, where they voted down the $14.4 billion in proposed tax hikes that are part of the budget package. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have been trying to get the package approved since Saturday.

The vote, concluded shortly after 1 a.m., was the first on the tax hikes, which had been set aside as the governor and party leaders scurried to round up the three Senate GOP votes needed to pass the spending plan.

That plan could still survive the leadership change. Three GOP senators abstained from voting this morning. They also refused to take part in Cogdill's ouster, sitting out the caucus vote on his replacement. Those lawmakers have been in negotiations with the governor and Democrats about possibly supporting the bipartisan budget plan.

A fourth GOP lawmaker, Sen Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria), voted against the taxes this morning but has stated publicly that he might support them if various government reforms were added to the package. He was sharply critical of his caucus for removing Cogdill.

"I just can't believe in the middle of the night we'd oust our leader," he said outside the caucus meeting. "It's the wrong time to make a change in this process."

The frenetic day had begun with legislators carting sleeping bags, pillows and suitcases to work. Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) brought a bottle of cologne. Republican Sen. Sam Aanestad, an oral surgeon from Grass Valley, passed out toothbrushes. Cots were ordered from the state Office of Emergency Services.

The anticipated Senate floor vote hopscotched from the morning into the afternoon and then to late night, as tempers frayed. In the middle of it all, as lawmakers struggled to keep California's fiscal fortunes from plummeting earthward, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a few moments to honor the Bay Area pilot who safely belly-landed a disabled US Airways jet into the Hudson River last month.

At stake is a plan supported by Democrats and Schwarzenegger, a GOP moderate, that calls for a 1 cent increase in the sales tax, a 12-cents-per-gallon gas tax boost and hikes in vehicle license fees and the personal income tax.

"We need to stop treating the taxpayers across California like a personal ATM," Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) said from the Senate floor, hands pounding the air to drive home his point.

"This is a balanced package," countered Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego), fixing her gaze on the Republicans across the aisle. "It asks everybody to pay a little bit more in a variety of ways."

"This budget is not fair and balanced," scoffed Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater).

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), noting that Cogdill helped negotiate the budget and pledged to vote for it, said the Republican's caucus mates should join him -- or replace him.

"You ought to follow your leader or choose a new one," Leno said.

Off the floor, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) warned of "catastrophic consequences" if a budget isn't approved. The crisis has already crimped funding for $7 billion in highway work and other government projects and delayed $3 billion in tax refunds, welfare checks and other payments.

The state may soon have to issue IOUs, and 10,000 workers risk losing their jobs.

With Steinberg vowing to keep lawmakers locked in the Capitol until the crisis was resolved, Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) grumbled, "I've been locked down for 30 hours, and it's not pretty. . . . You've got to sleep in your suit."

In a bid to end the stalemate, Schwarzenegger met in his office with Sen. Dave Cox of Sacramento, a white-haired GOP veteran in his final term.

The governor and Democrats hoped to persuade either Cox or Maldonado to join Cogdill and GOP Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield to help push the budget through. Three Republican votes are needed in each house to pass spending plans; legislative leaders say they have the votes in the Assembly.

"It's a huge responsibility and it's people's careers on the line," Schwarzenegger told The Times, alluding to threats by conservative bloggers and talk-radio hosts to retaliate against Republicans who vote for more taxes. "But I think in the end they know they have to make a decision what's best for the state."

Steinberg, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly minority leader Mike Villines (R-Clovis) also shuttled in and out of the governor's office as the evening wore on. "In my view, there has to be definition tonight about how this is going to end," Steinberg said outside Schwarzenegger's office, adding that "some very positive, quiet discussions" were underway.

"It is always a very delicate balance," he said, "between pushing hard and then allowing for the conversations to happen around what any member needs."

Earlier in the day, Cox denounced the tax proposal hammered out in recent weeks by Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders. He called the higher levies "the straw that broke the camel's back."

"My concern is it does not fix the problem," Cox said on the Senate floor. "As a matter of fact it may well make the matter worse."

Maldonado, meanwhile, has pressed for a shift to open primary elections that could give moderates a better shot at public office. "I'm only asking for some simple government reforms," Maldonado said.

The fiscal mess even seeped into the Capitol celebration the governor hosted for US Airways Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III, the pilot who guided a jetliner full of passengers to safety in New York City after the plane's engines failed.

Schwarzenegger said negotiating lawmakers "need a great hero in the state Capitol" to inspire them.

And Steinberg suggested to Sullenberger, who appeared a bit bewildered by his brush with statehouse politics, that the pilot might be needed to guide the Senate to a safe landing. "Maybe after we're done here," Steinberg said, "you could just come upstairs and say 'Aye,' one time."

The audience broke up in laughter.

eric.bailey@latimes.com

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Times staff writers Jordan Rau, Michael Rothfeld and Evan Halper contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 7442.story

Congrats to the Cali GOP for ousting that RINO!

anybody understands that this is not about being against illegal immigrants but when they net net cost the state billions of dollars a year (some estimates at around 5billion and even twice that) you cannot try to get to a reasonable budget by ignoring this 800 lbs gorilla in the room. While this is not the reason California is in trouble, subsidizing illegals is more than significant drain. You will not find a solution until you agree to accept the problem!

I read where California spends $10 Billion a year just on education, healthcare and incarcerations of illegals, not counting all the other damage in deflated wages, lost businesses, unemployment and so forth for Californians or all the federal programs they tap into.

The $45 Billion shortfall in California covers 3 years, last years short fall of $15 Billion, this year's of and 2010. At $10 Billion a year for Illegales, that's $30 Billion of that $45 Billion shortfall. And if Californians weren't economically damaged by deflated wages, lost businesses and unemployment, then they'd have greater earnings, pay more personal income and business tax, and they probably wouldn't even have a shortfall.

GO GOP! I applaud the Republicans in California for digging in and holding their ground. These mistakes can not be rewarded, they must be corrected.

I hope this goes on for a long, long time because the longer it goes, the more it exposes the scum in Excremento for what they truly are. CA is the most heavily taxed state and yet these scum want to dip more into the pockets of the tax payers who are already taxed beyond belief. That is outrageous. Get rid of the illegal scum that is sucking your state dry and most if not all of your problems will go away. Tell the illegal scum that you are not welcomed in CA or in America for that matter and get the hell out of here.

NO MORE FREE RIDES FOR INVADERS!!!