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Budget impasse may stall projects

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Times Staff Writer

The first statewide effects of the nearly monthlong budget impasse may be felt today when transportation projects are expected to be put on hold, as Republican vows to reject a spending plan without major cuts to parks, healthcare and social services provoked a torrent of criticism.

Staff at the California Transportation Commission advised board members meeting in Glendale this morning to put off approval of $800 million in projects until a budget is in place. The release of funds for the projects, including the Expo light rail line linking Culver City to downtown and work on the 105 Freeway near Los Angeles International Airport, is expected to be delayed until the board’s next meeting in September.

The consequences of the impasse could soon spread elsewhere. By the end of July, roughly $1.1 billion in other scheduled payments could be withheld, state Controller John Chiang said.

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Local schools, county governments, community colleges and contractors doing business with the state are among those that would not receive checks.

School groups have begun flooding state Senate offices with calls and e-mails, as well as demanding a budget during daily news conferences held in the districts of GOP senators they believe are vulnerable to public pressure.

“For a lot of people there will be a significant impact,” Chiang said of the impasse. “Those that don’t have money saved are going to be hit hard.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expressed frustration with the situation Wednesday.

“I’m concerned, because what I don’t want to have happen is that people start not getting paid in California,” he said at a news conference in South Lake Tahoe. “I think the time has come now to solve this problem and to come to an agreement.”

But an agreement continues to elude the Senate, which so far has failed to sign off on the bipartisan spending plan approved by the Assembly on Friday. GOP lawmakers say that budget proposal spends too much.

On Wednesday, they presented their own plan, which had nearly $842 million in additional cuts, including elimination of a drug treatment program and reductions in spending on prisons, state parks and medical care for the poor.

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The proposal could come before the full Senate today, but no Democrats have indicated they will support it.

Democrats hold a majority in the Senate, but at least two Republican votes are needed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary for passage of a budget.

The 15 Republicans in the Senate have agreed not to vote for a budget until it has the support of a majority of the caucus.

Senate Leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) said Republicans put “all the welfare issues back on the table after we had negotiated them off the table.” Democrats had agreed to scale back other social service expenditures by hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as cut spending on public transportation by $1.3 billion.

The GOP plan was immediately attacked by a wide range of interest groups, which said the cuts would devastate the poor, harm the environment and leave the state vulnerable to losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal matching funds.

A statement issued by a coalition that includes the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense and every other major environmental group in the state was titled “Senate Republicans Declare Open Season on the Environment.”

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The coalition warned that a demand by the lawmakers to restrict enforcement of a landmark law passed last year to curb greenhouse gases “is a radical departure from established state policy.” Business interests “want a moratorium now while they delay and obstruct regulation in the future.”

Republicans defended their call to change the law, saying it is needed to curb overzealous enforcement of greenhouse gas emission regulations by state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown. They said Brown is filing lawsuits aimed at projects the law was never intended to stop.

Brown, in turn, said the Republicans were trying to “gut” environmental laws “as the price of their voting -- a month late -- on this year’s budget.”

The GOP senators have so far resisted pressure from interest groups to fold. But that pressure intensified after the lawmakers disclosed their demands to the public Wednesday. Defenders of many of the state programs targeted by the GOP proposal began taking a more active role in pushing for adoption of the Assembly budget.

“This is a bad idea,” said Traci Verardo-Torres, director of legislation and policy for the nonprofit California State Parks Foundation, of a provision in the plan that would cut the state parks maintenance budget by $15 million. She said it could hurt California’s tourism industry.

Service Employees International Union Local 1000, California’s largest state employee union, called a proposal not to fill 6,000 vacant jobs in the state workforce a “cheap stunt that will turn into a big payday for well-connected contractors.”

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Officials from the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance called the GOP plan to save $120 million by eliminating a drug treatment program created by voter initiative in 2000 “the height of fiscal irresponsibility.” The program has helped 70,000 Californians stop using drugs and stay out of jail, they said. A UCLA study concluded the program saves $2.50 for every $1 invested, alliance officials said.

Still, Republicans showed no sign of backing down.

“All the law enforcement I have talked to think the program is not a success,” said Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine.

He also defended the biggest cut in the plan: a $300-million reduction in welfare payments that would lead to tens of thousands of families losing state assistance.

Staff at the nonprofit California Budget Project said such a cut could leave the state out of compliance with federal rules, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in matching funds. Republican budget staff disputed that finding.

Despite pledges not to reduce spending on public safety, the GOP plan would cut $49 million from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Some of the proposals could violate court settlements reached between the department and inmate attorneys or hinder the department’s efforts to upgrade its technology, experts said.

The lawmakers are proposing to cut an increase in the number of prison dentists, as well as a boost in their pay, that was ordered by a federal court. The proposal comes as the state’s inability to comply with the orders of federal judges leaves the prison system vulnerable to being taken over by the courts.

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Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) said the state shouldn’t spend money in the hopes of satisfying federal judges, whom he described as unpredictable: “If anybody knows what they are thinking, they ought to be headed to Las Vegas.”

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evan.halper@latimes.com

Times staff writers Jeffrey L. Rabin, Jordan Rau and Nancy Vogel contributed to this report.

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