Overdue State Budget Goes to Conference Committee

Still deadlocked over ways to cope with a $1-billion-a-year revenue shortfall, the Assembly on Monday voted to send the already overdue $45-billion state budget to a two-house conference committee for a series of final negotiations.

With the Legislature already six days past its constitutional deadline to pass a budget, Assembly lawmakers cast procedural votes on two versions of the budget, one of which had been approved earlier in the day by the Senate.

The Senate-passed budget was defeated 41 to 34, falling well short of the 54 votes needed to pass it outright. After that, in a largely meaningless vote, the Assembly approved still another version of the budget, 54 to 22.

Smaller Forum

The actions mean that the budget debate moves to a smaller, more manageable forum. For the next week or so, six lawmakers, three from the Assembly and three from the Senate, will struggle with crafting a final version.

Gov. George Deukmejian says the Legislature must cut more than $1 billion from the proposal that will be considered by the conference committee to bring the budget into balance. Democrats are resisting the budget cuts, saying they prefer balancing the budget with a tax increase like the one Deukmejian proposed but then withdrew in the face of political pressure from Republicans.

The votes came after rebel Assembly Democrats joined Republicans to knock $26 million in so-called “pork barrel projects” out of the proposed budget.

The bickering centered on funding for such items as a $1,300 swimming pool ramp in the city of Blythe, a $20,000 swimming pool in Cudahy and $95,000 for tennis courts in Santa Barbara.

After hours of debate and parliamentary maneuvering, funding for the projects was finally deleted from one of the versions of the proposed budget when a motion by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) was adopted 40 to 39. Five rebel Democrats, who call themselves the “Gang of Five,” joined 35 Republicans in giving the Peace budget amendment the 40 votes needed for passage.

Republicans complained that projects in their districts were overlooked by Democrats who drafted the budget provisions providing funding for the swimming pool and other recreational projects.

The projects may be added to the budget again when the two-house conference committee meets to negotiate the final version that the Legislature will send to Gov. George Deukmejian.

In other budget action, the Assembly also rejected a budget plan proposed by Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento) on a lopsided 54-14 bipartisan vote. Isenberg, who proposed cutting more than $1 billion from the proposed budget and raising about $550 million by changing tax laws, joked that his budget plan was the only thing that Republicans and Democrats could agree on. “The Republican and Democratic leaders both decided they didn’t want a balanced budget,” Isenberg said after the vote.