Standoff Torpedoes Budget Deadline

SACRAMENTO -- A partisan standoff in the Assembly on Sunday over $4 billion in new taxes caused Gov. Gray Davis to miss a midnight deadline for signing a new state budget by the start of the fiscal year.

Assembly Republicans halted passage of the budget, saying that it spends too much money and does too little to avoid the billions of dollars in tax hikes necessary to close a $23.6-billion deficit. The plan failed 49 to 26, five votes short of passage.

The Assembly is scheduled to meet again today.

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) said he was disappointed and voiced frustration over what he described as months of trying to negotiate with his GOP counterpart, Dave Cox of Fair Oaks.

“I don’t consider the word ‘No’ to be negotiating,” Wesson said. “Now the clock’s ticking. Being the optimistic person that I am, I would hope we’d begin negotiating in earnest.”

Davis, meanwhile, compared spending cuts proposed by the GOP with cotton candy, suggesting that they lacked substance.

“I am disappointed in the Assembly Republicans. They proved they had one goal and one goal only, which is to obstruct passage of the budget.”

The budget cleared the Senate on Saturday after a lone Republican, Sen. Maurice Johannessen of Redding, joined the Democratic majority in supporting it. In the Assembly, however, four Republican votes are needed to approve the plan, which then goes to Davis for his signature.

Democrats accused Republicans on Sunday of holding up the budget to embarrass Davis, who is running for reelection against GOP candidate Bill Simon. Republicans brushed the contention aside and took turns attacking the document, saying it raids transportation funds, borrows heavily against the future and raises taxes.

The spending plan and a variety of related bills would double vehicle license fees paid by motorists to raise $1.3 billion in the new fiscal year. The package also would increase the state excise tax on cigarettes by 63 cents for a total tax of $1.50 per pack to raise $650 million.

Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside) unleashed a blistering attack on the spending plan. He accused Democrats of “financial insanity” and described the document as “worthless trash.”

Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) said the plan is more than Californians can handle.

“They can’t afford your tax increases,” Strickland said. “They can’t afford your spending here in Sacramento.”

Democrats lined up to defend the plan and their efforts to reduce spending.

“We looked everywhere we could to find savings, in every corner of the state,” said Assembly Budget Committee Chairwoman Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach).

In a sign that perhaps all is not well in the Democratic caucus, Assemblywoman Helen Thomson (D-Davis) warned that the state could hurt people by adopting the plan because it contains too few new taxes, and that she would only reluctantly vote to support it.

“We’re hurting real people,” Thomson said. “What saves me today is that I know there [aren’t] going to be 54 votes.”

Republicans and Democrats traded barbs over a decision by Democrats to pass a measure that diminished the need for Republican support on a $1.7-billion education funding shift sought by Davis to help balance the budget.

Assembly Republicans had withheld their support for the plan in an effort to get Democrats to sign off on a GOP proposal to earmark $400 million in the 2003-04 fiscal year to help make funding between rural and urban schools more even.

Assembly Democrats approved a measure Sunday that re-appropriates $1.7 billion in current year money for community colleges and K-12 schools to the California State University system, so the money can later be appropriated back to community colleges and public schools. The change did not require Republican support.

“That’s what happens when you try to paint one side into a corner,” said Assemblyman Thomas Calderon (D-Montebello). “We just painted a new door.”

Assemblyman George Runner Jr. (R-Lancaster) described the Democrats’ actions as a “shell game.”

“It’s a high-handed manipulation of the law,” Runner said. “And you can do it, but it doesn’t serve the state of California well.”