Legislators to Take Hit in Wallets

A partisan standoff over a new state budget is set to claim a fresh round of victims: the lawmakers who can’t agree on the spending package.

Although most of the state’s 250,000 employees will receive their first paychecks of the new fiscal year Tuesday, state Controller Kathleen Connell said she does not plan to pay elected officials, including herself, Gov. Gray Davis and state legislators.

Connell also said she won’t dole out per diem payments to lawmakers or reimburse them or other state employees for travel expenses. It is common for most of California’s 120 legislators to make weekly trips between Sacramento and their home districts.

“We need to put a little pain over in the Capitol,” Connell said.

A $99-billion spending plan cleared the state Senate last month, but it remains mired in the Assembly. Four Republican votes are needed to pass the budget, but the GOP lawmakers are holding out because they object to nearly $4 billion in new taxes and other new revenue included in the proposal.

The standoff caused Gov. Gray Davis to miss signing a budget by the July 1 deadline, the start of the new fiscal year. He is trying to persuade the minimum four Republicans to vote for the plan.

Connell said Wednesday that she thinks Davis needs to meet with legislative leaders from both houses to work out a deal, warning that California is headed toward a “danger zone.” If the state does not have a new budget in place by mid-August, she said, it could complicate her ability to borrow billions of dollars needed to keep California’s finances running smoothly.

Other victims of the battle are about 2,400 legislative employees, who first missed their paychecks July 15 and are set to miss another round Tuesday. Connell said she also plans not to pay 376 appointed executive officers, constitutional officers and Cabinet members.

In addition, bills from vendors who do business with the state, such as providing food services to hospitals and prisons, will go unpaid until a budget is approved.