Budget Stalled, but the Barbs Still Fly

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accused lawmakers Monday of trying to steal money from local governments, but the speaker of the Assembly said the governor’s own double-dealing is one reason the state still has no budget six days into the fiscal year.

The barbs came as lawmakers prepared to return to the Capitol today to resume budget negotiations that broke down last week after disagreements over how to fund local government boiled over into a partisan fight.

Schwarzenegger urged voters to pressure their legislators to take prompt action on his $103-billion budget plan during a Central Valley campaign swing through a Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant and a Mary’s Pizza Shack in this small town. Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) was in his office at the Capitol, where he accused the governor of having “flip-flopped on local government proposals.”

Budget talks remain stalled over the governor’s plan to take $2.6 billion from local governments over the next two years in exchange for protection from any future cuts. Democrats in the Legislature still want access to local government money in cases of fiscal emergency. Schwarzenegger initially offered support for a Democratic alternative but abandoned it after local officials and legislative Republicans responded angrily.

At Mary’s, Schwarzenegger tapped a spoon against a glass to quiet the 50 or so people in the room. “The legislators want to take the money away from you continuously and rob you blind!” the governor shouted, to cheers from the diners.

During his Chevys appearance, Schwarzenegger called on Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) to hold floor votes on his original proposal.

“Let the people see who is against it and who is for it,” he said. “Let’s go through the democratic process, let’s put it up on a vote. And they all split. They all ran. Last Friday they all disappeared. The Assembly and the Senate disappeared. There was no vote. So how do we now know who was against and who was for it? How do we know really how many are against it and how many are for it?”

Nunez said the governor knows there are almost no Democrats in favor of the measure but wants to force the issue anyway so Republicans can use it to campaign on in the fall, when every seat in the Assembly and half of those in the Senate are up for election.

“We are not on a movie set here,” Nunez said. “This is real life.... You don’t undermine someone you are negotiating with. The governor needs to develop a deeper appreciation for the legislative leadership.”

“The speaker is wrong, and his staff understood there was no flip-flop ... there had been no deal,” said Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger’s spokeswoman.

Democrats warned that the governor’s local government proposal would have unintended consequences.

It would give local governments more protection than schools, transportation or anything else in the state budget. It would leave cities reliant on sales taxes for a large portion of their budgets, something planners say has forced many to go after “big box” retail development, resulting in sprawl that strains local services. And even in a dire emergency, the state would not be able to temporarily borrow some of the money set aside for local government without changing the Constitution.

“The proposal is flawed,” said Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), adding that there are ways to improve it without jeopardizing future assistance to cities and counties. “The cities pose it as an ‘either-or,’ and it is not.”

A spokesman for the coalition of cities and counties supporting the measure say the group will continue to push for nothing short of the original deal it worked out with the governor.

And Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield says he sees no reason to compromise before the original proposal is voted on in the Assembly.

“Have a debate on the issues, and let the power of ideas win,” he said.

Schwarzenegger, however, said he was prepared to be flexible. During his swing through Dixon, he suggested he is aggressively looking for middle ground.

“When I made a deal with the local government, I said, ‘The legislators have to approve it,’ so it could very well be that there’s a deal being made,” he said.

“Look, how could we in the case of an emergency go back, but how do we make sure also at the same time we don’t do it year after year after year? So there is somewhere in the middle probably a compromise. And this is what we are working on today and tomorrow.”

But at the same appearance, the governor compared the lawmakers to children.

After 5-year-old Ashley Everett said, “You are the kindergarten cop!” the governor replied that she was correct. “And you know something, nothing changed because that’s what I am in the Capitol still. I have 120 children.”

He also said the legislators needed “a timeout.”