Calling it 'inhumane,' Democrats defeat GOP state budget plan
Sacramento Bee
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
By Aurelio Rojas
Calling it "inhumane," Democrats defeated a Republican state budget proposal that would have made deeper cuts in health and human services and borrowed against future lottery revenue.
The 21-13 party-line vote – 14 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for a budget in the 40-member Senate – was expected. It leaves California without a spending plan a record 71 days into the fiscal year.
The budget was the third in as many weeks to be voted down in the Legislature, but the first proposed by GOP lawmakers.
As with previous debates, the two sides do not appear to be making any headway: Republicans continue to oppose any new taxes while Democrats say the state cannot cut its way out of a $15.2 billion deficit.
Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said that because of the state's ailing economy "now is not the time to increase taxes on the people of California."
"We're willing to talk to you about anything, but not new taxes," Cogdill told Democrats during the one-hour debate.
Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata, D–Oakland, said he was "angry and frustrated" with trying to figure out what it will take for Republicans to vote for a budget.
"I'm no damn closer today in knowing than I was three months ago," Perata said.
Republicans in the Assembly, which could vote today on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan, previously defeated a Democratic plan that would have boosted taxes on the top income bracket – a proposal the GOP governor also opposes.
In the Senate, Republicans previously defeated a Democratic plan that called for a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase supported by the governor.
The Republican plan defeated Monday would have replaced the $4 billion from the proposed sales tax, partly by making $1.6 billion more in budget cuts, mostly from health and human services programs.
The proposal got not a vote from Democrats who called it inhumane. Republican Sens. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria and Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield abstained.
The Republican plan also would have borrowed $2 billion from lottery revenue – which Democrats say would shortchange schools and not withstand legal challenge. The GOP plan also would have taken $349 million from a fund that cities and counties tap for low- and middle-income housing.