Posted on 06/10/2005 9:00:29 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Democratic Assembly and Senate leaders announced Friday they have reached an agreement on a state budget, delaying a debate on the thorniest spending issue - public education.
The spending plan approved Friday by the conference committee doesn't raise taxes and is balanced, according to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.
However, not all legislators agreed that it is, indeed, balanced.
"When you have a budget and the largest part is education, to suggest that you've balanced this budget is absurd," said Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin.
"This is about narrowing the differences that we have with the administration and the Republican legislators," added Nunez, D-Los Angeles. "We want the fight to be about education, not about any other aspect of the budget."
The Democrats said they would announce a plan next week that would address public schools spending. Both parties had touted plans to hike income taxes on the highest earners in the state to raise an additional $3 billion for schools.
To invest that much more in education, the Democrats will have to call for a tax increase, Ackerman said, which would also require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.
The move was a tactical one, Nunez acknowledged, because it blunts the governor's criticism of the Legislature's many failures to pass a budget by its June 15 deadline. The Senate and Assembly will vote on the conference report Wednesday.
On Monday, Schwarzenegger is expected to call for a special election in November to address initiatives on new budget restrictions and legislative districts.
Nunez said removing Democrats' education proposals from the budget will allow the budget to go forward "on time and on target," and allow all the debate to focus on education.
"We think that it's actually going to give us the upper hand and we're going to win on the moral compass," Nunez said.
Any budget plan will require a two-thirds vote of both houses to be sent to the governor's desk. To get that majority, Democrats will have to convince six Republican Assembly members and two Republican senators to support the plan.
"Truthfully, even from their perspective this is not a complete budget," said Tom Campbell, Schwarzenegger's finance director.
Schwarzenegger's proposed $115.7 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year benefits from billions of dollars in unanticipated tax income generated by a growing economy.
Education advocates say the windfall should go toward public schools under a promise they say the governor made in December 2003.
Schwarzenegger chose not to put the extra money into schools. Instead, he wants to use the unexpected revenue to pay off state debt and invest in long-neglected transportation programs.
He has noted that his budget calls for a $3 billion increase in the 2005-06 education budget, which would total $60 billion.
Democrats have pointed out that the same higher tax brackets were imposed by former Republican governors Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson during similar times of economic trouble.
But Republican lawmakers said they don't believe that the tax increase is necessary and could stymie the state's economic recovery.
On Monday, Schwarzenegger is expected to call for a special election in November to address initiatives on new budget restrictions and legislative districts.
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I'll say it. So you 'pass" a bloated budget on time, Big hairy deal!
You c"Rats are still scum and deserve to be run out of this state with arses in hand.
>>You c"Rats are still scum and deserve to be run out of this state with arses in hand.
I wish you'd say what you really think ;-)
I'm guessing that Arnie will use his slush-fund bonds to "negotiate" on the education budget.
I wish you'd say what you really think.
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lol.. I'm working on it. I flunked tact class. ;-P
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Nope. I'm not telling you anything of the kind. I posted to NR my "guess" as to what Arnold might do, not what the schools need, or what I think should be done.
Personally, I think the schools could get the job done with substantially less than the numbers Arnold recommended in his budget proposal.
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