Democrats shift gears to get state budget done on time

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 6/11/5 | Lynda Gledhill, Mark Martin

[SmithL]

Sacramento -- Democratic lawmakers, dramatically shifting strategy as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to call a special election, endorsed a budget on Friday that does not raise taxes to increase education funding and promised to vote on the spending plan by next week's constitutional deadline.

Assembly and Senate leaders said they would push separately for a plan to boost education funding -- possibly a ballot measure -- but did not disclose details. By not linking a major school finance increase to next year's budget and averting a protracted budget battle, Democrats hope to deprive Schwarzenegger of the ability to paint them as do-nothing lawmakers as he campaigns for his ballot measures.

"We could have held up the budget on education,'' Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said. "... We had to make a fundamental choice: to work and get the budget taken care of first, and then go back and do a hard run at education.''

The shift in strategy is not without political risk. Democrats may be giving up much of their leverage in negotiations with the governor by temporarily backtracking on schools, and some Republican lawmakers indicated they wouldn't go along with the plan. A handful of GOP votes are needed to approve a spending plan.

The most contentious issue in this year's budget debate has been how much money schools should receive. Democrats had said they wanted a tax increase to give schools another $3.1 billion over two years, money they believe is owed under a deal the education community struck with Schwarzenegger last year. But the governor said that money is not available.

[SmithL]

Nice compromise.

[goldstategop]

Its not a compromise at all. Unless the Democrats give ground on education spending, we don't have a real budget. Its a farce.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)