The Buzz: Pass Schwarzenegger's budget, Willie Brown says

Sacramento Bee ^ | 7/10/10 | Susan Ferriss

[SmithL]

Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who held the reins of power in the 1980s and '90s, was back at the Capitol this week to second the governor's idea that public pensions need to be cut to control costs.

The Democratic icon told reporters he wasn't close enough to the action now to issue advice to Democrats sparring with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Republicans over the state budget.

But come to think of it, Brown figures Democrats may have missed a move. Back in May, the governor proposed budget cuts that many Democrats and health advocates instantly denounced as draconian. Brown believes legislators should have lobbed the ball back into his court.

"The Legislature should have simply, in my opinion, passed his budget, just as he submitted it," he said. "I know people will jump off the bridge when they hear that. But I'm telling you, I don't think Republicans would vote for it."

[Selene]

Budget Impasse Cost Breakdown

Here is the breakdown of how much money the budget impasse is costing California taxpayers according to the State Department of Finance.

Loss per second = $605.66
Loss per minute = $36,339.42
Loss per hour = $2,180,365.30
Loss per day = $52,328,767.12 
Loss per year = $19,100,000,000.00

http://cbs13.com/reference/Budget.Impasse.Cost.2.1785378.html

Cost California taxpayers $494,864,000 to date

[gogogodzilla]

I can’t read the entire article for the SacBee requires registration.

But I’d wager that his assertion that he didn’t ‘think Republicans would vote for it’ is pretty apt. There are a lot of RINOs that have never met a spending bill they didn’t like.