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Posted on 09/02/2002 10:59:46 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
LOS ANGELES – A weary Gov. Gray Davis said yesterday the budget passed after midnight by the Legislature was an important step toward dealing with possible future deficits.
Davis said that future deficits would not rise to the level of this year's $23.6 billion shortfall. He also dismissed charges that he was not actively involved in budget negotiations.
"The budget solution followed closely the framework I established over these past several months," Davis said during a conference call with reporters.
"I think the media puts too much emphasis on meetings," he said.
But Republicans were quick to blast Davis, a Democrat, and charged that the budget will do nothing to reduce the chances of another multibillion-dollar deficit next year.
"The plain fact is the budget is full of smoke and mirrors and Gov. Davis has unfinished business and should call a special session of the Legislature to deal with the structural deficit and Enron-style accounting," said Republican businessman Bill Simon, Davis' opponent in November.
The Legislature approved a $99 billion budget yesterday, ending the state's longest impasse between Republican and Democratic leaders over whether to raise taxes or carve into programs to plug the budget deficit.
Lawmakers also approved a last-minute array of bills on issues ranging from construction defects to driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.
The vote ended more than 60 days of standoff with a package that includes a total of about $9 billion in spending cuts and about $2.4 billion in revenue increases.
The overdue deal reached in the final hours of the legislative session omitted proposals to raise taxes on smokers and drivers to help fill the $23.6 billion shortfall.
The Assembly voted 54-26 in favor of the budget shortly after midnight yesterday – just enough for the required two-thirds majority – generating applause and high fives.
The state Senate then concurred with the Assembly's plan and bills needed to enact it, and the budget was sent to Davis two months into the fiscal year.
Davis said he would take until at least Thursday to decide which bills, if any, to veto, and to sign the budget bills into law.
The 11th-hour vote ended the intense negotiations by Davis and the Legislature's majority Democrats to get the necessary Republican votes.
Assemblyman Keith Richman, a first-term Republican from Northridge, said he didn't think it would hurt him politically to break with Republicans and vote for the budget.
"There were no easy choices in this budget. We found ourselves in a real fiscal mess in California," Richman said. "This is a more fiscally prudent budget than the one submitted by the governor."
One condition of Richman's support – putting to voters a constitutional amendment steering a gradually increasing percentage of the general budget to schools, highways, parks and water projects starting in 2006 – cleared the Assembly on Saturday.
The 2002-03 budget was approved later than any in recorded California history. Most state workers continued to be paid, although legislative staffers and elected officials have not received paychecks for two months.
Why didn't they get that phrase into the Headlines?
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calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
A weary Gov. Gray Davis
Stay and fight Parley. We need you. Think of the honor of being part of the California Alamo.
I'm sure Governor Bustamante will publically honor your dedication.
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