Posted on 07/09/2002 6:17:43 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
SACRAMENTO -- Republican staff members in the back of the room laughed when the Democrats' budget chairwoman said Monday the two parties were talking every day about their impasse on the state budget.
With a nearly $100 billion spending plan hanging in the balance, affecting everything from local police service to emergency-room care, it appeared Democrats and Republicans in Sacramento had taken to their respective corners and given up on compromise.
Budget chairwoman Jenny Oropeza said talks continue daily, but Republican budget point man John Campbell said he's had no such talks.
Republicans insist they are being kept out of the loop, and that Democrats are interested only in finding four weak links in the GOP who will side with the majority party to put up the two-thirds vote required to pass a spending plan.
But by late afternoon, Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, had met with Republican leadership and promised more talks to follow.
"Every conversation we have advances our efforts to pass this budget," Wesson said.
By all accounts, however, Wesson's sudden willingness seemed an about-face. And although Oropeza, D-Long Beach, said "we are continuing to talk on a daily basis," she conceded she hadn't talked seriously with a Republican since before the July Fourth holiday weekend.
Republican leader Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, called his talk with Wesson on Monday "a cordial first meeting."
A spokeswoman for Wesson said the speaker had met "several times" with Cox in recent weeks, though she couldn't provide dates.
Cox's office confirmed at least one previous meeting.
But, said Cox spokesman Peter DeMarco, "they met only briefly. It was not a very long session."
Republicans complain they haven't met with Gov. Gray Davis since May, when the conference was interrupted by the breaking news that Chandra Levy's remains had been found in a Washington, D.C., park.
Campbell, the GOP representative on the budget committee said he'd had "zero discussions with anyone in the Assembly leadership about this budget."
He said when his talks with Oropeza never went beyond "the weather and what we did over the weekend."
Democrats say, frankly, there's precious little to talk about. They say Republicans have yet to offer a credible alternative to the Senate budget plan that includes tax increases, borrowing and some budget cuts to deal with a record revenue shortfall.
"They don't have a plan that stands up to specific scrutiny," said Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who serves with Oropeza on the joint budget committee.
The state Senate approved the budget late last month before breaking for vacation, leaving the Assembly to follow suit. So far, Republicans have held together, preventing Democrats from picking off enough votes to pass their budget.
Oropeza said the Republicans' budget suggestions have been "fuzzy at best."
She accused Republicans of seeking to delay the budget in order to embarrass Davis, and help Republican challenger Bill Simon.
"This really is not about the budget," she said. "This is really about politics."
"Ludicrous," Campbell said. Anyone who had followed Republican politics, he said, should know that his caucus would naturally oppose a budget that includes a tax increase.
But when pressed for his alternative to a tax increase, Campbell hedged. Republicans have suggested $4 billion in cuts, enough to avoid a tax hike, he said. But so far Campbell and GOP leaders have offered only samples of those cuts, little more than $1 billion, far short of the goal.
* To reach Capitol Bureau Chief Will Shuck, phone (916) 441-4078 or
e-mail sacto@recordnet.com
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And Dim-Bulb Davis had to run to the bathroom because he feared his buddy Condit back in the news might be bad PR for Gray-Out. Or WORSE?
But he's not in power ... yet.
I still want to know why they need just $4 million in cuts to balance a $23 billion budget deficit. In some of my previous messages, I've tried to nail down the smoke and mirrors. The conclusion I came up with was that we should solve the problem by simply fixing this year's budget at precisely the same levels as last year's - no increases anywhere. Last year's budget was $ 80bln! This year's budget was $98bln! So we could come very close to balancing the budget with a simple spending freeze, and then across the board cuts for the rest.
I still don't get what's wrong with that plan. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
Of course one of the problems is the increases Davis gave to various union groups so they would work for him come November. His willingness to allow those increases, of course, was corruption, incompetence, or both. But still, there's plenty left to freeze and then cut.
D
He needs to be reminded that just as many businesses are starting to get their heads above water is not the time to clober them with extra taxes! It's time instead to cut the staff of State Government!
It's the staff... STUPID! That's the message to the lamebrane Demonicrat majority and Dirty Dancin Davis!!!
Sorry, I don't know. I haven't read the budget or compared it to any old ones. Thanks for reminding everybody to think about the missing information.
The article said $4 billion in cuts.
I don't see how the cuts affect the deficit at all, since I thought the budget is $99 billion after the cuts, which are part of the budget.
Without the $4b cuts, wouldn't the budget then be $103b?
To eliminate the deficit, revenue must be increased or spending must be decreased until they at least match. So far, we've heard of tax increases to raise revenue $3-4b, decreasing the deficit to the still enormous $20b.
I've tried to nail down the smoke and mirrors.
In addition to the more-than-doubled vehicle license fees, increased regressive cigarette taxes, and increased fastidiousness by Cal-OSHA inspections and fines of small businesses were the much more expensive things such as:
we should solve the problem by simply fixing this year's budget at precisely the same levels as last year's - no increases anywhere. Last year's budget was $ 80bln! This year's budget was $98bln! So we could come very close to balancing the budget with a simple spending freeze, and then across the board cuts for the rest.
I agree that's a good starting point. They could have saved time by dusting off the budget from last year or the year before that and making smaller changes. The only new spending we must pay is for the expensive long-term energy contracts, but those won't cost anywhere near the $23b deficit amount.
Why don't the Republicans say this idea to the media? It's so simple that anybody should understand. Instead, the democrats just keep saying that the Republicans had not suggested enough spending cuts to offset the tax increases. (It's a lie, but the liberal media reports the untruths anyway.)
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