At last, California Senate strikes budget deal

February 19, 7:28 AMCalifornia Statehouse ExaminerScott Sabatini

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Sen. Barbara Boxer joined Dems in pressuring
Republicans for one more vote. AP/Rich Pedroncelli

Finally.

Faced with midnight special meetings, high-profile lobbying and a growing sense of both political and financial peril, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic party coerced a final Republican to break ranks and provide the final vote needed to pass a budget revision that will start to shore up a $42 billion deficit that had the nation state of California on the brink of financial collapse.

The state Senate voted early Thursday morning to approve the budget package that combines deep financial cuts with increased taxes that opponents say will hurt the lower and middle class workers already snowed in by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The final vote came from Sen. Abel Maldonado who negotiated with Schwarzenegger and then made the rounds of the capitol long after midnight last night to get Democratic approval for his wish list of perks that would convince him to break party ranks.

In the end, Democrats agreed to his demands to:
- Place a constitutional amendment establishing an open primary system on the June 2010 ballot.
- Approve a constitutional amendment banning legislative pay increases in budget deficit years
- Eliminate a increase on the gas tax that would have added twelve cents per gallon at the pump and brought in more than $2 billion in revenue.

The budget package is now headed to the Assembly, where the Democrats are counting on three Republicans, believed to already be lined up to give them the super majority required by state law to approve a budget deal.

State worker furloughs will likely be cut from two unpaid days off a month to one, in a deal brokered with the state’s largest state worker union, though it is unclear whether the other unions will follow suit.

Schwarzenegger had sent out Surplus Notices to roughly 20,000 workers warning them of a potential layoff. How many will actually lose their jobs now that a budget is close to being passed remains to be seen.