The Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters writes today about the Assembly’s new budget proposal I mentioned yesterday:
What could be an epic battle over how to close a $15 billion-plus deficit in the 2008-09 state budget began in earnest Thursday when the Assembly’s Democratic majority unveiled its version, which includes more than $6 billion in new revenues.
Karen Bass, the new speaker of the Assembly, and her colleagues contend the revenues can be raised from closing unspecified tax loopholes “without impacting ordinary Californians or harming the economy.” Republicans – whose votes would be needed to pass a budget – have already rejected that approach as being new taxes by another name.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is somewhere in the middle, saying he opposes new taxes but is open to loophole-closing. Democrats, however, flatly reject his call for budget process changes that, among other things, would give him more power to make unilateral spending cuts.
And when might all of these budget battles result in a final budget?:
The state constitution says the budget is to be enacted by June 15, a date that’s only rarely met. The next deadline is July 1, when the new fiscal year is to begin, but that’s likely to pass without a budget as well.
After that, the target date would be somewhere around Sept. 1 for two reasons – the state could face a cash crunch in August, unable to pay its bills without borrowing more money from Wall Street bankers, and the first part of September probably is the drop-dead date for placing something before voters on the November ballot. It’s generally agreed that any fundamental change in the state lottery to make it attractive to would-be lenders would have to be approved by voters.
There is a third reason as well: The Legislature is supposed to end its 2008 session on Aug. 31.
Whether a budget can be hammered out by then is very problematic, given the rigid ideological positions of both parties on the interrelated issues of spending and taxes as well as the declining public standing of Schwarzenegger, who has almost no power to pressure even fellow Republicans into voting his way on any issue.
