Tuesday had been the day for a scheduled budget vote as requested by Sen. Perata a week before. The Assembly had none scheduled as it wouldn’t be seen as productive with the sides so far apart. That changed Friday as Speaker Bass decided that the Assembly should also take an action today with a vote up or down on the budget. Then, yesterday, the Senate canceled their vote and soon the Assembly did too. With Sen. Perata stating that the discussions were warming up to a more co-operative tone, that holding a vote would only detract from that thawing process, it was a good thing to not go through with a for-show only vote today.
With the $9 Billion in new taxes likely to still have been in a Tuesday vote document, no budget reform agreed upon yet, as well as several other important points not agreed upon it would’ve been a waste of everyone’s time to bring up [or down to Sacramento for us northerners] 120 leglslators to go through an exercise that not even the Big 4 can agree on. Much staff time and much printing are required to even do an exercise vote. Then there would be the floor speeches that would go on and on about how far we are apart, driving the sides further apart, in rhetoric anyway.
Many Californians are waiting and depending on a finished budget. They are very frustrated with the lateness of it and for good reason. I just don’t see a vote coming up this week at all, but our month-long recess is over Monday, Aug 4, as we will all be back for the regular session schedule when committees will meet, etc. Meanwhile the Big 4 budget discussions will hopefully progress until then and then concurrently when we’re all back in "The Building".