On the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert website, they have an entry Sparks Begin To Fly Over Dems’ Budget Plan where it is made clear that Republicans will not support any additional tax increases. But Senate President Darrell Steinberg suggests that Republicans will support the non-taxes portion of their package.
"Why isn’t it better to solve $21 billion instead of zero?" says Steinberg in the piece.
Even if you ignore, for the sake of discussion, that some of the "non-tax" solutions in that $21 billion figure involve shameful gimmickry like paying state employees perpetually on July 1 instead of June 30, thus perennially sliding over a billion dollars in payroll obligations into the ether, Republicans have EVERY REASON to oppose any solution that doesn’t solve the entire $24 billion shortfall.
If a plan is adopted that solves 80% of the problem, all that means is that we will be back at this in the Spring, with a shortfall, and an immediate need to do something to resolve it. It obviously takes time to make cuts that result in substantial savings. Democrats want to "kick the can" to the Spring, and then try to force new taxes through the legislature arguing there isn’t time for cuts to impact the deficit.
It’s time for Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and their budget negotiators to have a real discussion about a plan to deal with the entire $24 billion problem.
As Governor Schwarzenegger’s Press Secretary Aaron McLear says in the Bee piece, "Anything less than $24 (billion) doesn’t solve the problem."