Budget Good Will is Fleeting
Governor's call for a deal on his spending initiative is resisted.
Now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sealed a budget deal with top lawmakers, he is turning his attention to what could be another sticky negotiation: finding an alternative to the spending control initiative slated for November's special election.
But Democratic leaders Wednesday were not enthusiastic about striking a deal on a spending measure that is lagging in the polls and that they believe will give more power to the Republican governor and harm schools.
After he announced an accord on a more than $117 billion budget that still will leave the state with at least a $6 billion deficit by next year, Schwarzenegger said he wants to work with the Legislature to find a way to permanently repair the ongoing fiscal imbalance.
After tallying the totals for the budget agreement, the governor's Finance Department said Wednesday the plan will equal more than $117 billion.
The governor said he's eager for a compromise on the centerpiece of his fall "reform" agenda - the measure he calls the Live Within Our Means Act.
"We still have to negotiate our budget structure that still has a big problem, because we are still ending up spending more money than we are taking in," he said after announcing the 2005-06 budget deal Tuesday.
Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the budget today, and the governor is expected to sign it next week.
But Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said he is not planning to negotiate a spending measure by itself.
Instead, he wants a universal accord on the spending measure, an initiative to change the way the state draws its legislative boundaries and an initiative to force public employee unions to obtain individual members' annual written consent before spending dues money on politics. Schwarzenegger has not endorsed the union dues measure but could use his potential support as leverage in negotiations with Democrats.
"All of those things have to be dealt with in one general agreement," Núñez said. "I hope that the same political will that was demonstrated toward finalizing the budget is there to bring some peace to what otherwise will be a very divisive special election in November."
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, however, said he doubts a global agreement can be reached before the deadline for lawmakers to put alternative measures on the Nov. 8 ballot.
"We will make mistake after mistake in my judgment if in fact we try to do something hastily," said Perata, D-Oakland. "I will always sit down and talk with him ... (but) it would take a lot of convincing for me to focus my attention over the next six weeks on the initiatives that he has placed on the ballot."
During the standoff that preceded Tuesday's budget handshake, the governor indicated he wanted to tie a compromise on his ballot measure in with an overall budget agreement.
Democrats threatened to walk away from budget talks unless the two were negotiated separately.
Democrats had dropped calls for tax increases for education spending to instead focus on landing a budget deal quickly and then focusing on defeating the spending control measure, which was trailing 42 percent to 35 percent in a recent Field Poll.
The ballot measure as it stands now would restrict state spending based on an average revenue growth from the previous three-year period.
It also would allow the governor to declare a fiscal emergency up to four times a year if state revenues dip 1.5 percent below the estimates of the governor's Department of Finance. If the Legislature does not act within 45 days to cut spending or raise revenues, the governor would have unilateral power to make spending cuts.
The measure also would change some of the components of the state's Proposition 98 education spending minimum guarantees - including subjecting schools to midyear cuts when revenues fall out of balance with spending.
Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Association, said the group is not eager to embrace any sort of compromise.
"Any provision that would cut schools budgets three times a year and give the governor almost dictatorship-like powers, that's not acceptable," Kerr said.
Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable, said he and California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg, co-authors of the spending control measure, would back a compromise.
"If he (the governor) comes to an agreement with the Legislature on a modified proposition, we'll be supportive of it," he said. "Overall, however the objectives are achieved is really not important. What's important is to achieve the objectives that are in Live Within Our Means."