You know it’s budget season when…

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In recent days, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been taken to task by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) for his criticism of California’s congressional delegation and the Obama administration. Now, it seems, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) wants in on the action.

Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost sent a release to reporters today calling recent claims from Schwarzenegger “patently false and … yet another example of how the governor refuses to let the facts get in the way of his rhetoric.”

At issue was a claim from the governor’s office this morning that “legislative Democrats disagree with President Obama’s call not to raise taxes.” He cited Steinberg’s proposal to increase tax withholdings on payments to independent contractors as an example of such an increase.

Trost shot back: “The proposal endorsed by Steinberg does not increase anybody’s taxes. It only proposes that independent contractors pay the taxes they currently owe.”

So what is a revenue accelerator, and what is a tax? The answer to this riddle and many more await in the latest chapter of the state’s unfolding, and seemingly never-ending, budget drama.

--Anthony York in Sacramento