Two top Democrats say they plan to make deep budget cuts
Two of the architects of the failed ballot slate – Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) – said during a joint press conference that they intend to make deep cuts, and resolve the crisis quickly.
Steinberg said voters sent a message to lawmakers that they need tackle the deficit in Sacramento, not resort to ballot-box solutions.
“The people were telling us – don’t bring this problem to our doorstep,” he said.
“We are committed to making sure it’s not a long, hot summer in Sacramento,” Steinberg said. “We are going to cut.... We’re not shying away from that.”
Even programs long favored by Democrats will be under the knife.
“Whatever needs to be done, you do it,” Bass said, adding that “we’re going to put everything on the table.”
With a looming cash crisis, speed is of the essence, Bass said. “We can’t have a long, protracted fight for a budget.”
While the big five meets behind closed doors, the two houses will be holding daily meetings to hash out the budgetary issues as quickly as possible. The first session is set to begin Thursday.
Meanwhile, Bass privately told Assembly Democrats not to expect any spending legislation to get traction this year. The focus on all fronts, she told lawmakers, will be slashing the deficit.
Like Schwarzenegger, the pair is targeting a long list of likely spending cuts to all corners of the state bureaucracy – corrections, health and welfare programs, the state workforce, schools, local governments. They also expect some state programs to be eliminated outright or consolidated.
They also said yet another push for tax or fee hikes remains an option, despite staunch opposition from Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers.
Steinberg, however, said that Democrats would not be “leading with our chin…. We’re not leading with taxes.”
A tax increase, he added, “is a little counterintuitive” given this week’s landslide defeat and the pain voters are feeling with the recession.
Steinberg also expressed hope that California can navigate a course out of this crisis to better days soon.
“The world is not coming to an end here,” he said. “California is going to live to fight another day.”
--Eric Bailey
