Legislature to vote on Brown’s budget Wednesday

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State lawmakers have scheduled a Wednesday vote on Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget package, though there remains no agreement with Republicans to ensure its passage.

Brown’s budget blueprint would cut deeply into state services for the poor, healthcare and California’s universities to close the state’s more than $25-billion deficit. The proposal also includes asking voters to renew billions in sales, income and vehicle taxes.

Democratic leaders of the state Assembly and Senate scheduled the vote on the 20-bill package despite the lack of an accord.

‘The governor’s proposed budget is the only plan on the table that responsibly and honestly promises to put California’s fiscal crisis behind us once and for all,’ Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said in a written statement.

Brown said Tuesday that he continues to negotiate with Republicans. He needs at least four of their votes to place the tax question on the ballot.

-- Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento