Daniel Weintraub: Governor frustrated by no budget deal

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger looked and sounded last week like a man in anger-management therapy.

Having pledged to make nice with state legislators from both parties, Schwarzenegger was facing the biggest challenge yet to his new tack: 14 Republican state senators who refuse to vote for a budget that just about everyone else in the Capitol thinks is the best lawmakers can do this year.

The spending plan is now six weeks past the Legislature's deadline in the state Constitution, more than a month into the fiscal year that began July 1. The proposal on the table increases general fund spending less than 1 percent, does not raise taxes, pays down a chunk of the state's debt and includes the largest reserve in state history.

But it's not good enough for the Senate Republicans, who took a vow to each other not to split with their pack unless a majority of them approved the new plan. So far, one member -- Abel Maldanado of Santa Maria -- has cut himself loose, but the rest remained loyal to the group as of Friday.

Their unity left the budget one vote short of the two-thirds majority it needs for passage. The plan won that super-majority in the Assembly on July 21, when all of the Democrats and a handful of Republicans, including their leader, voted for the bill. Schwarzenegger at first tried to stay neutral to give Republicans in the Senate some room to maneuver, but he has since endorsed the Assembly product wholeheartedly.

In a meeting with reporters Thursday, the governor talked about the state programs disrupted because of the lack of spending authority, and he promised to use his emergency powers where necessary to keep essential services running. He said he was losing patience with his Republican colleagues. His biggest frustration, he said, is that they seem to have no bottom line.

At first, the Republicans complained that the budget passed by the Assembly was not balanced. On paper, it spends $700 million more in the next 11 months than the state expects to collect in taxes, covering that shortfall with money left over from last year. But Republicans say there are so many flimsy assumptions built into the plan that the deficit is actually many times larger than that. At a minimum, they said, they wanted to erase the $700 million gap, and last week, Schwarzenegger agreed to that demand.

"The budget debate started with a call by Senate Republicans to eliminate the operating deficit," he said, speaking in measured tones. "We worked on that, even though in the beginning I didn't believe it was possible. But then, every day, and every week, the numbers started coming down and down and down. I even committed to use my line-item veto authority to give them exactly what they've asked for, which is a zero-operating deficit. So Senate Republicans had a budget yesterday that they wanted, and this is why I'm so disappointed why they didn't vote for it. They should have voted for it last night. But it was obviously not enough."

No name-calling. No tough-guy posturing. No Hollywood movie references. No threats. Although his aides suggested he was frustrated, bordering on angry, in public Schwarzenegger conveyed only a kind of sadness that he had been unable, despite his efforts, to bring everyone together. And he seemed bewildered about what to do next.

"I don't really know now what it takes to close it," he said. "I hope they know."

The Senate Republican leader, Dick Ackerman of Irvine, told me that the governor's promised vetoes were "probably acceptable" to his members, but he said there were "more parts to the budget deal than the deficit," and there were other issues the Republicans still wanted to resolve.

They ranged from the ticky-tack, such as their opposition to an item that would let the city of Santa Cruz buy a tiny state park that includes a local lighthouse, to the significant, including special provisions directing tens of millions of dollars in projects to the districts of the two Democratic legislative leaders.

Their biggest demand actually has little to do with the budget.

Republicans are insisting on legislation that would bar Attorney General Jerry Brown from suing cities and counties to block new development on the grounds that local plans don't consider the impact of new projects on global warming. Schwarzenegger said he was sympathetic to the Republicans' complaint on that issue but did not believe the budget debate was the place to resolve it.

The governor conceded that he was frustrated, while insisting that he was still "having fun" working his way through the state's problems and the complex political machinations it takes to get a budget in place. But he did sound as if he were trying to convince himself.

"Nothing comes easy," he said. "It is fun to struggle toward something. I don't mind struggling, as long as the result is then good. So that's why you've got to continue working on those things. And I'm optimistic that we can get it done."

About the writer:

• The Bee's Daniel Weintraub can be reached at (916) 321-1914 or at dweintraub@sacbee.com. Readers can see his blog about health care at www.sacbee.com/healthcare.