Wrapping up hundreds of bills in the past week, California lawmakers finished their legislative session Sunday, but for the first time ever they did not pass a budget – and there is no deal in sight.
The impasse rubbed some of the luster off Sunday's getaway day, usually an emotional time of goodbye speeches and tearful hugs as legislators wish farewell to termed-out colleagues.
State law allows the Legislature to work past Sunday's constitutional deadline for passing bills but only until Nov. 15 and only on urgency measures – such as a budget – that require a two-thirds vote.
Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, has ordered his house to meet today to put pressure on budget negotiations.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is giving her members Labor Day off but has ordered them to reconvene Wednesday.
No votes were taken Sunday on a new budget.
Scores of other bills cleared their final legislative hurdle, however, including Assembly Bill 1945, to regulate cancellation of health insurance policies; AB 2537, to extend an exemption allowing volunteers to serve on public projects; and Senate Bill 1301, to allow longtime illegal immigrants to apply for college aid.
Bills that died included SB 1522, to split health plans into five tiers to allow consumers to compare prices and services; and SB 110, to create a 21-member commission to revise criminal sentencing and parole rules.
AB 2058, to require stores that do not meet recycling goals to charge a 25-cent fee for plastic carryout bags, beginning in 2011, was killed in the Senate before reaching the floor.
The Capitol's decks now are cleared for budget talks.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget, to bridge a $15.2 billion deficit, includes a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase, future spending restraints and an economic stimulus plan.
But Schwarzenegger's plan has not been warmly embraced by Republicans who balk at the temporary tax increase, or by Democrats who oppose key elements of the spending restraints and stimulus plan.
Perata said the ball is in the GOP's court as the Senate waits for Republicans to put the counterproposal they offered over the weekend into legal language.
"We've gone as far as we can," he said. "(Schwarzenegger) doesn't seem to be able to move the Republicans and, Lord knows, I can't."
Republicans say that it could take a week to put their proposal into bill form.
That means Republican lawmakers will miss their national convention in Minnesota, just as Democrats missed their convention last week in Colorado.
Perata denied he was getting even with Republicans.
"(The media) would hammer us if we were not doing what we're supposed to be doing," he said. "We're going to be here working."
Bass said she had difficulty deciding whether to meet without a budget to vote on.
"You're damned if you do and damned if you don't, because if you stay here you're earning per diem," she said, referring to the $170 a day lawmakers get while in session.
Call Aurelio Rojas, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5545.
