California Republican Party leaders voted Saturday to oppose all six measures on the May 19 ballot, including a spending limit and temporary tax hike proposal championed by GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines.

The California Republican Party's decision highlighted the rift between its top elected leaders and the conservative base well represented among the 61 executive committee officials who voted Saturday at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Committee members portrayed Saturday's vote as a rejection of the budget deal state leaders reached in February. The six measures would complete the budget package.

"We're against the budget deal, we're against these taxes, and we need to communicate that to our rank-and-file, who to be quite honest are mad and upset," said Mike Spence, head of the initiatives committee, describing the reasons for opposing all of the May 19 proposals.

Schwarzenegger, Villines and former Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill crafted the budget with Democratic leaders after weeks of closed-door meetings. They said compromise was necessary to keep state services intact in the face of a $40 billion deficit.

But the Republican Party base has since criticized the deal, and GOP senators ousted Cogdill as he concluded budget negotiations.

Schwarzenegger did not comment Saturday and was not at the meeting. A Schwarzenegger-backed committee supporting the ballot measures issued a statement from Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who said "it is so disappointing that this small group of party insiders chose to oppose these reforms, particularly Proposition 1A, because this measure will get to the heart of alleviating our budget problems both in the short and long term."

The GOP executive committee was expected to oppose propositions 1A, 1B and 1C, measures that received minimal GOP support in the Legislature. Proposition 1A would bolster the state's "rainy-day fund" and limit spending in good fiscal years while temporarily raising taxes by $16 billion. Proposition 1B would commit the state to pay $9.3 billion to education, and Proposition 1C would borrow $5 billion against future California Lottery sales.

But the executive committee also voted to oppose Propositions 1D, 1E and 1F, which began as Republican ideas. Propositions 1D and 1E would take money from existing special tax funds for mental health and early childhood development for use in the general fund budget. Proposition 1F would ban legislative pay raises in deficit years.

Spence said his panel recommended opposing all six ballot measures largely as a statement against the budget deal to which they are attached, but also to avoid diluting its "no" message.

Villines made the case that Proposition 1A would restrain spending growth. While he acknowledged the budget agreement was not ideal, he suggested Republicans should accept that it was the right deal given the $40 billion deficit and a Democratic-run Legislature.

He also said that stonewalling the budget deal would have simply dared Democrats to pass the spending plan on a majority vote rather than two-thirds supermajority.

"I know it's counterintuitive, but by coming to the table and negotiating, we saved the two-thirds protection," Villines said. "Mark my word, I believe that if these initiatives don't go through, you will see a majority-vote budget, you will see it signed and you will see the defense of taxpayers in this state disappear."

Villines also warned that internal party division and an unwillingness to compromise have threatened the party's future in the state. Former state party chairman Shawn Steel rebuked Villines, blaming registration declines on what he considered an abandonment of anti-tax principles.

Two gubernatorial candidates spoke at Saturday's meeting: former congressman Tom Campbell and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Campbell backed Proposition 1A, calling it "a very good reform" that has won support from the business community.

Poizner said, however, that Republicans should oppose Proposition 1A and other measures because of 1A's tax hikes and because the deal was reached in private. "It is not a good idea to raise taxes in a deep recession," Poizner said.

A third candidate, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, did not appear due to a scheduling conflict, according to her spokesman, Mitch Zak. She sent a letter to the executive committee asking it to reject propositions 1A, 1B and 1C.

The CRP's opposition comes after the party gave $650,000 to Schwarzenegger's ballot-issues committee in January and February. The governor has used much of that money to promote Proposition 1A and other measures.

CRP Chairman Ron Nehring said his party would launch a Web site and use online tools to educate members about the party's opposition to the ballot measures.

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Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548.