Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration said Tuesday that the governor will not commute the sentences of thousands of illegal immigrant inmates even though majority Democrats sent him a budget bill this week that assumes he will do so.

As part of a special session on the state budget, the Legislature on Monday sent Schwarzenegger bills that Democrats said would solve roughly $2.3 billion of the state's $19.9 billion budget deficit.

One proposed reduction was $182 million in the next fiscal year based on Schwarzenegger commuting the sentences of illegal immigrant inmates and handing them to federal officials for deportation.

That figure is based on an estimate Schwarzenegger gave the Legislature in last year's budget, assuming the governor would commute the sentences of up to 8,500 noncitizen inmates.

Schwarzenegger officials now say that the previous figure was vastly overstated. They said Tuesday that the governor plans to commute sentences for only 850 illegal immigrants between now and June 2011. His Department of Finance believes the state will save about $19 million rather than $182 million.

As of Dec. 31, the state had 22,173 inmates with an immigration hold or a likely immigration hold – 13 percent of all prisoners. The governor is considering for commutation only those with one felony for a nonviolent, nonsexual and nonserious crime.

"As we went through the fall and reviewed the cases, we realized there were a lot more serious and violent offenders in this pool than otherwise had been known," said Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.

Democrats said they stuck with the $182 million figure because that's what Schwarzenegger committed to last year. They questioned why the governor proposed that figure last year if it was unattainable.

"I would suggest the Department of Finance needs to get its act together and figure out exactly what it's talking about, because these are numbers they gave us last year," said Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, who heads the Assembly Budget Committee.

Evans said Democrats do not want the governor's commutation criteria expanded.

Republicans charged Tuesday that many spending reductions in the Democratic bill, Assembly Bill X8 2, were overstated. Schwarzenegger assumed in his budget proposal that California would save $450 million by reducing state worker payroll by 5 percent, while Democrats assumed the state would save $580 million.

"Any budget is built on assumptions," said Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar. "He who makes the assumptions is the one who gets to pencil in the numbers."

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