Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went public Wednesday with yet another state budget proposal, one that he said reflects a true compromise between Republican and Democratic goals for a spending plan.
The proposal includes a three-year, one-cent increase in the sales tax, an effort to build a bigger state savings account for rainy days, and more spending cuts than he proposed when he released his last set of ideas in May.
With no budget agreement in sight in the Legislature 51 days into the fiscal year, Schwarzenegger said the lack of a budget is "shameful."
"Many Medi-Cal hospitals are not getting paid, neither are nursing homes and state child care workers, " the Republican governor said.
He said the budget system changes in his proposal would avoid putting "Californians through this kind of madness every time there is an economic slowdown."
"It's time for the dialogue to stop and to create some action," he said. "Republicans must step out of their ideological corner on the right, and Democrats must step out of their ideological corner on the left."
Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are still struggling over how to bridge a $15.2 billion shortfall in a $101 billion spending plan.
The governor expects to raise about $6 billion annually from the sales tax increase for three years, then drop the rate even lower than consumers pay now - by a quarter cent.
California's current sales tax rate is 6.25 percent, but all counties charge at least an additional 1 percent, many even more than that.
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