Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to The Bee on Thursday after embracing a temporary 1-cent sales tax proposal to help bridge a $15.2 billion budget shortfall. Under the plan, the sales tax after three years would drop permanently by 1.25 cents, and lawmakers would agree to support long-term budget changes. The state is now 53 days into the fiscal year without a budget.

You campaigned on the idea of no new taxes. Do you feel that you broke that promise?

I look at that as being realistic and not getting stuck in ideology but doing what is right for the state at this time. There are others that believe differently, others that will want to borrow even though they have said they will never borrow again for ongoing programs. So they just see it differently. Of course, with Republicans, I think it has been difficult up until now because we have never seen their numbers … I want to see where they are going to make all those cuts and where they are going to get the money to fill the hole. … All of those things they have not laid out anywhere.

Do you see the sales-tax proposal as a tax increase, tax decrease or a neutral proposition? How do you define it in your own mind?

It doesn't matter how I define it because it has nothing to do with definition as it does with what time you're talking about. If you talk about a year into it, it's a tax increase. If you talk about 12 years after, it is revenue neutral. If you talk about 20 years from now, it is a tax decrease.

Past governors have closed deals with minority-party lawmakers by offering enticements, perhaps spending in their districts or future appointments. Other governors have tried to play hardball and threaten them. Are we at the point where those are the only options available to you?

Well, there were different systems used. But first of all, I would never exchange a job for anything like that. It's two different issues. If someone is qualified for a job and they want a job, they should come to me and I will tell them, "You're a good, smart person, you can have this job." That exchanging of gifts is not something that I'm interested in. The second thing is, yes, governors in the past have said, "We're going to stop the public works projects in your neighborhood and building roads and all of those things." Who are we going to punish? The politicians or the people? So what you're really doing is punishing the people. If I'm a public servant, that's not the direction I want to go.

That's why I went public to say, "Look, I'll step out there and take the risk of getting attacked, but it's OK." You've got to have political courage to move the agenda forward rather than always being scared about your own political career, what does it mean, and all of those kind of things.

These are all people that admire our great men and women who go to Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at what they risk; they risk their lives. That's heroic.

To be afraid of what the consequences are, that's quite the opposite.

And we have a problem with experience … when you take all the legislative leaders today that I am dealing with, the four, they have 26 years of experience. And (former Govs. George) Deukmejian and (Pete) Wilson, when they dealt with the leaders, they had 80 years of experience.

Would you have a budget by now if former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez or some more experienced leaders like former Senate President Pro Tem John Burton were in leadership at this point?

It's a guess. I would say that it would help us move forward rather than them just coming in here and saying no to everything. "No, no, no, no" is like the mantra. It's for (Senate Republican leader Dave) Cogdill the first budget and it's for (Assembly Speaker) Karen Bass the first budget. It makes it very, very difficult, (more) than when you have people who have done it for years. It's just one of those examples that chasing people out of the building after a certain amount of years, even though they're still capable of leading and doing a good job, like Burton, is a mistake.

Do you think legislators should continue to vote on bills upstairs and have tributes to (termed-out) members?

Look, I'm not trying to tell them what to do up there because, you know, I'm trying to act as the grown-up in the budget negotiations here. They have to figure out how they're going to handle it and how they're going to do everything. I have made strong recommendations 14 days ago that I was disappointed that they came back from their vacation or recess and went about with the bills rather than going about with the budget and all sitting down and all trying to figure out in their caucuses how to move this forward. I don't have the power to go and say, "Stop, and let's lock the building and just spend time on the budget." I wish I had that power. It would be wonderful because then the budget would be done quicker.

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