Sixty days into the fiscal year, the Senate's first budget vote fell three votes shy today after Republicans, as expected, opposed a temporary sales tax increase supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats.
Assembly Republicans earlier this month defeated a spending plan that would have boosted taxes on the top income bracket, a proposal Schwarzenegger opposed.
The two votes were widely viewed as drills intended to publicly air partisan differences. Barring a quick resolution, the Legislature next week will set a record for a late budget.
Senate Republican Leader Leader Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said the Senate plan gives his caucus "a document to work with."
"We expect very shortly, within 24 to 48 hours, we will have our proposal," Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said Friday after the vote.
During a news conference in San Diego before the vote, Schwarzenegger praised the $103.4 billion spending plan as "very courageous."
Fashioned on a proposal the Republican governor unveiled earlier this month, it includes a three-year, one-cent sales tax increase Schwarzenegger has called for.
But the proposal does not lower the tax by 1.25 cents in the fourth year as he requested.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said "the only demand we did not give the governor is the tax break -- the tax cut after the temporary tax expires."
"A back-end tax cut only once again postpones fiscal solvency until the next governor is elected," Perata said.
A budget vote requires a two-thirds majority - 27 votes in the Senate. But the latest proposal got only 24 votes with all 15 Republicans voting against it. One Democrat - Sen. Lou Correa of Santa Ana - abstained.
Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, said a tax increase "should be the last thing we do" because of the state's fragile economy.
"Increasing taxes will only put more Californians out of work and delay the economic recovery," Dutton said during the Senate debate.
Cogdill said the Republican counter-proposal will be "more responsible" and balance the budget "without a tax increase."
With the state facing a $15.2 billion deficit, that would require deeper program cuts and borrowing, which the governor and Democrats oppose.
"Get us a budget that balances without borrowing, get us a budget that does not open next year with a $12 billion hole," Perata challenged Republicans,
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