Just hours before budget negotiations begin at the Capitol, Republican state senators declined to specify today what big-ticket costs they favor chopping to solve a massive $21.3 billion deficit.
Instead, gathered at a press conference outside the Capitol, the senators said the collapse of all but one ballot proposition Tuesday was a green light for long-range plans to cut public spending in the future. They unveiled a series of reform ideas to change school spending and hold state bureaucracies accountable for performance by imposing "term limits" on them or requiring them to "prove their worth" to be funded.
"Solving the latest budget crisis does nothing to solve the underlying disease," said the Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta.
Hollingsworth will be attending the so-called Big Five leadership meeting behind closed doors this afternoon with Democratic majority leaders, GOP leaders in the Assembly and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The GOP Senate leader said the first proposal he will put on the table is to allow more public access to budget talks, but he didn't elaborate on how.
"The spending cuts are going to come from the governor's proposals," Hollingsworth said. "We need to go through his proposal with a fine-tooth comb."
The senators said they interpreted the outcome of Tuesday's election as a clear order from voters for no more taxes. Hollingsworth also said the defeat of Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E was a sign that voters don't favor the state borrowing to fill budget holes. The three propositions would have allowed the state to borrow from Lottery earnings as well as funds dedicated to early childhood development services and community mental-health services.
Borrowing money from local governments figures large in the governor's budget proposals, as the state government scrambles for ways to pay bills and keep services going.
Hollingsworth declined to get into details of whether he would go along with the governor's proposals for massive cuts to education and the state prison system, which are the two biggest recipients of state revenue. Various slashes to social programs are also on the table.
"Unfortunately," Hollingsworth said, "all the choices are bad now."
The only specific suggested immediate cuts that the GOP senators spoke strongly in favor of focused on reducing commissions and agencies they view as either useless or redundant and better absorbed into other state entities.
Call Susan Ferriss, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1267.
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