Today, California legislators will vote on a package of more than a dozen bills in an attempt to close a $24 billion budget gap. The catch is that California requires a two-thirds vote to pass a budget.

Democrats have majorities in both the 80-seat Assembly and the 40-seat Senate, but they will need at least a few Republican votes in each house to reach the two-thirds threshold.

In the absence of legislative action, the state in July will not have sufficient cash to meet all its payment obligations. So if legislators fall short of votes Wednesday, more negotiations will have to occur.

We asked Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee to outline their solutions and vision for the state in this crisis. Here are their responses.

Bass: Supplement cuts with some taxes

By Karen Bass

The recession put California into fiscal crisis. It also puts us at a crossroads.

With the budget solutions the Legislature is advancing, Democrats are standing up for families and the future of this state. The governor and his fellow Republicans need to as well.

Our plan solves the deficit and includes a budget reserve. We also protect vital services and won't allow this crisis to be misused to eliminate the safety net or eviscerate public education.

A cuts-only approach would destroy services that keep vulnerable Californians alive and punish schools that have already been hit hard.

These are some of the real Californians we listened to:

• Teachers who received layoff notices testifying to the harm deeper cuts cause their students.

• A working mother testifying about her family's fear of losing their health coverage.

• A woman needing a wheelchair and oxygen testifying she wants to stay out of a nursing facility, but her in-home assistance would be eliminated by the governor.

• A child whose single mother receives CalWORKs testifying her family would be homeless without that help.

• Young men involved with gangs testifying that Cal Grants helped turned their lives around.

• A man testifying he's three months clean and sober thanks to state-supported treatment.

Even in tough times, there are ways to avoid decimating education or eliminating California's safety net.

California is the only oil-producing state that lets oil companies dodge extraction taxes. That's why we include a 9.9 percent oil severance tax the governor himself proposed in January.

Tobacco contributes to health problems and other strains on the state budget. So we propose increasing the state's tobacco tax by $1.50 per pack to generate $1 billion. The governor has backed tobacco taxes, too.

We also have to look at the arbitrary $4.5 billion reserve the governor proposed. Our approximately $4 billion reserve is responsible and appropriate. Those who want a larger reserve need to find revenues to fund it.

There are $2 billion in taxes in our plan – $2 billion out of $24 billion in solutions and nowhere near the $40 billion in cuts that the state will have endured since 2003.

Unfortunately, the recession means there will also have to be deeper cuts. Instead of racing to eliminate the safety net and damage public schools, though, we should minimize the harm wherever we can. Our plan rejects $700 million of the governor's extra school cuts. There is also federal stimulus money to mitigate some of the damage. Increased flexibility we include for schools will help as well.

While there isn't a federal stimulus option for the safety net, we can maximize what the federal government pays for Medi-Cal – almost $1 billion right now. Our plan also shifts $300 million in DMV funds to counties to help them provide CalWORKs services.

The solutions we're putting forward should be easy for Republicans to support because they have constantly fought to slash state services. It should be easy for the governor to support because we've accepted virtually all of his realistic ideas, including revenue sources.