Progress in budget negotiations remains as fleeting as ever, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass told a group of reporters in her Capitol office on Monday.
"There's no huge deal that we're getting ready to pop up in the next few days," Bass said.
As a result, the Los Angeles Democrat is missing her party's national convention in Denver, where she "would love to be."
Instead, she is here in Sacramento negotiating the budget, though not in meetings with her fellow legislative leaders and the governor.
"We have not had a meeting of the Big 4 or the Big 5 in about a week," Bass said.
Bass has been meeting with Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines.
"He is very clear that they (Republicans) will not vote for taxes. And I am very clear that we (Democrats) cannot balance the budget through cuts alone. And so we have to find a way to fill the $15 billion gap," she said, responding to a question about whether they were considering a budget that relied on borrowing.
The governor has said he won't sign a budget balanced with borrowing. And Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said weeks ago, "I'll have Thanksgiving dinner on the first floor (of the Capitol) with the governor before I'll borrow."
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass with Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines.
Photo credit: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press, August 2008
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