Here's what Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata had to say about the budget he put up on the Senate floor this morning. Republicans have not put up any votes for the package.
"On August 20, the governor presented the media with his August Compromise Budget. He said it was etched in stone.
What we take up this morning is essentially that budget.
The governor wanted:
- Budget reform to limit spending. He gets it.
- A temporary three year sales tax increase. He gets it.
- No borrowing from local government, transportation or schools.. He gets it.
- To securitize the lottery and use the money for debt repayment. He gets it.
- Deeper cuts to schools, child care, children's health, medical providers, programs and services. He gets them.
The only demand we did not give the governor is the tax cut after the temporary tax increase expires.
We were explicit from the outset: we want to fix the fiscal problems of the state. A back-end tax cut only once again postpones fiscal solvency until the next governor is elected.
As Democrats, we are proud we met the most severe challenges and made the compromises needed to achieve an agreement. That after all is our oath of office.
But we are not proud of the cuts we've made in the lives of those who need us most.
Nor the disproportionate sacrifices we've inflicted on selected civil servants who are made to pay for our neglect of duty.
We condemn the governor's targeting the income of thousands of clerks, office and highway workers, childcare teachers and parole agents in order to press his case.
We are angered that bargaining unit employees whose wages and benefits are threatened - that unless the governor's budget is accepted; their livelihood will be jeopardized.
But most of all, we are stunned by the governor's recent threat to shut down state government until and unless we capitulate, not compromise.
That isn't a threat to this house.
The old saw says when elephants spar, those beneath them are trampled.
So I ask: Who is at-risk?
The list is long, characterized by innocence, helplessness and anonymity.
· Special education children.
· Physically disabled adults.
· Elderly residents in long term care facilities.
· Rural hospitals.
· Home to school transportation.
· Food service to state hospitals and prisons.
· Financial aid to hundreds of thousands of UC and CSU students.
· Thousands of small businesses employing tens of thousands of our constituents that supply every community with essentials such as sanitation, cleaning, security and rehabilitation.
In sum, the governor's resolve to bring government to a stop clobbers working families, independent businesses, and life-sustaining services to the most helpless, hopeless and dangerous among us.
This is a game of political roulette we will not play. The gun barrel isn't pointed at our heads nor the governor's.
As the majority, we met our duty to dispose a budget in a super- charged atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety.
We compromised more than we thought prudent by reducing expenditures by over nine billion.
We affirmed the demand for spending restraints, requiring more savings in the flush years to meet the expenses of the inevitable lean years.
We accepted a controversial temporary sales tax on everyone instead of a more equitable permanent income tax on the wealthy.
We rejected proposals to steal money we told voters was intended for schools, local services and infrastructure.
And, gentlemen, we are done.
We have had it with reaching an agreement with the administration, only to be asked to give more.
We have had it with leaving the table - only to be told later additional changes were needed.
We have had it with the administration telling us Rep Senators demand more concessions to provide the votes, yet you've never said so yourselves.
Therefore, here is the final product of eight months work, haggling, rhetoric and retribution, most done in public, all done without what most would call negotiation.
It's not exactly the August Compromise, but neither is it something Democrats will brag on to Saint Peter at the gates of heaven.
It does, however, brightly light our differences.
· We must stop the addiction of borrowing;
· We want a tax increase to balance cuts.
· We support an austere, yet responsible budget largely caused by the governor's VLF cut without first calculating the effects on massive state debt or an economy slouching towards recession.
It took years of poor planning and poor discipline by many legislatures and governor's to get where we are.
Everyone opted to sustain a lifestyle we couldn't afford with borrowed money, insufficient revenues and mortgaged dreams.
Let's be candid - we all participated in the illusion. We each justify spending for what WE want, while condemning the priorities of others.
How often have we self righteously refused to vote for an appropriation knowing full well that our constituents will nonetheless benefit?
Eight months later, two months late and with little left to offer my friends across the isle it's your turn.
Either vote to approve the compromise the governor tells us has your support, or offer an alternative acceptable to the majority and the governor.
Meet the challenge the governor's put to us in common: comply or face a shutdown of state service.
Please provide the votes to begin together the long, painful journey to fiscal recovery - where no one gets what they want, but at a minimum what they need."
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