Assembly Speaker Karen Bass announced Tuesday that her house would vote late this afternoon on a $19 billion package of cuts and new taxes to chip away at the nearly $40 billion deficit California faces over the next year and a half.
But, amid no solid indication the $19 billion package has the GOP support needed for passage, Bass said she was prepared to lock the doors of the lower house to force her Republican counterparts to the table.
"I'm certainly hoping we that won't need to lock the doors and lock people in," the Los Angeles Democrat said. "But I will tell you that I'm so concerned about the situation that we're facing today, if I'm worried some of the members might run away off the floor, it just might have to get to that."
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer has said he will stop funding infrastructure projects in the state beginning as early as Wednesday to conserve cash. The state faces potential insolvency in February if no new revenues or spending cuts are adopted, fiscal officials say.
Raising taxes in California requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. For all of 2008, GOP lawmakers have rebuffed attempts by Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to do so.
Bass said she has had "informal discussions with various members of the Republican caucus" about supporting new taxes. Today's session, in part, appears to be an effort to ferret out those supporters.
Bass said she was "hoping that this proposal might generate some votes."
"We are not certain," she said.
The Democrats released only a broad overview of their package Tuesday afternoon. Bass said the new revenues, which will account for $11.3 billion, would include a three-year hike in the state sales tax, a new oil severance tax of 9.9 percent and a nickel-a-drink tax on alcoholic beverages in the state.
Those are all tax hikes Schwarzenegger has embraced, though Bass added that, "This is not his plan. The governor supports his plan."
The $6.9 billion in cuts, she said, would largely mirror those proposed by Democrats at the end of November, which were thumbed down by Republicans. The package also does not include any of the so-called "economic stimulus" proposals advanced by either Schwarzenegger or Republican lawmakers.
Session is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., when lawmakers will first put the plan to a vote.
"We might put it on call for a lot of hours," Bass said. "I'm hoping that during those hours that it's on call that we can get down to what it will really take to get Republican support for the package."
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