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Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

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November 18, 2003

Dem forecast: stalemate

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won’t try to design his own state spending limit from scratch but instead will work with competing proposals already offered separately by Republican Assemblyman John Campbell and a bipartisan group of Assembly members led by Keith Richman and Joe Canciamilla, administration and legislative sources say.

The Campbell proposal is a strict limit that would cap increases in spending at inflation plus population growth and would apply to the entire budget. Richman and Canciamilla, meanwhile, have a looser limit that would base spending growth on increases in population and personal income and would also limit appropriations in any year to 97 percent of estimated revenues. Both measures seek to create, over time, budget reserves equal to 10 percent of the state’s general fund to guard against economic fluctuations. Campbell’s proposal, pending for the past year, is Assembly Constitutional Amendment 6. Richman and Canciamilla formally unveiled their plan Tuesday afternoon.

Don’t expect much action out of the Legislature in the days ahead, meanwhile. Except for possibly repealing SB 60, the bill giving illegal immigrants the right to obtain drivers licenses in California, lawmakers said Tuesday there’s not much they can do until they get specific proposals from Schwarzenegger on workers compensation, government reform and the spending cap and bond measure he is seeking.

“We’re going to deal with each issue as it comes before us,” Sen. John Burton told reporters.

Burton said he would oppose repeal of SB 60 and would not look favorably on any proposal to borrow more money without a tax increase dedicated to repay it. He also said he doubted the Legislature would approve Schwarzenegger’s request to give local government $3.2 billion to make up for the money they will lose because of his reduction in the car tax.

“There is no money,” Burton said. “We don’t have the money to appropriate.”

Democratic legislative staffers said they expect Schwarzenegger to endorse a package of workers compensation changes backed by Republican lawmakers and the California Chamber of Commerce. That would probably be a non-starter in the Legislature and lead to a ballot fight next November.