Senate Barely Passes Budget

By Jordan Rau

July 30, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO — The California Senate barely approved Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first state budget Thursday after most Republicans abandoned a governor of their own party with the same consistency they had opposed Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

To ensure passage of the $105.3-billion spending plan, Democratic leaders delayed the vote for two hours while they waited for one of their own, Sen. Ed Vincent, to arrive at the Capitol from his home in Inglewood. An aide said Vincent had missed his original flight.

The main budget bill, which required two-thirds support, ultimately passed, 28 to 11. Only four of 14 Republicans backed it.

The measure now goes to Schwarzenegger’s desk, ending a protracted battle that dragged on nearly a full month beyond the start of California’s fiscal year. The governor, who plans to sign the budget on Saturday, has the power to veto particular items but has said that he will approve the overall framework.

Republicans said they objected that Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders had not made far deeper cuts to erase the state’s budget shortfall, which is expected to balloon to about $10 billion in two years. That is also when some of the groups that agreed to forgo money from Sacramento this year, including the prison guards union, local governments and the state’s universities, are banking on Schwarzenegger to live up to his promise to spare them from future cuts.

The governor has defended his budget plan by saying that he needed to compromise with Democrats, who control the Senate and Assembly. The lower house approved the plan Wednesday with strong support from both parties.

“It’s not the Schwarzenegger budget,” said Sen. Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, the Republicans’ former minority leader. Referring to Sen. John Burton of San Francisco, the Senate’s Democratic leader, Brulte said, “This is the Burton budget.”

Even some Republicans who endorsed the plan did so reluctantly. “I’m going to vote for this budget, and I don’t feel very good about it,” said Sen. Bruce McPherson of Santa Cruz. “It’s not a balanced budget. I’m not so sure it’s really even Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget. Since he presented his budget in January, more than $2 billion has been added.”

The party-line split in the Senate was nearly identical to last year’s budget vote under Davis. Five of 15 Republicans supported that budget.

Dick Ackerman of Irvine, the Senate Republican leader, said this year’s vote should not be interpreted as a statement on Schwarzenegger’s leadership.

“We don’t put pressure on our guys to all vote yes or no on anything,” he said. “Each person has their own threshold. We’ve been very supportive of the governor. We think the governor’s doing a great job, and is going to continue to do a great job. That doesn’t mean we can’t have differences on some of the budget items.”

Speaking in Monterey before the League of California Cities on Monday, Schwarzenegger lambasted legislators as “spending addicts” but did not differentiate between members of the two parties. Nor did he urge voters, as he had done repeatedly during the last month, to “terminate” lawmakers who block his plans by voting against them this fall.

He said the Senate vote was “the greatest birthday gift I’ve gotten in a long time.” Schwarzenegger turns 57 today.

But the anemic GOP support highlighted the difficulty that Schwarzenegger has had in corralling his own party throughout budget negotiations.

One of the main reasons for the delay in reaching a deal was Republican insistence that lawmakers repeal a law that prevents schools from hiring private bus companies and another that allows workers to sue employers over labor law violations. In the end, Democrats agreed to weaken the latter law but would not go as far as Republicans wanted on the bus issue, so no changes were made.

Though most Assembly Republicans voted for the spending plan on Wednesday, they too gave the governor some trouble by resisting a provision to repeal tax breaks for owners of yachts worth $400,000 or more. That forced leaders to make changes to the measure, which delayed the vote until well into the night.

“The one group who thought they might see benefits out of Schwarzenegger is bitterly disappointed, and that’s the Republicans,” said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State. “They won in one big way: There were no tax increases. But they certainly lost in terms of the governor paring the budget. That’s what he said he was going to do.”

The vote could not be considered a referendum on Republicans’ willingness to bail the governor out of future jams. Burton noted that the Republicans provided key votes for several accompanying pieces of legislation that several Democrats did not support.

Nonetheless, the budget’s passage in the Senate required nearly unanimous Democratic backing. Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) was the only member of the party to vote against it.

Burton said that overall, crafting the budget was easier with Schwarzenegger than it had been with Davis. “To be honest with you, I think Gov. Schwarzenegger had more of a concern for the vulnerable people in our society than maybe Davis had,” he said. “I think you have a governor who was a little bit more to the middle than the Republican legislators, and he was more willing to fund some programs that are very important to the most vulnerable in our society.”

Times staff writer Joe Mathews contributed to this report from Monterey.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

How members of the Senate voted

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $105.3-billion budget passed the state Senate on a 28-11 vote Thursday, having already been approved by the Assembly. The governor is expected to sign it into law Saturday.

Democrats for (24):

Alarcon, Richard -- Sun Valley

Alpert, Dede -- San Diego

Burton, John -- San Francisco

Cedillo, Gil -- Los Angeles

Chesbro, Wes -- Arcata

Ducheny, Denise -- San Diego

Dunn, Joe -- Santa Ana

Escutia, Martha -- Whittier

Figueroa, Liz -- Fremont

Florez, Dean -- Shafter

Karnette, Betty -- Long Beach