Capitol Alert: Senate leaders Steinberg, Hollingsworth in side talks on budget

Two weeks into the fiscal year, the state remains far from a balanced budget as Republicans and Democrats remain divided over the appropriate level of tax hikes and cuts.

Even though all four legislative leaders are meeting regularly, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, have been engaging in side conversations, several budget sources said. Some of those talks have included Sens. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, and Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, the budget chairs of their caucuses.

The thinking is that any fruitful budget deal will have to originate in the Senate. Steinberg and Hollingsworth have worked together before and seem more inclined toward compromise than their Assembly counterparts. That's not to say they're ready to cut a deal -- they remain a long way apart on the tax issue -- but they seem to trust each other's motives more than Assembly leaders do at this point.

Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez have produced a two-page memo of joint Democratic principles, but that doesn't mean the Democratic leaders are on the same page yet. Particularly not in tactics.

Steinberg has made very few public pronouncements since the fiscal year began. Pérez, meanwhile, held events last week promoting a Democratic "jobs budget" that still sounds much like the plan he proposed in May that was championed by unions.

Pérez also has not been shy about attacking Republicans. In his radio address last week, he said, "The governor and his Republican allies need to back away from their ideological corner and propose real solutions that won't cost California hundreds of thousands of jobs and ruin our recovery."

It's not like Republicans have been silent; they've also attacked Democrats for proposing tax hikes. But they seem to be targeting their fire at Pérez. Dutton, the Senate GOP budget vice chair, called out Pérez specifically in a blog post today. "Sadly, Speaker Pérez has chosen to abandon common sense in this process," he wrote. "The result will prolong and make this budget process more difficult."

Notably, Dutton didn't mention Steinberg in his post.

PHOTO CREDIT: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth chat as bills are presented for voting last summer on June 30, 2009. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee file photo