Capitol Alert

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg today repeated a pledge to look for budget solutions that would allow lawmakers to preserve some services targeted with steep cuts under Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget plan.

"I said on Monday, I'm not looking for a public fight here," the Sacramento Democrat said this morning. "We're looking to work collaboratively and yet not be afraid to have our differences or air our differences with the other stakeholders, the other parties, but come to a resolution where we can in fact buy out some of the worst cuts."

The revised budget proposal released by the Democratic governor Monday calls for roughly $8 billion in cuts to close a projected deficit that has grown to $15.7 billion since his January budget was unveiled. Those cuts include reductions to health and welfare programs and Cal Grants for low-income students.

Steinberg said he doesn't like many aspects of the proposal, including using money won in the mortgage settlement with major banks and reducing funding for the courts, but added that cuts with the most severe effect on the state's neediest constituencies will be the first to come off the chopping block.

"To me a cut that, you know, will result in the difference between life and death and a cut that will increase homelessness by definition, it's our obligation it seems that we do everything we can to avoid those cuts," he said.

Steinberg again floated the idea of using the state's planned $1.05 billion reserve to plug some of the cuts. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's warned lawmakers against that approach Tuesday, writing that the reserve "is low but important considering that the potential Facebook initial public offering-related income tax revenue is especially difficult to forecast."

"I respect the rating agencies, but the rating agencies don't represent a hungry kid who can't do well in school because his family has suffered a big cut in his CalWORKs grant," Steinberg said, referring to the state's welfare-to-work program.

He declined to specify other routes that majority Democrats may take to balance the budget without making all of the cuts proposed by Brown.

Here's a video of Steinberg's previous comments on Monday on how he views the cuts and how he hopes to plug the deficit:

Legislative Democrats are bracing for "more work on the cuts side" once Gov. Jerry Brown releases his revised budget next week, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told reporters during a weekly q-and-a in his office.

"We all expect the news to be rough. That's no secret," the Sacramento Democrat said.

That will likely mean more steep cuts to the state's health and human services programs. An estimated $1.5 billion lawmakers had hoped to reserve for affordable housing programs is also "certainly a very ripe candidate" for use for general budget relief, he said.

"We have not shied away from doing what we have to do and we won't shy away now," he said. "But we will certainly fight to save more than we lose.'

When asked what areas he hopes to protect from future reductions, Steinberg cited CalWorks, the state's welfare-to-work program, as a top priority. He said studies showing correlation between cuts to those services and homelessness make the decision "one of those can you sleep at night kind of questions."

"I would do just about anything to avoid that cut," he said.

Brown's budget is expected to rely on up to $9 billion in revenues from his proposed initiative to temporarily raise income taxes for top earners and enact a quarter percent increase in the state sales tax, with a round of "trigger" cuts after the election if the November ballot measure fails. While the revenues at stake on the November ballot has grown since the governor's January budget proposal because of changes to the tax plan, Steinberg said he expects the triggers to still target K-12 schools, higher education and the courts.

"I don't see that the fundamentals will change even if the number changes," Steinberg said. "But you've got to make up for a bigger number."

PHOTO CREDIT: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, speaks at the Capitol Bureau on Jan. 20, 2011. Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee.

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg said today that it would be "a victory for upholding the separation of powers" if a Sacramento judge finalizes his decision favoring lawmakers over Controller John Chiang in their budget-related pay dispute.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge David I. Brown issued a tentative ruling Tuesday siding with legislative leaders who said Chiang cannot block their pay on the basis of how he interprets their budget. The Democratic controller last year withheld 12 days' worth of pay and expense money by relying a new on-time budget requirement in Proposition 25 and a constitutional requirement requiring their budget to be balanced.

Brown will hear oral arguments today at 2 p.m. before issuing a final ruling.

Steinberg said he was "obviously pleased" with Brown's tentative ruling, which attacked several of Chiang's arguments. The Senate leader acknowledged that he and lawmakers would "take a hit" from the public for suing the controller, but he said, "There is a big difference between how people might feel about this in the present, and what this means for upholding the separation of powers in the long run."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg pledged today to put forward for the 2014 election a package of major changes to California's initiative process, including a provision to make it easier for legislators to place tax measures on the ballot.

The Sacramento Democrat, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon, outlined a trio of initiative reforms he said "will both strengthen California's tradition of direct democracy and empower the people elected by their communities...to make clear choices."

He said he plans to put the proposals on the 2014 ballot either through a vote of the Legislature, a task he said could be easier if Democrats secure a supermajority in the upper house this November, or by gathering the necessary voter signatures through the initiative process.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Thursday he considers the Republican budget plan a "rehash" that is legally questionable and would not solve California's fundamental budget problems.

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative Democrats have gone all-in on their multibillion-dollar November tax initiative, which they say will spare the state from deep education cuts this year and from deficit problems in the future.

Republicans issued their own budget plan Thursday to refute that argument, saying that Democrats do not need higher taxes to fully fund schools and that a growing economy and spending restraint will rescue the state in the coming years.

A handful of state lawmakers wore gray-hooded sweatshirts this morning at this morning's session, taking up the symbol of solidarity and protest that has sprung up around the country over the slaying of Trayvon Martin.

Sen. Curren Price, who gaveled the session to order, wore one of the hoodies over his suit jacket and tie. Other Democrats, including Juan Vargas, donned the sweatshirts bearing "In memory of Trayvon Martin" stenciled in black letters on back.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, put on his sweatshirt before addressing the Senate.

Martin's Feb. 26 death has reignited a national debate about race. The 17-year-old was wearing a hoodie when he was shot and killed in Sanford, Fla., by George Zimmerman, a self-described neighborhood watch captain. Zimmerman claimed self-defense under Florida's "stand your ground" law and has not been charged.

Martin's family and those who support them say he was a victim of racial profiling and that law enforcement officials haven't adequately investigated the teen's death.

Hoodie-wearing protesters around the country have said Martin's killing is part of a larger pattern of injustice against African American men. On Wednesday, Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democrat from Illinois, wore a hooded sweatshirt on the floor of the House of Representatives. Rep. Gregg Harper, a Mississippi Republican who was presiding over the chamber, kicked Rush out of the chamber for violating a dress code ban on hats.

An Assembly budget subcommittee voted unanimously Wednesday to block expansion of a statewide court case management system that has become the focal point of a months-long political war between the state's judicial leadership and some rebel judges.

The latter -- backed by the politically powerful Service Employees International Union -- have complained that millions of dollars are being wasted on the computer system while local courts are being compelled to curtail their operations and lay off employees as state financing of courts is reduced.

The budget subcommittee's action bolsters the Assembly's position in a conflict with the state Senate over court management. The Assembly has passed legislation, Assembly Bill 1208, that the rebel Alliance of California Judges sponsored to give local judges more power over distribution of operational funds.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who chairs the state Judicial Council and heads the Administrative Office of the Courts, has publicly complained that the legislation violates judicial independence, and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has declared that the bill will be held in his house without a vote.

Steinberg, however, is under pressure from the SEIU, which represents court employees facing layoffs and is a major source of campaign money for Democrats. Wednesday's action makes the computer system financing a potential bargaining chip in the inter-Capitol maneuvering over the legislation.

The subcommittee's action came after the Legislature's budget analyst and the state auditor delivered reports that strengthened the critics' positions.

So far, legislators were told, the Administrative Office of the Courts has spent $556.5 million on the system but it's been deployed in only a few counties. Even so, Auditor Elaine Howle pointed out, the AOC certified that the system is complete, thereby triggering a limited warranty period from the contractor that could leave the state holding the financial bag if problems crop up later.

Judges themselves are divided over the efficacy of the system, some professing that it lightens their workloads, while others saying it is unusable. In recent weeks, the chief justice and her allies have backed off their previous intent to install it in every county and indicated that they'd give local judges more leeway.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg joined the debate today over the embattled head of the state Fish and Game Commission's Idaho cougar hunt, blasting Dan Richards for acting "like a jackass."

"When you hold a high public position you have a responsibility to act with decorum, act with respect towards the office and, you know, what's he doing?" the Sacramento Democrat said in response to a reporter's question. "You want to make your political point, make your political point at some other stage in your life when you're not an appointee and serving under a governor."

Richards, the commission's president, has been the subject of criticism and calls for resignations since a picture surfaced online of him posing with a mountain lion he killed on a hunting trip in Idaho. California banned hunting mountain lions, which is legal in Idaho, via the ballot in 1990.

Forty members of the Assembly signed a letter last week asking Richards, an appointee of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to resign. A group of GOP lawmakers later came to his defense. Steinberg said in a meeting with reporters that he wouldn't mind if Richards, whose term ends next January, "just sort of slithered out of office early."

But with Richards telling the Assembly in a letter, "There is ZERO chance I would consider resigning my position," at least one member is reportedly considering a resolution to oust him with a majority-vote in both houses.

Steinberg said he is not "completely shutting the door" on the idea of a vote to remove Richards from office, but he would prefer to see the Senate "stay focused on the people's priorities," such as the budget.

'I think the guy ought to quit being a distraction and make whatever political point he wants to make on his own time or his own dime, but I'm weary on spending a lot of time on anything other than the core priorities that we have to accomplish this year," he said.

Richards reiterated his intent to stay put this afternoon, telling KFI AM talk radio hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou "I'm not leaving." He said a legislative vote to kick him out of his job "basically would be saying lets remove independent voices on all commissions."

Richards blamed Humane Society of the United States for pushing out the photo and sparking the campaign to oust him, citing long-running disagreements and political differences. He said he did not expect to see such a large public backlash for sharing a photo that captures "what we do as sportsmen."

"Of course, I didn't know it would lead to anything like this," he said of the reaction to the photo. "I expected that potentially there might be some folks who (would) not necessarily enjoy it or appreciate or be in favor of it that would see it, but I didn't have any idea if would get anywhere near what it is right now."

And for those wondering, the hunting enthusiast said the cougar he killed tasted "really good."

"It's like a pork loin and it's white meat and it's really good," he said.

RELATED POSTS:
Fish and Game Commission head says defiantly he won't resign

Photo credit: Whitehotpix/ZUMA24.com

Editor's note: This post was updated to clarify that Steinberg didn't call directly for Richards to step down. This post was updated at 4 p.m. with quotes from Richards.

The Capitol's perpetual "tort war" that pits personal injury attorneys against insurance and business groups over the rules governing lawsuits has a new battleground.

Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg has introduced a bill that would overturn one of recent legal history's most closely watched state Supreme Court decisions, dealing with recovery of medical costs by injured parties.

Last August, in a 6-1 ruling, the Supreme Court limited how medical damages could be calculated in auto accidents and other personal injury cases. The issue in the case (Howell v. Hamilton Meats) was whether an injured person could collect the full medical bills imposed by doctors, hospitals and other medical care providers, or would be limited to the amounts actually paid by insurers, which are often pennies on the dollar.

The case, stemming from a 2005 collision in San Diego County, involved $200,000 in medical bills that were whittled down to $60,000 before payment. The trial judge decreed that only the smaller amount need be paid, while an appellate court said it should be the full amount, and the issue landed in the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Jerry Brown said today that Senate Republicans are getting "a little petty" in their unwillingness to confirm the appointment of Herbert L. Carter as chairman of the California State University Board of Trustees.

"They don't have much power left, so when they can take a shot, they will," the Democratic governor told reporters after meeting with governors and President Barack Obama in Washington.

Brown said he has "no idea" if Republicans will also move to block his appointment of Steve Glazer, Brown's political adviser, to the CSU board.

But, Brown said, the "reserve of good appointments is very large," adding that he is "prepared to make annual appointments if they're unprepared to collaborate."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that it's time to end sparring over competing measures and rally behind Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative for the November ballot.

The Sacramento Democrat, in what he characterized as a "clarion call," said that Brown's tax initiative appears to be the state's best alternative. Placing competing measures on the ballot could hurt its prospects, he said.

"It's time to get behind the governor's tax initiative," Steinberg said.

"If you have two or three of them on the ballot at one time, they're all at risk of losing," he said.

Brown's proposal would generate nearly $7 billion in budget relief by raising income taxes on high earners and by enacting a half-cent increase in the sales tax.

Two other revenue-raising proposals are being debated among Democrats supporting a tax hike.

The California Federation of Teachers is pushing a tax increase on millionaires, while attorney Molly Munger, an activist on civil rights and education policy issues, is leading a drive to raise state income taxes for all but the poorest Californians to fund schools and early childhood development proposals.

Steinberg, who led a drive to increase taxes on the wealthy seven years ago, said he is convinced that the newly proposed millionaires tax would spark "significant funded opposition" that could sink it at the polls.

The Senate leader said that he wants to see another round of polling on Munger's proposal but that it is not likely to catch fire among voters because it proposes an income tax hike on most working Californians.

"Her polls and the public polls that I've seen show her initiative as not having great upward trajectory," he said.

"I just don't think this is the time," he said of Munger's proposal. "Because the time is now to get behind one solid proposal that presents the biggest opportunity to both fund education and also to end the deficit in California."

Asked if supporters of the tax proposals competing with Brown's could collect the required number of ballot signatures but delay turning them in, thus qualifying for the 2014 ballot, Steinberg indicated that was a viable option.

"I'm just going to say this: We're looking at that very carefully," he said. "I think all things are possible."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is calling for a state review of a Sacramento County pilot program that provides state-funded dental coverage for low-income children.

A Center for Health Reporting article published in The Bee over the weekend detailed the shortcomings of the managed care program, including long wait times and comparatively low rates of dental care among the more than 110,000 Sacramento County children covered by the program.

In a letter to California Department of Health Care Services Director Toby Douglas, Steinberg called for immediate action to address what he called a "crisis in prevention and treatment services."

"Despite that state funding, disturbing specific patient cases as well as the department's own data cited in the article make it abundantly clear that prevention and treatment services are woefully inadequate for those children most in need," the Sacramento Democrat wrote in the letter.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that a nonprofit group's decision to scrap a proposed ballot initiative targeting public employee pensions does not alter his commitment to tackle that issue.

"We are committed to getting pension reform done," the Sacramento Democrat said in a news conference.

Steinberg said he anticipated the question after the advocacy group, California Pension Reform, announced Wednesday that it was shutting down its effort to place a pension initiative before voters this year.

Steinberg said he is committed to passing pension reform before adoption of a state budget this year.

The Senate leader said he intends to address all 12 points of a pension overhaul proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, but added, "That doesn't mean we're going to do every point in the way he suggests."

Gov. Jerry Brown wants the green light to move forward with construction of California's proposed bullet train.

The Democratic governor called on the Legislature to approve funding for the high-speed rail project today, telling lawmakers in his State of the State address that a revised business plan that will allow construction on the project to start by the end of the year will be released within weeks.

Despite ongoing criticisms about the cost and blueprint for the voter-approved rail project, Democratic legislative leaders appear poised to back the governor's commitment to the bullet train.

See why Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg support the project and where they stand on the question of where to start laying the track in this video from their Capitol press conference today.

Reporters and politicians are known more for thinking on their feet than dancing on them.

But it was the latter that mattered Thursday night when a dozen journalists and politicos took to the stage of the Crest Theatre in Sacramento for a ballroom dancing competition. Each was paired with a professional dancer to compete in the tango, foxtrot or waltz category.

"Dancing With the Capitol Stars" was a fundraiser for the Sacramento Press Club's scholarship program and a celebration of 50 years of journalism by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton.

Bee columnist Dan Walters sat on the panel of three judges, handing out Simon Cowell-esque feedback after each performance. He told Assemblywoman Alyson Huber that her dance was "smoother than your re-election campaign will be," and told former Assemblyman Lloyd Levine that his moves proved his reputation as "one of the most slippery members of the Legislature."

Fellow judge Ron Cunningham, artistic director of the Sacramento Ballet, may have delivered the slickest dis when he told former Assemblyman Roger Niello that his performance was "effortless." As in, he made none.

The same couldn't be said for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who sang a spoof rendition of Frank Sinatra's "That's Life." Steinberg's out-of-pitch opening line was: "The press. What all reporters say. Like my ideas in April, tear them down in May. But a strong poll makes you change your tune. Putting me back on top in June."

At the end of the night, judges named political consultant Karen Skelton the winning dancer. She's the daughter of the LA Times columnist who was being honored at the event. And their family was a major donor in putting it on.

"Someone call the FPPC!" demanded one spectator, with typical Capitol cynicism.

PHOTO: Professional dancer Barnaly Pande and her dance partner, former Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, dance the waltz at the Sacramento Press Club's "Dancing with the Capitol Stars" fundraiser Thursday at the Crest Theater. Adam Gottlieb/Sacramento Press Club

Gov. Jerry Brown suggested in a veto message this afternoon that California might improve its schools by establishing a system of local panels to observe teachers, interview students and examine their work, among other things.

Brown, a critic of the state's existing testing program, vetoed Senate Bill 547 by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, that sought to change how the state measures high school performance, including factors such as graduation and promotion rates and career readiness.

"There are other ways to improve our schools - to indeed focus on quality," Brown wrote. "What about a system that relies on locally convened panels to visit schools, observe teachers, interview students, and examine student work? Such a system wouldn't produce an API number, but it could improve the quality of our schools."

The Democratic governor called the legislation, a priority of Steinberg's, "yet another siren song of school reform."

The bill, he said, "certainly would add more things to measure, but it is doubtful that it would actually improve our schools. Adding more speedometers to a broken car won't turn it into a high-performance machine."

As Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders dicker over a package of business tax incentives aimed at boosting the state's stagnant economy, an oversight office created by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has concluded that previous corporate tax breaks cost many billions of dollars more than anticipated.

The report, issued Thursday by the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes, provides ammunition for tax reformers who have called for closing corporate loopholes to raise state revenues and who are leery of opening new ones.

Brown has proposed to change the way multistate and multinational corporations are taxed to raise revenues, then use the proceeds for targeted tax breaks to spur job-creating investment. But with the 2011 legislative session in its final hours, he's encountered resistance from Republicans whose votes would be needed for the tax swap.

Meanwhile, Steinberg's investigators, who are mostly former Capitol reporters, have concluded that "some California tax breaks are acting as blank checks, costing the state billions of dollars more than anticipated when they first were put in place..."

They estimate that over the last decade, 10 major corporate tax breaks have cost the state treasury $6.3 billion more than estimates when they were enacted, including $1.3 billion more in 2010-11.

Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to remove two GOP appointees to the California Water Commission sparked a partisan dispute under the dome this morning as Senate Republicans sought to approve the appointees despite Brown's plans to replace them.

Brown said last week that he plans to replace former Republican Sen. Dave Cogdill and former Sonoma County Water Agency Director Paul Kelley on the nine-member panel, but has yet to formally withdraw either appointment, both of which were made by former GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Instead, Brown asked Democratic leaders to let the appointments lapse at year's end by not approving them by their confirmation deadline.

Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton today introduced a motion to bypass the Senate Rules Committee, which has not yet considered the nominations, and immediately hold a floor vote on confirming both members.

With less than four weeks left in this year's legislative session, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg says his top priority will be putting Californians back to work.

"It doesn't take any kind of a brain surgeon or political genius to know that the economy and unemployment are the most important issues," Steinberg told reporters yesterday after a Senate floor session.

For the Sacramento Democrat, that means pursuing a handful of proposed changes to the state's regulatory processes, including measures to streamline permitting, take duplicative regulations off the books and create some sort of standardized economic impact analysis to weigh the costs of new regulations. Some of those measures were unveiled in February as part of a package backed by Steinberg and other Democrats, while others were discussed as part of this year's failed negotiations to hold a statewide election on taxes.

It's July 29, and California is in the unusual position of having its fiscal house in order while federal leaders are mired in a partisan battle over the debt ceiling.

We asked a few veterans of state budget battles, past and present, how Washington leaders might reach a bipartisan deal in the coming days. They emphasized that the specifics of the state budget and the federal debt ceiling are different, though they saw plenty of parallels in the political dynamics.

A wealthy Indian tribe has given another $300,000 boost to a nonprofit center for unity and tolerance championed by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

The Sacramento Democrat reported soliciting the contribution for the planned Capital Unity Center from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in a behested payment disclosure to the Fair Political Practices Commission earlier this month. The Capay Valley tribe, which is a major political contributor and lobbying force in the Capitol, operates the Cache Creek Casino and Resort in Brooks.

Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation Chairman Marshall McKay said in a statement that the tribe is supporting the project because it believes "as a society and a people, we all benefit from a culture of openness and tolerance."

"Native Americans have for generations felt the pain of discrimination, and know first hand the harm it can bring," he said. "The Yocha Dehe Community Fund's support for the center is based on our hope that through outreach and education others can be spared this pain."

We asked our Facebook fans to contribute questions for The Bee Capitol Bureau's interview with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

The hourlong interview with the Sacramento Democrat touched on many of the topics raised by readers. Here's Steinberg's response to a question based on one submitted by Facebook user who wanted to know whether Steinberg thinks Proposition 25 is a bad thing, given that legislators temporarily lost their pay and some experts believe the first majority-vote budget is unbalanced:

Click here to become a fan of Capitol Alert on Facebook. Check out tomorrow's Bee for Bee colleague Kevin Yamamura's recap of Steinberg's comments on the budget.

Legislative pay has resumed in the wake of last week's budget deal, but Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Wednesday that lawmakers still take exception to Controller John Chiang's decision to cut off their wages last month.

Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, said the issue needs to be legally challenged, though he still doesn't know who will pursue the case.

"In the moment, of course, it was a popular decision," Steinberg told The Bee's Capitol Bureau. "But over the long term, do we really want any governor of the state of California, or a controller, or it could be an attorney general, to say, 'I demand more cuts. I demand solutions different from what you presented or else people aren't going to get paid.' "

After Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Democrats' first majority-vote budget, Chiang reviewed the plan using new authority under Proposition 25. Voters passed that measure in 2010 to dock pay for late spending plans and reduce the vote threshold for budget passage. Chiang determined that their budget did not meet qualifications for a balanced budget under Proposition 58 and so was insufficient to meet the pay requirement.

Over 12 days, rank-and-file lawmakers lost about $4,830 each in salary and per diem.

"I think it was an erroneous decision," Steinberg said. "And I think over time it will be seen as a decision with very troubling precedent for this state and our system of government."

Lawmakers in both parties questioned the decision, though Democrats seemed to react with more anger than their GOP counterparts. Democrats maintained that their budget was balanced in accordance with the law.

It is not clear that the budget that Democrats passed and Brown signed last week would meet the same tests Chiang used in his analysis, but the controller believes he does not have authority to intervene once the governor signs the budget.

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders announced today that they have reached an agreement on a new majority-vote budget plan.

"We've had some tough discussions, but I can tell you that the Democrats in both the Senate and the Assembly have now joined with the administration and myself and we have a very good plan going forward with the budget," Brown said at a press conference in his office this afternoon.

The proposal, outlined in this post, assumes that the state will bring in an additional $4 billion in revenues in the upcoming fiscal year, based in part on higher-than-expected revenue figures in recent months. If those revenues fail to materialize, steeper cuts to programs including K-12 schools, higher education, public safety programs and In-Home Supportive Services would occur later in the year.

"We have severe trigger cuts that will be triggered and go into effect (without the projected revenues)," Brown said. "And those are real."

Brown vetoed the majority-vote budget that lawmakers approved ahead of the Legislature's June 15 budget deadline, calling the package of spending cuts, funding shifts and one-time fixes "not a balanced solution." Legislators have also lost their pay in the wake of Controller John Chiang's decision that the plan approved earlier this month fails to meet the requirements for pay under the voter-approved initiative allowing the budget to be passed with a majority vote.

The governor, who has been working for months to secure Republican votes needed to hold a statewide election on expiring higher tax rates, said without a deal on his original proposal, leaders will have to "look very seriously" at using the initiative process to qualify a measure to secure future revenues.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said Brown and Democrats "have not wavered in our belief that new revenues are essential" to balance the budget over the long term.

"The conversation has been started and we will keep that conversation going as we move to the ballot next year," Pérez said.

Senate Republican leader Bob Dutton criticized the plan unveiled today as a "hope without change" budget.

"This latest budget is based on the hope that $4 billion in new revenues will miraculously materialize, but does absolutely nothing to change government as usual," he said in a statement.

Read more about the plan here.

It wasn't any legislator's favorite question Monday, but it was the one reporters kept asking: Should you continue receiving pay?

After emphasizing he was more concerned about potential deep cuts in the wake of Gov. Jerry Brown's veto, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a lawyer, offered arguments for why Controller John Chiang should pay lawmakers.

Chiang, a Democrat in charge of issuing paychecks, is weighing whether to issue salary and living expenses under a new voter-approved law that docks legislative pay for each day the budget is late. Democratic lawmakers passed a majority-vote budget on Wednesday, the constitutional deadline, but Brown vetoed it immediately while questioning its legal viability and balance.

The law itself, Proposition 25, is silent as to whether the budget must be "balanced," but Chiang said earlier this month that it should be read in conjunction with another law requiring a balanced budget. The controller is reviewing the budget bills and is expected to decide this week on whether to issue pay.

Steinberg's first argument had to do with separation of powers. He said that it would be bad precedent to allow a controller - or anyone else from the executive branch - to decide on whether lawmakers should get paid.

"Forget any of us as individuals, it is a bad precedent for anyone in the executive branch to question the quality of a budget passed by the legislators," Steinberg said after a brief Monday floor session. "Because to do so shifts the balance of powers in what is supposed to be coequal branches of government in a way I think is dangerous."

"Think about if there was a governor or treasurer or controller from the other party, think about that," he added. "And they were unhappy with the quality of a budget the Legislature passed. They would then have the ability, if Proposition 25 were to be interpreted in a way some suggest, to say not good enough. We withhold your pay until you make all of the decisions and all of the cuts that we believe are appropriate."

A separate issue, Steinberg said, is whether the controller's interpretation undermines the spirit of the state's conflict of interest law.

The Senate leader noted that lawmakers have a duty to abstain from voting on matters in which they have a personal financial interest. He suggested that if the controller withholds pay, then lawmakers may decide to slash programs just to benefit their own pocketbooks.

"Think about how all that could be turned on its head here if, in fact, we have to make a decision, choices, that have real impact when it comes to cuts on the people of California and our own well being," Steinberg said. "I don't think that even the authors of Prop 25 ... would see that as any kind of healthy development for California. We ought to make the decisions that we make on the level of cuts on the merits."

Torey Van Oot contributed to this report.

Hours after Gov. Jerry Brown roiled majority Democrats with his budget veto, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg made public his plans to halt consideration of the governor's appointees "for an indefinite period of time."

Members of the Senate Rules Committee were informed via email yesterday that gubernatorial appointees requiring Senate confirmation will not be considered by the committee or put up for a floor vote until further notice.

"The Rules Committee will not be meeting to consider any Governor's appointments for an indefinite period of time per the Pro Tem. In addition, no action will be taken on appointees pending on the floor during this time," the email reads.

When asked why Steinberg decided to hold off on confirmation of Brown's appointees, spokesman Nathan Barankin said, "We're focused on the budget right now."

Gubernatorial appointees in need of Senate confirmation must be approved within one year of their nomination in order to retain their posts for the full term. The only Brown appointee currently awaiting a full Senate vote is David Maxwell-Jolly, the governor's pick for undersecretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, according to Steinberg's office. Several dozen people nominated by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who still need to be considered by either the committee or the full house face confirmation deadlines this summer.

Editor's note: An update on the number of appointees pending was added to this post at 2:30 p.m.

PHOTO CREDIT: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, speaks at the Capitol Bureau on Jan. 20, 2011. Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee.

UPDATE 6:43 p.m. to add video of the Democratic legislative leaders press conference

The state's two Democratic legislative leaders parted ways with Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday after he swiftly vetoed their budget plan, saying they were "deeply dismayed" by the governor's action in a hastily called Capitol press conference.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, blamed Republicans for not agreeing to a bipartisan deal to extend taxes. But the two leaders also took shots at Brown and said the governor's inability to secure enough GOP votes forced their hand.

"We are too far down the road for the governor to continue avoiding a specific proposal or specific set of proposals of what he intends to do or wants to be done if he can't gain those Republican votes," Steinberg said. "Governor, over the next two weeks, if you can't get the Republican votes, give us your specific changes to the budget that we passed yesterday that can be adopted by a majority vote."

"The governor's constant references to his January proposal ring hollow if he is unable to deliver Republican votes," Steinberg concluded.

Scroll down to see Hector Amezcua's video of their news conference.

Republicans praised Brown's immediate veto Thursday, but they denied that they were the cause of the state's budget woes.

Four Republicans who had been negotiating with Brown - Senators Tom Berryhill, Anthony Cannella, Bill Emmerson and Tom Harman - issued the following statement: "While the Governor did the right thing by vetoing the Democrats sham budget, we challenge his assertion that Republicans have blocked the right of the people to vote. In fact, it's the Democrats who are holding California hostage by refusing to allow the voters to weigh in on meaningful structural reforms -- not just Governor Brown's tax proposal.

Opponents of a controversial bill to give local governments more power to seek tax increases have preemptively launched a campaign to repeal the measure should it become law.

A business-backed coalition called Stop Hidden Taxes has opened a campaign account to fund a referendum on the legislation, which would allow counties, school districts, community college districts and county boards of education to ask voters to approve taxes on a variety of goods and services, including income, sales, alcohol, oil and medicinal marijuana.

"Allowing this bill to become law would undermine the state's struggling economy, kill jobs and send exactly the wrong message about California's business climate to prospective employers. We are confident voters will reject this measure at the ballot box," said California Chamber of Commerce CEO Allan Zaremberg, a co-chairman of the campaign.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who authored Senate Bill 23 X1, has sought to use the threat of new local taxing authority as leverage in the budget process, saying he will pursue the measure absent a budget solution that provides adequate funding for local services.

The majority-vote bill was approved by the Senate last Friday after a proposal to extend higher tax rates for one year, which requires Republican support, fell short of passage. Steinberg's measure has yet to be sent to the Assembly for consideration.

Steinberg, who transferred the contents of what was formerly Senate Bill 653 into a budget trailer bill earlier this month, has suggested it could not be subject to referendum in its current form. Opponents, citing a Legislative Counsel opinion requested by Assembly GOP leader Connie Conway, dispute that claim.

The opposition coalition says they have already retained a campaign consulting team, pollster and a firm to gather the 504,760 valid voter signatures they would need to ask voters to repeal the measure if it becomes law. Qualifying a referendum within 90 days of the bill being signed into law would block the proposal from taking effect until the bill is put on the ballot.

With just one day remaining until the constitutional deadline for the Legislature to pass a budget, some observers are hoping a higher power can help close a deal to extend the duration of temporary tax rates set to expire.

Hundreds of people from across the state gathered at the Capitol late this morning for a march and prayer rally in support of a budget that protects funding for education and social services.

"We're here because we believe balancing the budget is the moral thing to do," the Rev. Sharon Stanley, of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries, told the crowd. "And supporting the hopes and aspirations of the young people that we love and sharing responsibility for caring for them and caring for the poor is the moral thing to do."

Speakers at the rally, held on the Capitol's south steps and organized by a coalition of faith-based and community groups called PICO California, urged lawmakers to support Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal that the Legislature approve extending higher tax rates temporarily and set an election to ask the voters to decide at a later date whether to approve them for a longer period of time.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told the crowd that Republican votes needed to pass the tax proposal "don't appear to be forthcoming," but reiterated his pledge to move forward with a budget vote by the June 15 deadline with or without a bipartisan agreement.

"Those votes could come between now and five o'clock, or between now and midnight, or between now and four in the morning, and I have said, 'Call me any time, day or night,' But I will tell you this, if those voters aren't there, the majority party will in fact use its majority power to do the very best we can to pass a budget on time that protects the most vulnerable in California," the Sacramento Democrat said.

Video by Hector Amezcua.

Short on votes to extend higher tax rates for one year, the Senate today approved a bill to give counties and local school officials more power to seek tax increases on their own.

"We mean business, and we take our responsibility very seriously to provide the resources to schools and to people who risk their lives in uniforms," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who authored the measure, told reporters after today's floor session. "One way or another, we're going to provide the opportunity for those institutions and those public servants to do their jobs and to serve our kids."

Senate Bill 23 1X, would give county supervisors and school officials the ability to ask voters to increase taxes on a variety of goods and services -- including income, sales, alcohol, cigarettes, medicinal marijuana and oil -- to fund local services.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today he wants the fate of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed tax extensions to be tied on the ballot to the pension and spending cap proposals that Republican legislators want as part of the deal to call a statewide special election.

"It needs to be linked, no question," the Sacramento Democrat said, adding: "If you're really willing to move towards the middle and you're really willing to try to make a deal, then you ought to be living with the result that says it all goes up or it all goes down."

Republican Sen. Bob Huff, the vice chair of the Budget Committee, said through a spokesman that, like the contents of a possible special election ballot, the number of measures and whether they would be linked are matters that aren't "carved in stone yet."

The Senate plans to continue to tackle this question and other issues as members of the upper house prepare to meet Friday and through the weekend ahead of the June 15 deadline for approving a budget. Cast your vote on the issue in the poll below, and feel free to share your reasoning in the comments field.

With a deal to close the budget deficit with the help of tax extensions yet to emerge, members of the Senate have been asked to come to the floor this week prepared for story time.

The office of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who had set tomorrow as a goal to hold a budget vote, has informed members on both sides of the aisle that this week's floor sessions will include sharing testimony from school and public safety officials on the adverse effects of an all-cuts alternative.

"The pro tem is asking all senators to call their sheriffs and the superintendents of their school districts in their Senate districts and get short letters from each of them, describing the cuts they will have to make, worst case scenario (if the Senate must pass a budget without continuing existing revenues)," Kathy Dresslar, Steinberg's chief of staff, wrote in an email to the chief of staff for the Senate Republican Caucus.

"Our floor session on Wednesday and Thursday will include reading these letters aloud on the floor of the Senate," her email added.

A spokeswoman for GOP Senate leader Bob Dutton has yet to issue a response to Steinberg's request, though it's unlikely that Senate Republicans, who have largely opposed Gov. Jerry Brown's tax proposal, would take to the floor to wax poetic on the dangers of more cuts.

Steinberg spokesman Mark Hedlund said the intent of the request "is to have an opportunity to hear from stakeholders about the impacts of the budget."

Tomorrow's scheduled floor session has been tentatively canceled, and members have been instructed to remain on call for possible sessions during the remainder of the week. Hedlund said that Steinberg is still aiming to take up budget bills this week.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg today moved to keep alive a bill to give local governments more power to seek taxes as budget negotiations continue, pledging to pursue the controversial measure absent a deal to close the remaining $9.6 billion deficit.

Senate Bill 653 would allow local governments, county boards of education and community college districts to ask voters to raise taxes on a variety of goods and services, including sales, income, alcohol and oil severance taxes.

Steinberg said today he will amend the contents of the bill into a budget trailer bill -- a move that allows him to keep the measure active without a floor vote before Friday's deadline for passing bills out of the house of origin.

The Sacramento Democrat called the majority-vote bill "one of the few tools to fulfill our most important responsibility" of ensuring funding for education, public safety and other vital services. But he told members on the floor that he will drop the effort if Republican support for Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed tax extensions emerges as part of a budget deal.

"If we can reach this agreement over the next week, which I believe it vital for public education and public safety in this state, I will then not move 653," he said. "But clearly we are not going to reach a handshake agreement on the state tax extension in advance of tomorrow's bill deadline."

Taxpayer groups and businesses and industries that could be targeted by taxes have rallied against the measure, saying it will burden taxpayers and hurt economic growth. Read the full bill at this link.

PHOTO CREDIT: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, speaks at the Capitol Bureau on Jan. 20, 2011. Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee.

Gov. Jerry Brown said in unveiling his revised budget proposal today that any election to ask voters to ratify higher tax rates should be held "as soon as possible."

But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, told reporters any election on taxes and other budget-related proposals "ought to be as far off as is reasonably possible."

How soon is soon enough to be one of the many issues up for debate now that Brown's updated plan has been released.

Brown said at a morning press conference that he sees the fall as a logical time to ask voters to approve continuing higher sales and vehicle tax rates.

Steinberg, who noted that Brown did not name a target election date in his proposal, said a buffer on the tax vote would give schools and other public services more funding stability in the coming fiscal year.

"2012 to me in the normal election cycle would be an appropriate time to have an election if an election is necessary," the Sacramento Democrat said.

But before an election date is set, Brown and Democrats will still need to secure the two GOP votes in each house to extend the taxes and call an election. GOP Republican Sen. Bob Huff, vice chair of the Senate Budget Committee, called the governor's proposal "short on reforms," saying his colleagues will still need to see serious proposals on a spending cap and other GOP-backed structural changes in order to support the plan.

"Republicans are going to be reluctant to (vote) on something business as usual," the Diamond Bar Republican said. "Unless you fix the underlying problem that takes into account Sacramento, the Legislature's appetite to spend more than we take in, unless we fix that underlying problem, I do not see that there's going to be Republican votes for this."

Steinberg, who praised Brown's proposal as a balanced approach focused on a long-term solution, was optimistic his house would hold a floor vote on the budget "well before" the June 15 legislative deadline for approving a budget.

"We're on a very fast track, we don't have to start from scratch, a lot of the work in terms of analysis and also negotiation has been done... and we intend to finish," he said.

Watch Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg discuss why he believes Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget proposal remains the only credible option for solving the state's long-term fiscal problem.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar and the vice-chair of the budget committee, says Brown has not offered the serious reforms needed. He also said the $6.6 billion in unexpected revenue this year and small cuts to state boards and commissions are unsustainable solutions.

Opponents of legislation to give local governments more power to raise taxes are ramping up their efforts to derail the bill, launching a statewide radio and mail campaign against the measure.

Senate Bill 653, introduced by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would give counties and school districts the authority to enact a variety of revenue streams with local voter approval, including income, sales and oil severance taxes. The bill was approved last week by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee and will be heard Monday by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Californians Against Higher Taxes is pushing back against the measure with a 60-second radio ad warning that the bill "opens the floodgates for politicians to invent entirely new local taxes on products and services."

"The last thing we need are new and even higher local taxes," an announcer says in the spot, which is running on two Sacramento-area radio stations.

Coalition spokesman Scott Macdonald said the group is also sending mail pieces to "voters in areas where we think there's more sensitivity to these issues" of taxes.

McDonald characterized the radio buy and mail campaign as "moderate" but said the group would turn up the dial if the bill continues to make its way through the Legislature.

"If they are serious about it, we'll get serious about it," he said.

Steinberg said through a spokeswoman that his measure simply gives "local communities another option besides hoping that the minority party supports the Governor's budget proposal."

"I believe the sponsors of this scare tactic would better direct their resources and efforts to convincing enough Republican legislators to vote for the state revenue necessary to save education and public safety," he said in a statement.

Californians Against Higher Taxes was a key supporter of Proposition 26, the 2010 voter-approved measure that raised the legislative vote threshold to two-thirds for some fees. The coalition's 2010 campaign committee was largely funded by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, though the current effort is considered "issue advocacy" and not subject to donor disclosure requirements.

Listen to the full spot at this link.

Editor's note: This post was updated at 5:21 p.m. with a statement from Steinberg.

The Senate Governance and Finance Committee today approved legislation that would lift longstanding limits on what taxes local governments can propose raising.

Senate Bill 653, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg would allow counties and school districts to adopt a wide range of taxes -- including income, vehicle, alcohol, cigarette and oil severance taxes -- with voter approval.

Steinberg said the intent of the bill is to give local governments more flexibility to fund key services like schools and public safety if lawmakers are unable to reach a budget solution that includes a statewide revenue stream.

"We cannot leave our communities with just one uncertain option when it comes to closing the 2011-12 budget and putting this fiscal crisis behind us," the Sacramento Democrat told the committee.

Opponents argued that the shift would hinder economic development for businesses and services that would have to comply with varying tax rates and hurt residents by creating unequal levels of funding for services.

Gina Rodriquez of the California Taxpayers Association warned that the bill would create more than 1,000 separate taxing authorities, what she characterized as a fragmented revenue structure that pits "county against county, school district against school district."

"(The Legislature) should be responsible for what the state looks like as a whole," she said.

Opponents also raised concerns about implementing and enforcing the local taxes.

The measure passed on a 6-2 party-line vote.

A top adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown suggested Wednesday the governor would veto legislative tax proposals that do not require voter approval, but the California Teachers Association remains steadfast in its belief that lawmakers should pass taxes without going to the ballot.

Brown aide Steve Glazer posted on Twitter this morning that if there's two-thirds legislative support for taxes, "there's 2/3 to override Gov veto."

California Teachers Association President David Sanchez said later that the Education Coalition, which includes a variety of school organizations, still does not believe taxes should be settled at the ballot. Sanchez first made this point two weeks ago, and CTA launched a statewide ad last week urging lawmakers to solve the budget without further cuts.

Sanchez emphasized that a fall election would be a disaster for school districts because they need confidence in their 2011-12 funding level before the school year begins. He again said it would be difficult to persuade voters to pass taxes in September.

Contrary to the position taken by Brown, Sanchez posited that it would be easier to persuade Republicans to pass taxes in the Capitol outright because they'd only have to make a tough vote once this year rather than deal with more cuts should voters reject taxes.

"If you extend taxes by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, it's done and over with," Sanchez said.

Brown's special election remains popular among voters even after his first attempt to call one in June fell short. A Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll last week showed that 60 percent of voters support having an election, though fewer voters -- 52 percent -- support the higher tax rates Brown has proposed for the ballot.

One idea under consideration is for the Legislature to maintain higher tax rates past June and then call a special election in September in which voters consider whether to extend them further.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Wednesday at the Sacramento Press Club he is supportive of bypassing an election to get more tax revenues. But he added that arguing about the mechanism to increase taxes was of lesser importance than getting at least two Republicans in each house to support them, one way or another.

"I'm not looking to distance myself from the governor," Steinberg said. "If we can get the revenue and make an agreement with the Republicans without an election, of course that would save the schools and it would save the universities and it would save the police services. But let's get an agreement first with the Republicans."

Torey Van Oot contributed to this report.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg today said he is willing to consider calls to target GOP districts with steeper cuts if legislative Republicans will not vote for taxes or to put taxes on a statewide ballot as part of a budget solution.

"When it comes to kids or the vulnerable, I wouldn't want to make distinctions between who lives in a Democratic district and who lives in a Republican district, but when it comes to sort of basic services, convenience services that affect adults... I have an open mind," Steinberg told reporters after speaking at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon.

The Sacramento Democrat said he thinks a targeted-cuts scenario like the one state Treasurer Bill Lockyer laid out in an interview with the Bay Area News Group-East Bay's editorial board comes down to "basic fairness."

"You don't want to pay for government, well then, you get less of it," he said.

Jann Taber, spokeswoman for Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton, said any blame for an all-cuts approach should be placed on the Democrats for rejecting the proposals already offered by Republicans.

"If they're threatening cutting services in Republican districts it's because they're unwilling to stand up to the public employee unions and allow voters to vote on a spending cap and pension reform as part of a budget deal," she said.

Legislation that would force the owners of the Sacramento Kings to repay a $77 million loan from the city up front if the franchise moves to Anaheim advanced in the state Senate today.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved on a 3-1 vote Senate Bill 652, which would prohibit professional sports franchises in the state from signing a relocation agreement with another California city if they have outstanding debts to the home city or if the move would breach an existing financial agreement.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who authored the bill, acknowledged that it is "no secret that the impetus for the bill was the proposed or potential relocation of the Sacramento Kings from Sacramento to Anaheim."

The Sacramento Democrat said while the team's current owners "have always paid their debts and been good stewards," the legislation is "intended to ensure that any sports team honors their financial commitment to their home communities."

"(If) anyone is seeking to make a cold business decision about where they want to relocate, public policy in California ought to be that the city from which they consider leaving is made whole before they in fact do leave," said Steinberg, who voted as a city councilman to approve the 1997 loan to the Kings.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today he plans to introduce legislation this week to force the owners of the Sacramento Kings to repay a $77 million loan from the city if they decide to move the team to Anaheim.

The Sacramento Democrat told radio station KFBK (1530 AM) that the measure would state that "no California city can sign a lease with a professional franchise unless that franchise has paid off its existing debt to another city."

"Some might think that has something to do with our Sacramento Kings. It might, but the policy is really what is important to me," Steinberg said in an on-air interview. "California, we're one state. We shouldn't have one city picking off another."

Steinberg acknowledged that the decision to move the Kings boils down to a private business agreement, but said "when there's public money at stake like there is in Sacramento, I think it's proper to say, 'Let's have the debt paid off.' "

The Maloof family, which owns the team, has until April 18 to ask the National Basketball Association board of governors for permission to move the team. The city of Anaheim has taken action intended to draw the team, including approving $75 million in bonds for upgrades to the city's Honda Center.

Steinberg's bill is not the only effort to ensure the loan is repaid. One of the Maloof brothers said that they "have no intention of leaving that town without paying our debt," and the city of Sacramento has asked them to put their assurances in writing.

"They're making a cold business decision -- the city has its right to protect its bottom line," Steinberg said. "This is no sentimentality here."

Listen to the full interview at this link.

PHOTO CREDIT: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Nov. 13, 2009. Michael Allen Jones/ Sacramento Bee file photo

Senate Democrats are turning for the second year to a New York City-based public policy research firm for advice on how to craft their talking points on taxes.

Members and staff are scheduled to attend a Tuesday morning messaging and strategy session put on by representatives from Demos, which bills itself as a nonpartisan organization that "combines research, policy development, and advocacy to influence public debates and catalyze change."

"This will not be an abstract or academic exercise," reads an email memo distributed by the office of Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley. "You will receive specific advice and they will report on their research on how to communicate about tax and budget issues: What to say, how to say it, who to say it to, and how to communicate complex economic issues to reach the widest possible audience with the right message."

The off-site meetings, which will be held in a California Labor Federation conference room, come as legislative Democrats and Gov. Jerry Brown are mulling their next steps to close a projected $15.4 billion budget deficit. Brown has proposed asking voters to continue $11.2 billion in 2009 tax increases. With a June election to extend those taxes before they expire no longer an option, some unions are pushing for other tax increases, including higher tax rates for the top 1 percent of earners, to be included in the budget package.

While the presentation was set up for members of the Senate Majority Caucus and staff, the office of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said the visit was suggested and arranged by Hancock's office.

"When one of our members has something they'd like to present to the caucus, we accommodate," Steinberg spokesman Nathan Barankin said.

Hancock spokesman Larry Levin said his boss took the initiative to organize the meetings after learning about work Demos has done advising legislators and initiative campaigns in other states. Those efforts including working to "inform public perception of taxes, and to promote a fair tax system that supports effective government structures," according to the Demos website.

Though there is no shortage of budget experts and communications consultants on the payroll at the Capitol, Levin said Demos provides a different perspective for members to consider.

"They were just very impressive in terms of their research and the presentation and how to communicate issues," Levin said. "They're not pollsters and they're not communications people. They're not operational political people. They're a research and policy development independent group."

Levin said Demos is not being compensated by the Legislature but that the visit is part of a California junket sponsored by The San Francisco Foundation, a Bay Area philanthropic and advocacy organization. Last year's visit was funded in part by contributions from individual legislators' campaign accounts, he said.

Sara Ying Rounsaville, vice president of public affairs and communications for The San Francisco Foundation, confirmed that the organization helped arrange and fund Tuesday's trip to Sacramento through its public policy and advocacy program, which supports efforts "designed to achieve social justice and promote progressive social change." The full trip agenda includes Demos workshops for grant recipients and other foundations in the Bay Area and a second Sacramento presentation involving the California Budget Project,which advocates for low-income residents.

"We have a real interest in having an informed and engaged Bay Area population and we include in it our elected representatives in Sacramento," she said.

Rounsaville said organizers sought to target "interested legislators and staff" for the program. Senate Republicans, who were not invited to the Tuesday session, didn't seem to think the added insight would do the Democrats' much good.

"Clearly the Democrats are concerned that California voters are not going to support their tax hike, as they should be," said Jann Taber, spokeswoman for Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton.

Torey Van Oot and David Siders contributed to this report.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced this afternoon he halted negotiations with legislative Republicans over a deal to place taxes on the ballot to help resolve California's remaining $15.4 billion deficit.

A June election appears to be off the table entirely. Brown is no longer pursuing a two-thirds vote for a June tax election, while Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told reporters he will not pursue a majority-vote option, either.

"Yesterday, I stopped the discussions that I had been conducting with various members of the Republican party regarding our state's massive deficit," Brown said in a statement this afternoon. "The budget plan that I put forth is balanced between deep cuts and extensions of currently existing taxes and I believe it is in the best interest of California. Under our constitution, however, two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the Senate must agree before this matter can be put to the people."

"Each and every Republican legislator I've spoken to believes that voters should not have this right to vote unless I agree to an ever changing list of collateral demands," the Democratic governor added.

Senate Republicans on Friday released a list of major policy changes they wanted as a condition of voting for Brown's budget proposals. The move was widely seen as disruptive to talks, but the governor had reached out to three Senate Republicans this weekend in hopes of salvaging a deal before deciding to call off talks.

One of the three, Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, blamed trial lawyers, unions and "other stakeholders" for being unwilling to negotiate on pension cuts, a long-term cap on spending and regulatory changes.

"As a result of these groups' refusal to challenge the status quo, it has become clear the governor and legislative Democrats are not in a position to work with us to pass the measures necessary to move California forward," Cannella said in a statement. "Thus, I do not foresee a path to compromise."

Brown did not specify what he would do next.

"Much is at stake, and in the coming weeks I will focus my efforts on speaking directly to Californians and coming up with honest and real solutions to our budget crisis," he said.

Brown is considering alternative ways to put tax extensions on the ballot, possibly by gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative. He suggested in his release that he may be skeptical of the majority-vote approach, saying the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority.

The governor does not need to call an election to approve higher taxes; he can do so with a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. But he promised voters last year he would seek their opinion before seeking more taxes.

The absence of a June election casts doubt on whether state leaders can resolve the budget before the next fiscal year starts in July. Democrats did not indicate how they would attempt to do so.

"They've done a pretty good job of running out the clock here," Steinberg said, referring to legislative Republicans.

As we come down to a key decision point in the budget process, Capitol Alert introduces one gauge for keeping track of how things are going. On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said his "mood meter" was more positive. Today, he was using some of the stronger language he uses: "God darn it."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg expressed frustration at the pace and status of budget negotiations today, saying he feels "prepared to pull the plug" and move forward with floor votes on a June tax election if a deal does not emerge in the coming days.

"We are going to get to our floor, we are going to put up the vote and if the vote isn't there then we are going to consider the other pathways," said Steinberg, adding he will support the direction the governor chooses. "It is high time that this come to a close here."

Steinberg's comments, posted at this link, come as time is running out for lawmakers to set a June special election to ask voters to continue higher tax rates for five years to help plug a projected $26.6 billion budget deficit.

Talks continue between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans whose support he needs for a two-thirds vote to put the proposal on the ballot, though attempting to call the election with a majority vote and launching an initiative campaign are two other possibilities now under consideration.

Budget Committee Vice-Chairman Bob Huff as well as several members of the so-called "GOP 5" group of senators confirmed today that Huff and Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton are now taking the lead roles in negotiations. The two were seen entering the governor's office late this morning.

Steinberg slammed Republicans' negotiating tactics, complaining that despite weeks of talks GOP lawmakers have yet to release a "term sheet" outlining what it will take for Republicans to put up the necessary votes.

"Whether it is fear or just sort of the inability to negotiate in a way that narrows differences as opposed to a way that continually expands them, this is ridiculous," he said.

Members of both houses were told after morning floor sessions to remain within several hours of the Capitol this weekend in case floor votes are called.

But comments from Republicans seemed to reinforce notions that an agreement is not yet imminent. When asked after the session whether he thinks a deal will be reached this weekend, Huff said, "That remains to be seen."

"I don't think we're at a point where trying to describe the state of negotiations is a terribly fruitful exercise," GOP Sen. Sam Blakeslee, a member of the GOP 5 said during the floor session.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is still seeking to reach a deal this week to approve Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed June election on taxes by a two-thirds vote, saying after a morning floor session that his "mood meter" is more positive in light of ongoing negotiations with Republicans.

"The discussions on the specifics are intensifying," he said of budget talks involving some of his GOP colleagues.

As the window for calling an early June election to keep higher tax rates in place narrows, other options for placing taxes on the ballot are circulating. Routes under consideration include a majority vote, which could face legal challenges, or a drive to qualify a November initiative. Steinberg said he has not ruled out any alternative scenarios, but hopes a deal on a two-thirds vote can be reached.

"It's no secret. We're looking at every option because we have to, but the preferred way to go is to make a bipartisan agreement, and that's what we continue to focus on," he said, adding that a resolution will be necessary by week's end.

Watch a video of Steinberg's remarks below:

VIDEO CREDIT: Torey Van Oot, Sacramento Bee

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that the next steps in Gov. Jerry Brown's ongoing effort to call a special election on extending expiring tax rates could emerge as soon as tomorrow.

"I think that you can expect a resolution in terms of direction very, very soon," he said after a meeting of the Senate Rules Committee.

With time running out to put the tax proposal on a June special election ballot, several alternatives are being floated. Options include seeking to qualify the plan for a ballot later in the year through the initiative process or attempting to set a June special election by a majority vote.

"I think the question before the state now is whether there are at least several members of the Republican Party who want to help govern California. We hope the answer is yes, but of course we are preparing for the possibility that the answer is no," the Sacramento Democrat said.

The Senate has scheduled a 9 a.m. floor session for tomorrow, which a spokesman said was called to accommodate an upcoming deadline for confirming two appointees.

Steinberg wouldn't specify whether the impending "direction" will include floor action tomorrow or pursuing a majority vote strategy.

"We are in the process of talking about all the alternatives, so I'm not going to say definitively," he said.

Gov. Jerry Brown said this morning that he expects floor votes on the budget in the Legislature this week, after talks with Republican senators appeared Monday to lose steam.

Brown had asked Democratic legislative leaders last week to delay any vote, citing progress in negotiations with Republicans. Brown lacks the GOP votes necessary to ask voters to extend tax increases, a central part of his budget proposal.

The Democratic governor had been negotiating with a splinter group of five Republican senators, but he declined to say how many of those Republicans he still is contacting, if any.

"I'm talking with some people," he said while walking from the Capitol to the Hyatt Regency Sacramento, where he was addressing a group. "That's all I can say."

Brown, who huddled with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Perez this morning for less than an hour, said he expects budget votes in the Legislature this week, even if those votes only address spending reductions, one part of his budget.

"I think there are some Republicans who are very committed to doing something, but so far there's no, there's no agreement," he said. "We'll have some votes, though, sometime during the week, and then we'll see where we are."

Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he will make an announcement today about when the Senate might vote on Brown's budget. He said it will be "very soon."

"We're going to get to our floor, begin the debate and keep coming back day after day," Steinberg said.

It was less clear what to expect on the Assembly side.

"Still moving forward," Perez said. "We're hopeful to have a resolution soon, but we'll see how conversations proceed."

Brown maintained he will not try to push his tax measure through the Legislature on a majority vote. He said he wants Republican support and that, "No matter how many times you ask me, I'm going to say the same thing."

Brown is proposing a mix of spending cuts and tax extensions to resolve a $26.6 billion deficit.

He criticized Republicans for failing to propose spending cuts they could support.

"Most of the time they want to spend more money, like redevelopment or this project or that project," Brown said. "Those who really want to cut the budget appear to be more in the Democratic majority than in the other party."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said this morning that budget negotiations with Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans will continue throughout the weekend, with a floor vote likely by next week.

"We are certainly shooting for, you know, at the very latest Monday, or early, early next week," Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said as he left the governor's office with Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles. "We're going to work it hard through the weekend."

Brown, negotiating with a splinter group of Republican senators, asked Steinberg and Pérez on Wednesday to delay budget votes planned for today, missing his self-imposed deadline but affording him more time to negotiate.

"There comes a point in any process or negotiation where it's very hard to turn back," Steinberg said. "I hope that that's where we're at."

Steinberg and Pérez declined to be specific about negotiating points. The Republican senators have demanded pension, regulatory and other reforms.

Pérez said, "We've got some more work to do, but we're making progress."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said after meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown this afternoon that the Senate will vote Thursday to pass spending reductions in Brown's budget plan, despite lacking Republican support for tax extensions.

"We plan to go ahead and take the governor's proposal up in a serious way, including passing the cuts on Thursday," Steinberg said. "We're prepared to pass cuts. ... If the Assembly passes them as well, they get sent to the governor, and I assume he would sign cuts."

Brown acknowledged Monday he does not have the Republican votes necessary to ask voters to extend temporary tax increases on vehicles, income and sales, a central part of his budget proposal.

Brown, who said Monday that he might not reach his Thursday budget deadline, said today that there has been some "movement," though he declined to say what that might be.

"There's a little movement, yes there is," Brown said after meeting with Steinberg. "Not as much as I want, but it's there."

The Democratic governor said he still is talking to Republican lawmakers. Five Republican senators said Monday that they were at an impasse.

The five senators, Tom Berryhill, Sam Blakeslee, Anthony Cannella, Bill Emmerson, and Tom Harman, said in a joint statement this afternoon that they met again with Brown today "out of a mutual desire to keep the conversation moving forward."

Brown said he remains "reasonably confident" that he will reach a budget deal.

Steinberg said of Thursday's vote, "We're going to put up the governor's plan."

UPDATE 4:30 p.m.: This post was updated to include a statement from five Republican senators who said they met again with Brown.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that Republicans opposing Gov. Jerry Brown's tax extension election proposal without signaling a willingness to compromise need to understand that voters elected Brown and a Democratic majority in the Legislature.

Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton said last week in an interview with The Bee that he's "not interested in providing any votes" for the plan, which needs two-thirds approval to pass, and doesn't expect members of his caucus will be either.

Steinberg called the Rancho Cucamonga Republican a "good guy and a good Californian," but said taking the approach of "if I can look at this and say that it will solve the problem, I'll vote for it" doesn't hold up because "his view of how to solve the problem is different from the majority party's."

"That's where compromise is required," Steinberg said, adding: "We get nowhere when you take the position that if we were in the majority we would do things this way. They're not in the majority and that's the decision of the people, so help us create fiscal stability in ways that are, I think, consistent with the views and the values of the majority of California voters as reflected in the last election."

Steinberg said he believes a majority of Republicans "know that this (budget proposal) is the most responsible and down-the-middle framework that has been advanced."

PHOTO CREDIT: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, speaks at the Capitol Bureau on Jan. 20, 2011. Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today he hopes the owners of the Sacramento Kings are keeping the impact of the economic crisis in mind as they contemplate the future of the professional basketball team.

"There just isn't a lot of money, and I hope the Maloofs would recognize that and would say look, believe in Sacramento and recognize the loyalty that Sacramento has provided in its fan base and with its great enthusiasm for this team over many years," the Sacramento Democrat said. "This can be worked out. The economy is improving. People see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel here."

News broke in recent days that the Maloofs, who own the team, and Anaheim officials have discussed moving the team to Orange County.

In 2006, after he was termed out of the Assembly and before he was elected to the Senate, Steinberg represented the Maloof family in failed negotiations for public financing for a new arena.

While Steinberg said he hopes "whatever they're talking about in Anaheim doesn't work out and there's a little more time," he echoed Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's comments that city and business leaders' latest effort to construct a new downtown arena will continue -- with or without the Kings.

"I don't think it changes our commitment to try to build a downtown entertainment arena," he said. "When it comes to the world of professional sports, you only have so much control. Sacramento is great with the Kings and if they leave we will still be great."

But he said his underlying message for the team remains: "Don't go."

"This can be worked out," he said. "The economy is improving. People see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel here and stay, stay where you are, we want you here"

What could compel a trio of Senate Democrats as well as environmental and business leaders to come together and start combing through 28,000 pages of state regulations?

"We want to talk about Section one-oh-one-oh-hundred-point-one here today," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said as he scanned one of dozens of binders stacked next to a podium at a morning press conference.

Really?

"No, not really," he said, laughing.

The actual occasion? Legislation the sponsors say will create a better business environment by shedding unnecessary regulations from the books.

Senate Bill 366, co-authored by Democratic Sens. Ron Calderon and Fran Pavley , would give state agencies 180 days to review regulations and identify "duplicative, overlapping, inconsistent, or out of date," provisions that should be eliminated. The bill would also direct the the state agency heads to join forces for one year to streamline the business permitting process.

"If we can eliminate the duplication, if we can make government more user friendly, helping people and businesses comply with the law instead of making it more difficult to comply with the law, we can make a real difference in growing jobs here in California," said Steinberg, who had outlined the proposal in an earlier interview with The Bee.

The final decision of what regulations to remove from law would require action from either the Democratic-majority Legislature or Gov. Jerry Brown. Steinberg and the bill's supporters, which include the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the California League of Conservation Voters, pledged to keep in place existing regulations that protect consumers, the environment, health and public safety.

"I wouldn't be standing here today if I didn't think we could do both, maintain a strong healthy, vibrant economy and maintain a healthy environment as well. It's not mutually exclusive," Pavley said.

Metro Chamber President and CEO Matthew Mahood said the legislation and other steps to better the climate for business in California could bring his and other business groups on board to support Brown's proposal to ask voters' to extend temporary tax rates set to expire.

"We want to see this regulatory reform happen in a timely manner and if we start seeing the state legislature move in that direction, our board and our members are willing to support the extension of the sales tax and fees," Mahood said.

He said the Metro Chamber and members plan to "push" legislators to "think big" about overhauling the regulatory system, but did not list specifics.

Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton expressed skepticism about the impact the Democrats' bill would actually have, saying "actions speak louder than words so you'll have to see what happens."

"I'm kind of interested to see exactly what they're talking about, because it sounds good but if they don't really go through and actually evaluate these regulations and their impact, then frankly it's not going to do us a lot of good," the Rancho Cucamonga Republican told The Bee Capitol Bureau this afternoon.

Others criticized the proposal for not going far enough. California Republican Party spokesman Mark Standriff said Democrats should embrace recent GOP-backed proposals that would target regulations that have the most impact, not just duplication or ineffective portions of the code.

"This is regulatory spring cleaning," he said of the Senate Democrats' plan. "What the Republicans in the Senate and the Assembly are looking at is real regulatory reform."

VIDEO CREDIT: Binders containing all the regulations currently on the California books are brought into a morning press conference at the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce office. Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee.

A light-hearted blunder by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg could have been grist for a "Wanna Get Away?" commercial.

The 51-year-old Sacramento Democrat was presiding in Citrus Heights over a community town hall meeting about the state budget Saturday when a middle-aged woman, perhaps his age, took to the microphone and heaped praise on him.

"That's very kind," Steinberg told the woman, then he tried to make light of the compliments by turning to the crowd and quipping: "That's my mother!"

Spectators laughed, but the woman seemed taken aback as to how she could be mistaken for someone in her 70s or 80s.

Steinberg, blushing, regrouped quickly.

"Just joking, just joking," he told her, smiling.

"My SISTER! My SISTER!"

The crowd roared.

Minutes later, the two shared a good-natured hug.

Paper Tiger?

In honor of Chinese New Year, the Assembly distributed a paper flier to members Thursday honoring the 12 animals of the Chinese calendar and listing 1938, the year of Gov. Jerry Brown's birth, as a "Year of the Tiger."

Brown is honest, strong, spirited, rebellious, brave and dynamic, according to the flier, provided by the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Council.

The Democratic governor shares those traits with Senate Republican leader Bob Dutton and Assembly GOP leader Connie Conway, both of whom were born in 1950, another "tigerish" year.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez's birthdate is in 1969 -- five months after Brown celebrated his 31st birthday -- and he is listed as confident, precise, candid and optimistic within the "Year of the Rooster."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg was born in 1959, a "Year of the Boar," and he is happy, gallant, reliable, courageous and generous, suggested the flier, which did not indicate whether it was printed by a Democrat or Republican.

In keeping with Chinese New Year, Democratic Assemblyman Richard Pan of Sacramento presented Pérez with a drawing of a koi, honored in folklore for swimming against the current.

Symbolic? Indeed.

"We hope, like the koi, we will overcome our fiscal difficulties and bring jobs and abundance to the people of California," Pan said.

This year, by the way, is a "Year of the Rabbit."

PHOTO CREDIT: A white tiger rests inside an enclosure at Beijing Zoo in Beijing, China, Monday, Feb. 8, 2010. AP Photo/ Vincent Thian

Flanked by solar energy business people and investors, legislative Democrats announced today that they're resurrecting a bill to require utilities to buy at least 33 percent of California's electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

The bill is designed to inspire investor confidence and complement Assembly Bill 32, California's greenhouse gas reduction law. Voters last November rejected Proposition 23, which would have suspended AB 32.

Legislators presented the proposal as well as related measures as a pro-business effort to help create jobs.

"The budget is and remains our top priority, and it is essential to the economic health of our state that we put our fiscal house in order as quickly as possible," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

"But while we do so," Steinberg said, "we must also continue to provide state and national leadership in our ongoing efforts to strengthen California's economy by supporting emerging industries, improving public education and creating jobs for Californians."

Two other measures described at the Capitol press conference would expedite permits for the location and construction of renewable energy projects in California, and create school curriculum for "green partnership academies" that use grants to provide students with skills to enter renewable-energy jobs.

Another bill would dedicate a portion of state ratepayer funds to loan guarantees that would help homeowners and business owners install energy-efficient technology.

California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, today said he will pursue emergency legislation forcing state agencies to review all regulations and recommend a wholesale re-writing of the state's regulatory scheme.

In an interview with The Bee Capitol Bureau, Steinberg said he'll propose "urgency legislation that directs each state agency to review its regulations, identify any duplicative, archaic or inconsistent rules."

Steinberg said lawmakers could then act on the recommendations over the next six months, perhaps expunging some rules from the 5,000-page California Code of Regulations as part of the state budget negotiations.

"To our knowledge, no one, not a previous governor, not the agencies and not the Legislature have ever compelled this sort of retrospective review to ensure that state regulations are streamlined, that they're up to date and that they're consistent with the law," Steinberg said.

The idea drew a positive response from Sen. Bob Dutton, the minority Republican Senate leader, who said that GOP bills to eliminate regulations have met with defeat for years in the Legislature.

"I would like to thank Senate Pro Tem Steinberg for his decision today to introduce urgency legislation to review all of California's thousands of regulations that have contributed to the loss of private-sector jobs over the past several years," Dutton, of Rancho Cucamonga, said in a statement.

Democratic leader Steinberg said his is not an effort to "weaken or undermine public health, environmental or worker safety protections," but rather to make it easier for businesses to "wade through the often difficult, complicated, duplicative bureaucracies that delay economic investment and job growth."

Steinberg, who held a Senate Democratic Caucus meeting this week with high-profile business figures, said he also wants urgency legislation that allows businesses or others to request a "consolidated and coordinated" state review process to obtain permits.

"Government needs to be more nimble," Steinberg said.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg suggested Friday that lawmakers won't pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities, contrary to fears that have prompted cities to approve a flurry of projects in the last week.

Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, said during a meeting with the Bee Capitol Bureau that it is "not a constructive move" for cities to rush money out the door to thwart Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal.

But, he added, "I don't anticipate emergency legislation because I think we're six weeks away from an actual budget vote, and I think that I'd rather not have that difficult debate twice. I think we'll have it once."

Steinberg focused his attention on the $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds that Gov. Jerry Brown wants to tap to balance the 2011-12 budget. He said that piece was "obviously crucial," though he said he's "open to sitting down with the redevelopment agencies" to discuss Brown's proposal to dissolve them.

Senate Democrats holding a closed-door policy conference today and Wednesday are reviewing options for slashing the state budget and listening to the concerns and ideas of Safeway's CEO and other business interests.

"The issue of jobs and the economy in the Capitol bubble sometimes doesn't lead to the most productive solutions," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told the Bee.

He said the Senate Democratic Caucus is hearing "sobering" presentations about the state budget deficit that must be back-filled.

Senators will hear more Wednesday on "what policy makers can do to attract and retain high-wage industries in California," Steinberg said.

Among the speakers: Steve Burd, CEO of Safeway and a Republican; green energy supporter and SunPower CEO Thomas Werner; wealthy Democrat Tom Steyer, founder of Farallon Capital Management; Edward de la Rosa, an investment banker from Los Angeles; and a representative of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

Senators are interested in hearing about green energy and how several bills they have pending could promote job growth in that area. They're also interested, Steinberg said, in hearing about the impact budget cuts could have on the state's economy.

"We're not taking vote cards here today," Steinberg said, commenting on whether the caucus is united in backing Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $12.6 billion in cuts. However, he said, "there is a common commitment to making the cuts that are necessary."

Economists from the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses made presentations today. The senators are meeting at the UC Davis MIND Institute, part of the school's medical treatment and research complex in Sacramento.

PHOTO CREDIT: Safeway CEO Steve Burd smiles as he sits in a Safeway truck at a Safeway store in Dublin, Calif., Friday, Jan. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/ Paul Sakuma)

Former Los Angeles Times Bureau Chief Virginia Ellis has been appointed to the Little Hoover Commission, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced today.

The independent state oversight panel is tasked with making recommendations for improving efficiency and service in state government. Ellis, who left the Times in 2008, won a string of awards for investigative work while at the paper. She had previously worked at papers in Texas and Florida.

Steinberg announced several other appointments made by the Rules Committee. The full release is posted after the jump.

Days after saying Democrats should have to deal with the budget on their own, Republican Tom Berryhill is set to be stripped of his Senate Food and Agriculture Committee chairmanship.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has penned a letter asking Rules Committee members to approve handing off the Oakdale Republican's gavel to newly elected Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres.

"Each member of the California State Senate represents nearly one million people and we have a duty, regardless of party or philosophy, to actively engage in the serious work necessary to address the challenges confronting California," Steinberg wrote in the letter.

A Berryhill representative was not immediately available for comment.

Berryhill said he saw no reason for Republicans to propose an alternative to Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal, telling The Bee that the budget "is really not our problem."

"The Democrats own this, and we think that they should be giving us what the solutions are," he said.

In closing his letter, Steinberg wrote that Berryhill "is a man of integrity and substance, and I am confident he will so engage in the months ahead."

Berryhill, a former Assemblyman elected to the Senate in November, was named chair of the committee last week. Cannella, his proposed replacement, is one of two Republican members of the Senate who has not signed the Americans for Tax Reform's no-tax pledge.

The Rules Committee, which Steinberg chairs, is scheduled to meet next Wednesday. The letter is posted below.

Rules Letter Berryhill

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said today that Gov. Jerry Brown's recommended $12 billon-plus in budget cuts - including huge slashes in social services - are different from Brown's Republican predecessor's because they are more "across the board" and include restructuring state government.

"I hate these cuts," Steinberg said at a Capitol press conference. But, he said, "I think this is a realistic budget."

As Steinberg spoke, interests defending childcare and social welfare programs began circulating to react to cuts in Brown's proposal, which also would ask voters to extend tax increases expiring this year.

"There is a recognition in this proposal that we have run out of patches," Steinberg said. "And we have been criticized, understandably so, for the various patches over the years. Our motive was to try to save as much public investment as possible, for education, for health care, for the needy."

"Well," Steinberg said, "the federal funds have run out. The temporary taxes are ending. There are no more patches."

He said Democrats will review the proposals Brown put on the table and may "quibble" with some. But in general, he said, Brown is asking for "sacrifices across the board - including with some of the corporate tax breaks."

The Senate Budget Committee will meet Thursday to begin deliberating the recommendations, Steinberg said.

"While I'm not ready to endorse any particular cut," Steinberg said. "I'm also very clear that I can't in good conscience reject any proposal out of hand."

Steinberg also predicted Republicans, in the end, would be reluctant to allow a tax deal to collapse and trigger deeper cuts than the more than $12 billion Brown proposed.

Seante President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced committee chair assignments for the new session today.

In addition to reassigning gavels, Steinberg changed the structure of several standing committees.

The Revenue & Taxation and Local Government committees were merged, forming the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance. The new committee will be chaired by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis.

The Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee was divided into two committees, with Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, chairing Banking and Finance and Sen. Ron Calderon,D-Montebello, at the helm of the Insurance Committee.

The assignments, posted after the jump, are set to be confirmed at a Rules Committee hearing on Jan. 12. Full committee assignments are expected within a week.

The state Senate will not confirm five people former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed to the State Board of Education, leaving room for Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint seven new people to the board today.

The result is a shake-up on the board that sets policy for the state's public schools, with the loss of members who supported reforms -- such as the "parent trigger" law that allows parents to overhaul low-performing schools -- and the addition of a member from the California Teachers Association, which opposes such changes.

The Senate never confirmed Ted Mitchell, David Lopez , Alan Arkatov , Benjamin Austin and James Fang. The Senate wanted to allow Brown to form his own education team, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

"From our perspective we have a new governor and it's up to the governor to establish his own administration," Barankin said. "That includes selecting the leaders of key policy areas, and that certainly includes education."

Two other board of education members -- Ruth Bloom and Johnathan Williams -- have terms that expire next week.

Brown's appointments include two people who served on the board of education during his first stint as governor as well as a lobbyist for the California Teachers Association.

The appointments, all Democrats, include:

• Louis "Bill" Honig of Marin (shown above), the president of the Consortium on Reading Excellence. He was the Superintendent of Public Instruction until he was forced to resign in 1993 after being convicted of felony conflict-of-interest charges. Honig was found guilty of authorizing $337,509 in state funds to pay local schools to hire his wife's nonprofit foundation, Quality Education Project, to set up parent involvement programs. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors. Honig previously served on the state Board of Education under Gov. Brown from 1975 to 1983.
• Michael Kirst of Palo Alto, a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and member of the the state Board of Education under Gov. Brown from 1975 to 1982.
• Aida Molina of Bakersfield, the executive director on academic improvement and accountability for the Bakersfield City School District and a former commissioner with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Molina has been a principal in Bakersfield and the Sacramento Unified School District and an assistant principal with the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District.
• Carl Anthony Cohn of Palm Springs, a professor and the co-director of the Urban Leadership Program at Claremont Graduate University. Cohn previously served as the superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District and the Long Beach Unified School District.
• James Ramos of San Bernardino, Chairman for the San Manuel Band of Indians and a member of the San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustees.
• Patricia Ann Rucker of Elk Grove, the legislative advocate for the California Teachers Association. Previously, she was a teacher in the Del Paso Heights School District.
• Trish Boyd Williams of San Jose, the executive director of EdSource. Previously, Williams worked for the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Appointments to the state Board of Education require Senate confirmation and are compensated $100 per diem.

PHOTO: Bill Honig in 1996. Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press

Editor's note: This post has been changed from earlier versions to reflect that the Senate failed to confirm five board members. Updated at 4:53 p.m., Jan. 5, 2011.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said after Gov. Jerry Brown's inaugural address today that Brown's post-inauguration period of goodwill could help him to resolve California's budget crisis, but that Brown and the Legislature must succeed quickly.

"He's going to use these first months where he has, you know, I think, a real sense of goodwill, from not only the people, but also from the legislature," said Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "We're going to put this fiscal crisis behind us early ... If we don't put the fiscal crisis behind us early, everything else we do will then pale."

Steinberg said politicians have many positive things to focus on, such as green energy and job creation, but that "first we have to show the people that we can put this fiscal crisis behind us, and put it behind us in the first six months."

Asked about Brown's intention, according to sources, to put a tax-extension matter on the June ballot and to propose dramatic reductions to virtually every area of state service, Steinberg said, "I don't like them (the cuts), but I'm prepared to work with my caucus and to work with the minority party and to work with the governor to do what has to be done."

He said Democrats would not "just take the governor's budget proposal and pass it on Day 1," but he said they would accelerate their review of his budget proposal and "work together to get it done."

"I don't like those cuts," Steinberg said. "But I'm not going to reject them out of hand."

Lt. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, said Republicans had better start cheering for Brown, too.

"I want Jerry Brown to be successful. If he is, the state's successful," he said. "I think every Republican out there should hope he's successful, as well. We can't afford an unsuccessful governor."

Newsom said Republicans and Democrats must both be prepared to accept massive spending reductions. Everyone is "in for a rough ride," Newsom said. "We all need to get in together."

Legislative heavyweights wearing "I'm Not a Girlie Man" T-shirts sang a budget-themed version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at his wrap party last week.

Taking the stage in front of Schwarzenegger and hundreds of supporters and staffers were Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, former Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines, former Senate Republican leaders Jim Brulte and Dick Ackerman, and former Assembly Speakers Bob Hertzberg and Fabian Núñez.

The Republicans wore red. The Democrats wore blue.

Among the gifts they said Schwarzenegger gave in their "Big Five" negotiations were "eight accounting gimmicks," "five bucks for schools," "three furlough Fridays," and "two vetoed bills."

The party, at Sacramento Convention Center, was paid for by private sponsors and included appearances by various stars. Among them was Vanessa Williams, who also sang.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg gave a special performance Wednesday night at the Sacramento Press Club Gridiron Gala. Here's a video by Bee photographer and videographer Hector Amezcua:

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has written to state university chiefs to object to new fee increases after legislators restored and boosted state funding this year to the embattled systems.

During tough budget negotiations, Steinberg said in a letter Thursday, "we provided more than $600 million in additional funding to backfill for cuts made in recent years while also funding for increased enrollment, class sections and vital student services."

"Consequently, I am deeply concerned about the recently adopted fee increased by CSU and UC and the impact they will on our students, their families and our economy," the letter said. "Passing more costs on to students and families threatens to price more Californians out of a quality higher education."

The UC regents on Thursday voted to hike tuition by 8 percent next year - on top of a 32 percent increase approved last year. The California State University board of trustees earlier this month voted to raise fees by 5 percent in January and 10 percent in the fall.

Steinberg's letter is addressed to Russell Gould, chair of the UC regents; Mark Yudof, president of the University of California; Herbert Carter, chair of the CSU board of trustees; and Charles Reed, CSU chancellor.

Read the letter here

California State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg celebrated California's strong Democratic showing in Tuesday's election, but invited Republicans on Wednesday to "come on in" and help reshape that state's troubled government and budget process.

"I'm so glad that I live in California," he told reporters at the Capitol. "It was obviously a difficult night for Democrats across the country. But in California I think the voters sent a different message. The voters, I think, said to us that they don't want to engage in the divisive tea party type of politics. They want us to govern in a way that addresses their lives."

He said Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown's victory shows Californians want someone with experience and "intellectual depth to be able to work to help tackle California's complex problems."

Voters gave state Democrats another present Tuesday with Proposition 25, which allows legislators to pass a budget -- but not taxes -- with a simple majority instead of approval by at least two-thirds of legislators. Steinberg called Proposition 25 "a game changer" and said there is no reason now for legislators and Brown to not approve a budget on time.

But Steinberg conceded that voters sent a "mixed message," because they "gave with one hand, and took with the other."

As a crowd behind him cheered Jerry Brown's lead in the gubernatorial race, state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said this evening that if Brown wins and Proposition 25 passes, life will be a lot easier in Sacramento.

Brown is a Democrat, the Legislature is controlled by Democrats, and Proposition 25 would lower the threshold for the Legislature's adoption of a state budget from two-thirds to a simple majority.

"If Prop. 25 passes tonight, you will see a significant change, because the budget will, in fact, get done on time," Steinberg told reporters at Brown's election night party in Oakland. "It will allow us, as I said, to focus on so many other positive agendas, whether it's the environment, whether its renewable energy, whether it's education."

Steinberg seemed pleased by the prospect of a Democratic administration. The incumbent, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a Republican.

"I'm really looking forward to working with him (Brown)," Steinberg said. "I mean, I think he has a real intellectual depth. I think he will, he will dive in, he'll be very detail oriented, and I look forward to that. The problems are complicated. And he'll do very, very well."

When Sen. Rod Wright was indicted on charges of perjury and voter fraud last month, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg came to his defense.

"Rod Wright has my full support and is presumed innocent," Steinberg said at the time. "He will remain in his position in the Senate and I intend to personally contribute to his Legal Defense Fund."

Steinberg made good on that pledge, contributing $10,000 from his re-election committee to Wright's legal fund, according to reports filed this week.

Wright, a Democrat, is accused of fraudulently claiming he lives in an Inglewood rental complex in the 25th Senate District he represents. Prosecutors from the Los Angeles County district attorney's office allege Wright actually lives in a home in Baldwin Hills, part of the 26th Senate District. He is also accused of lying about his residence during a 2003 city council run, according to grand jury testimony transcripts unsealed this week.

Wright, who has pleaded not guilty, is next scheduled to appear in court Nov. 10. The "Taxpayers for Rod Wright Legal Defense Fund" committee has raised $68,000 to help pay for his legal bills, according to campaign disclosures reported on the secretary of state website.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, August 20, 2009. Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee.

Who's your governor today?

If you guessed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, you'd be wrong. If you guessed Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, you'd also be wrong.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is now in charge.

Maldonado is now in Miami, where he and his father are shooting a documentary of his life for the Spanish-language network Telemundo, according to spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson. And Schwarzenegger is in London, taking some time off today before meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron and British troops tomorrow.

That means California's third-in-line, the Senate pro tem, is in charge.

We don't know what footage Telemundo will use as part of the documentary, but surely it has to include Maldonado's appearance at the 2008 Republican National Convention. We hope he removed the gum from his mouth before speaking into the camera this time.

Fulkerson says Maldonado is due back in California later today.

Democrats believed that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would line-item veto about $500 million in spending items, but they were never told which particulars he would cut, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Wednesday.

The Sacramento Democrat said he never thought the Republican governor would veto as much as $962.5 million.

"We presented the governor a list of items that we believed were worthy of protection and these items were on the list," Steinberg said, referring to child care for low-income parents, child welfare services and mental health services for special education students.

"The governor did not make any iron clad deal promises on the list, but that's sort of beside the point," Steinberg added. "We negotiated an agreement, and he ultimately has the constitutional authority to blue pencil. But he also has the responsibility to make sure he uses that blue pencil in a way that is judicious and in a way that is compassionate. And this is gratuitous."

Under the $256 million child care cut, former welfare-to-work participants now employed in low-income jobs would lose subsidized care for their children starting Nov. 1. Steinberg held a press conference Wednesday at a Discovery Tree School in downtown Sacramento to protest the vetoes.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg will try to reverse Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's line-item budget vetoes when the next legislative session begins in December, according to his spokeswoman, Alicia Trost.

Schwarzenegger vetoed $962.5 million in spending when he signed the budget Friday. The governor targeted many of his line-item vetoes at programs for low-income Californians, including child care for the working poor. Schwarzenegger said his vetoes were necessary to ensure the state has a prudent reserve of more than $1.3 billion.

Democrats reacted with anger, as some lawmakers said they were misled into voting for a budget that they believed would protect social service programs.

Steinberg's strategy does not rely on overriding the line-item vetoes, which would take a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. Instead, it seems that Steinberg intends to ask Democrats to reauthorize spending for the programs slashed by the governor.

It's unclear to what extent Steinberg's plan relies upon passage of Proposition 25, which would reduce the state's budget requirement of a supermajority vote to a majority vote. Even without passage of Proposition 25, lawmakers could appropriate funds for education on a majority vote - including the $256 million in child care funds that Schwarzenegger vetoed.

Steinberg's strategy also seems to rely on having a new governor take office who would sign such appropriations. In other words, Democrats would need Jerry Brown to win in November and then send their legislation to Brown once he takes office in January.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won one budget battle this week - the location of today's meeting with legislative leaders in Southern California.

The governor will host leaders at his private Oak Productions office in Santa Monica today at 1 p.m., according to Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear. Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, initially wanted to have the meeting at the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown Los Angeles.

For those unfamiliar with the governor's Santa Monica office, Washington Monthly described it in 2005 as follows:

It is quite unlike any governor's office anywhere in the country, that much is certain. The walls are lined with movie posters and photographs of Schwarzenegger in all manner of political and commercial poses. Outside the door to his inner office stands a life-size mock up of Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, his face half gone and a red laser eye gleaming. Inside the office, amid a jumble of movie memorabilia, rests a stuffed crocodile. Overall, the effect is interior design by a very rich, very extravagant 16 year-old.

Legislative leaders are having an unusual budget road meeting in Santa Monica because the governor came down with a cold and was unable to fly to Sacramento this week. Today marks the 84th day of the budget impasse. On Friday, leaders will break the record for budget tardiness that was set in 2008.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders huddled for about three hours today to hammer out a long-delayed budget deal and bridge a $19 billion deficit.

The only concrete result appeared to be the governor taking off the table a proposal to borrow money from the California Public Employees' Retirement System to balance the budget.

The Big Five will meet again at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.

"The governor told the leaders that we're not going to do that," said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear about the CalPERS idea. "It's just not the responsible thing to do."

Senate President Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, expressed some optimism that legislators could reach a deal by as early as tomorrow.

"We're hopeful to be done tomorrow or the weekend," Steinberg said.

Republican legislative leaders did not speak to press after the meeting.

McLear, however, said Democrat and Republican leaders hadn't made substantial process and blamed legislators for "not doing their job." Schwarzenegger returned yesterday from a six-day trip to Asia 77 days after the legal deadline for passing a budget had passed.

"No major breakthroughs at all," McLear said. "Just kind of working through all the issues."

McLear and Steinberg agreed that the impasse revolved around how much in cuts to make. Steinberg added that the governor needed to first finish collective bargaining agreements with state employee unions.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's forthcoming trade mission in Asia seemed like an obvious opportunity for Democrats to attack the GOP governor, given that he will be on a six-day overseas trip while the state lacks a budget and IOUs loom in the horizon.

And given the references to Schwarzenegger's "vacation" coming out of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's office last month and today, it seemed like attacks were inevitable.

But Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez softened their approach Tuesday following a 90-minute meeting with Schwarzenegger and GOP legislative leaders. Pérez even offered an economic argument for why the governor should go.

The change in tone seemed to be a budget peace offering.

"We live in the modern times, and if the governor is there or here, we can engage in important conversations," Pérez said. "Our objective is to try to get to resolution as quickly as possible. One of the things we've said is, we want to make sure we have budgetary solutions that make sense for the economic prosperity of the state. So the last thing we want to do is be an impediment to securing the trade relations and the benefit of those relations at the same time."

Steinberg acknowledged that it would be easier to solve the budget in face-to-face talks, but he added, "Look, we'll make anything work. As John said, with technology, we can get the job done either way."

Democrats have floated a new version of their tax swap to raise as much as $1 billion in the current fiscal year.

Assembly Republican Leader Martin Garrick, R-Solana Beach, said Republicans still have to examine the new proposal. But he added that any change would not take effect until 2011, in which case the plan would raise significantly less money than Democrats had hoped for. If the plan does not take effect until 2011, it would raise $250 million in the current fiscal year, according to Steinberg's office.

PHOTO CREDIT: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger throws shirts into the crowd at a California Grown event in Hong Kong on Nov. 19. 2005, the last day of his six-day trade mission to China. Sacramento Bee file photo/ Brian Baer

Don't call Tuesday's budget exercise a drill. So says Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who was so afraid of that characterization that he referred Monday to the criticism as "the D-word."

"We should not end this formal legislative session without having a full floor debate and votes on our respective visions of California," Steinberg said. "I know the 'D-word' gets used all the time, and I reject that."

Plenty of people have been scratching their heads about why legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to hold floor votes tomorrow on competing budget plans. After all, neither Republicans nor Democrats have the requisite votes to pass their plans off the floor, and two Democratic members who have health issues will remain at home.

But, stuck at an impasse, the "Big Five" leaders feel that a floor vote may be just the thing to get their compromise juices flowing.

"I think it could be cathartic," Steinberg said. "And you know, hopefully it will lead sooner than later to a negotiated solution. The thing is, we would all like to be done with this. I don't think there's any political benefit to this continuing. But the differences are very real, and they relate to our respective views about the importance of public investment in making California great."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said earlier this week that $1.2 billion in new federal aid for teachers is "separate from the budget," a change from remarks a couple weeks ago.

The Sacramento Democrat previously suggested that California should consider a new federal aid package as beneficial for the state budget particularly because the $1.2 billion for teacher jobs was unexpected relief.

But education groups argued that the federal teacher aid should be considered on top of any money state leaders already planned to give schools. They want the money to be ignored in the budget process.

In an online town hall Tuesday, Steinberg said he agrees with that position. He pointed to urgency legislation that he and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez introduced last week that would provide schools the money before the budget is passed.

"That is separate from the budget," Steinberg said. "Even if you take that $1.2 billion, and you add it to our funding level for K-12 education, it barely gets you there in terms of keeping the per pupil spending ratio what it was last year. ... We're going to fight for as high a level of education funding as we can, even in these difficult times."

PHOTO CAPTION: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) sits in the principal's office at Smythe Academy Middle School in Sacramento on Thursday, August 12, 2010. Randall Benton/ Sacramento Bee

The stakes were high, with President Barack Obama and Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman getting involved.

But in the end, state Senate Democratic leader Darrell Steinberg said today, his party's defeat in a key Central Coast Senate election Tuesday boiled down to one thing: timing.

"I think the die was cast with the special election date being set in the middle of summer rather than November," Steinberg said after Democrat John Laird lost to Republican Sam Blakeslee.

Laird, a former Santa Cruz area assemblyman, agreed. He disputed the GOP version of Blakeslee's victory in the 15th Senate District as a no-new-taxes and cut-spending-only mandate.

"The low turnout of an August election was just too high a hurdle," said Laird, who called Blakeslee, a San Luis Obispo assemblyman, at midnight to congratulate him. With all precincts partially or fully reporting, Blakeslee topped Laird 49 percent to 44 percent.

One of the defining cuts of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed May budget was the elimination of welfare-to-work.

The proposal would make California the only state without a welfare program and cost the state more than $3.7 billion in federal funds to save $1.2 billion in state expenditures. For those reasons, many people considered the elimination a negotiating ploy.

Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers still say publicly that the state can't afford CalWORKs, which is heavily subsidized by the federal government but not required. Democrats have used the elimination as a prime example of why they think Schwarzenegger's May budget isn't very realistic.

But in an interview last week, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg suggested that Republicans have backed away from the CalWORKs elimination in private talks. He noted that Republicans are now asking for $500 million in CalWORKs cuts - short of the $1.2 billion CalWORKs elimination.

Don't fret, jobless Californians. Democratic legislative leaders are here to save the day.

While they can't "guarantee" approval of a package of job-creating bills or the signing of a budget solution that will keep CalWORKS up and running, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez want to make sure California's unemployed look their best in their quest for a job.

The two top lawmakers are joining Men's Wearhouse to launch the chain's national "Suit Up for Success" clothing drive.

Lawmakers, lobbyists and staff are encouraged to donate "gently used" business attire to help job-seeking citizens "dress for success," according to a press release.

"Looking professional not only affects the people who see you, but how you see yourself," Men's Wearhouse CEO George Zimmer said in a statement. "The State Capitol Suit Drive gives job-seekers an extra boost of confidence as they re-enter the market."

Given the styles we see in the chambers, we're not sure taking fashion cues from state legislators would actually boost an applicant's chances. But well-dressed do-gooders can drop off their clothing on Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1121 L Street. More info on the actual event is posted at The State Worker blog.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office said today that a new Democratic tax swap proposal would raise taxes on middle-class Californians, counter to Democratic claims last week that it would lower taxes for all income groups.

The plan envisions raising state taxes on income and vehicles but lowering the state sales tax. Democrats said taxpayers would save by virtue of federal deductions and lower costs at the cash register.

But LAO State Finance Director Jason Sisney told a Senate committee the proposal would generally result in higher taxes for taxpayers earning between $20,000 and $200,000 a year. Sisney did not say how large the tax hikes would be for each income level, but he said the proposal would increase taxes overall by $1.6 billion in 2011-12.

Top-flight Democratic consultant Gale Kaufman has fallen out of favor with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

The Senate leader has removed Kaufman as a consultant on the Senate's most competitive battle in Senate District 12, a swing seat currently held by termed-out Republican Jeff Denham. Assemblywoman Anna Caballero originally hired Kaufman during the Senate primary and paid her $15,000 in April, records show.

Caballero's general election race against Republican Anthony Cannella is expected to be an expensive endeavor - not to mention a profitable one for consultants.

But two spring developments opened a rift between Kaufman and Steinberg, Democratic sources said. First, Kaufman served as the Democratic consultant on an independent expenditure campaign that helped Juan Vargas squeak out the narrowest of Democratic primary victories over Steinberg's preferred candidate, Mary Salas, in the 40th Senate District.

At the same time, Kaufman is the longtime adviser to the California Teachers Association, which mounted a public campaign against Steinberg in his own Sacramento district related to the state budget. The teachers' union paid for billboards, lawn signs and mailers urging voters to call Steinberg and tell him to support the Assembly's budget proposal. The Assembly plan provided more money for schools but required a legally risky, multibillion-dollar borrowing maneuver.

Kaufman and Steinberg representatives declined to comment for this report. Senate Democratic caucus adviser Jason Kinney said: "Anna Caballero is in an incredibly important race, and she's assembled one of the best political teams to work on it."

That team includes consultant Larry Sheingold.

Photo Credit: The Sacramento Bee, Randy Pench

After two days of recounting, former Assemblyman Juan Vargas is maintaining his paper-thin lead over Assemblywoman Mary Salas for the Democratic nomination in the 40th Senate District, which covers the state's southernmost region in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties.

Vargas had a 22-vote lead over Salas in the final electronic tally of the June 8 election. She sought a recount in San Diego and Riverside county portions of the district. The first two days of precinct-by-precinct manual recounting produced a handful of vote changes but no net difference.

Although the duel is between two Democrats, it pitted Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who backs Salas, and his union allies against a coalition of business groups that support Vargas as a more moderate, business-friendly Democrat. The district has an overwhelming Democratic voter registration so the eventual nominee is certain to succeed Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, the Senate's top budget negotiator, who is being forced out of the Legislature by term limits.

Both counties are posting daily updates. San Diego's, covering just the second day of recounting, can be found here. Riverside's, a running total, is available here.

Rex Babin is the political cartoonist for The Bee. You can see a collection of his work here. Read Bee colleague Susan Ferriss' story on Steinberg's leadership challenges here.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's bill to overhaul teacher layoffs and reassignments survived its first legislative test today despite the opposition of teacher unions.

The measure is one of several points of friction between Steinberg and the unions, especially the powerful California Teachers Association, which has used billboards and mailings to criticize the Democratic head of the Senate.

Steinberg's Senate Bill 1285 was approved by the Assembly Education Committee on a 6-2 vote after a lengthy hearing. It's aimed at modifying the long-standing seniority system that, Steinberg and his allies say, creates high turnover and uncertainty in low-performing schools with high numbers of poor and nonwhite students.

"It's about civil rights," Steinberg told the committee.

The California Teachers Association is ramping up the budget pressure again on Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

This time, the union is explicit in its preference for a budget idea put forth by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez more than for Steinberg's Senate proposals.

A mailer is scheduled to go out Tuesday in Steinberg's Sacramento district addressed to "dear residents of the 6th State Senate District, Sacramento," according to CTA spokeswoman Sandra Jackson.

It contends that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to slash $4 billion more from education and that Democrats, "led by Speaker John Pérez," have developed an idea called the California Jobs Budget that "saves schools and students from these devastating cuts."

Jackson said the letter also says: "You can help by asking your senator, Darrell Steinberg, to join parents and educators and community members in supporting the Assembly's California Jobs Budget that will protect our students and create new jobs to help put California's economy back on track."

The mailer will include a card with a similar message that constituents are invited to sign and send to Steinberg.

In May, the CTA sent out a mailer to Steinberg's constituents and erected billboards in Sacramento to put pressure on him. The message was to hold the line against more cuts to education.

"Stop the blame. Stop the cuts," the California Teachers Union exhorted in a billboard and mailing campaign last month aimed at California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

Over the weekend, the Sacramento Democrat fired his own surgical strike with a "Dear Educator" letter to offer his side of the story. In a two-page letter, the mailing paid for by campaign funds seeks to remind teachers that Steinberg is on their side.

The ballroom at the Radisson Sacramento was filled with raucous laughter -- and raunchy jokes -- as lawmakers and politicos gathered Tuesday night to roast Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

The annual roast, which benefits the California Center for Civic Participation, attracted high-profile roasters as well: Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, Senate GOP leader Dennis Hollingsworth, Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy and a surprise guest -- the governor himself. Former state Sen. Sheila Kuehl served as the master of ceremonies.

The roasters zinged Steinberg on his nice-guy approach and his receding hairline. But they also spent a lot of mic time making below-the-belt jabs at one another.

The audience was stacked with lawmakers and familiar third-house faces. Here are a few of the lines that got them laughing, as well as the "poem" Hollingsworth was inspired to pen for Kennedy after seeing the acrostic veto message Schwarzenegger delivered last year to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.

The memory of a Capitol staffer has brought a Republican assemblyman and the Senate's Democratic leader together to create a memorial scholarship fund to assist former foster youth.

The Julianne Huerta Memorial Scholarship fund is being coordinated by GOP Assemblyman Roger Niello of Fair Oaks and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

The scholarship honors Huerta, a Capitol fiscal and policy analyst who died in December 2008 after a five-year battle with breast cancer. The fundraising kicks off June 9 with an event at Capitol Garage.

Niello described Huerta as someone who maintained a positive, caring attitude even while undergoing chemotherapy in advanced stages of her disease. She was not married and had no children of her own, but she loved foster kids and dreamed of creating a scholarship for them, he said.

"She was an inspiring person," Niello said. "Quite frankly, I became so fond of her and she had such a feeling for foster kids that I just couldn't imagine not doing what I could to see that her wish would be honored."

The four legislative leaders who hammered out the February 2009 budget deal were honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this morning.

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation selected Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, former Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill and former Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines for showing courage in reaching a deal to close a $40 billion budget deficit in February 2009.

In presenting the award Caroline Kennedy, cousin of first lady Maria Shriver, commended the four lawmakers for setting aside differences to make tough choices and reach compromise.

"In today's climate of deeply partisan politics crossing party lines is all too rare," she said.

Lawmakers characterized the deal, which included steep cuts to social services and schools and temporary tax hikes, as difficult but necessary.

The Senate Rules Committee today recommended rejecting Board of Education nominee Jeannie Oropeza. The full Senate will likely vote on the nomination Thursday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated Oropeza last month for one of four open seats on the board. Oropeza, a Republican, works on education budget issues for the California Department of Finance. She also previously worked as an education budget consultant in the Assembly.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said that while Oropeza was qualified for the post, her day job at the Department of Finance created a conflict of interest.

"The point of a four-year, individual term is that it be independent," Steinberg said. "If Ms. Oropeza's day job is defending the governor's budget and helping the governor create policy, how can she under any circumstance act independently of those positions as a voting member of the Board of Education?"

Hoping to squeeze out more federal funds, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced today that they will meet with White House officials and congressional leaders next week in the nation's capital.

The two leaders, at a joint news conference, stressed that their goal is to seek billions legitimately owed to the state, not a handout.

"We're not going to Washington, D.C., to ask for a bailout of California," Pérez said.

They released a list of specific health-related programs for which they hope to secure additional funds from the Obama administration, addressing issues from medical care for the poor to federal matching funds linked to a new quality assurance fee to be imposed on hospitals by the state.

California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today he has asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to work with him to review all state contracts with Arizona and possibly break them because of Arizona's new immigration police law.

"That bill is a gross civil-rights violation. We hope it will be overturned by the courts quickly," said the Sacramento Democrat, who sent a letter to Schwarzenegger today.

The new Arizona law requires local police officers to demand proof of legal status in the United States when officers believe there is reasonable suspicion that someone is an illegal immigrant. Latino and immigrant rights groups say the law will lead to racial profiling and vow to sue to stop it.

"It's a civil-rights issue whenever you set somebody aside because of the color of their skin or where they come from," said Steinberg, who is a lawyer. "And that applies to both legal immigrants, citizens and undocumented immigrants. I mean, how do you define reasonable suspicion? There's only one way under that law. And it's somebody who looks Mexican. Period."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, suggested Tuesday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bears blame for budget inaction after the governor rejected the most significant parts of a budget package Democrats have sent him in recent weeks.

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation just named the four legislative leaders from last February's contentious budget deal as this year's recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

The award-winning leaders include Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, former Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and former Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Wednesday he doesn't plan to pursue a general tax hike again this year, largely because he doesn't think Republicans will sign on.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will not support tax hikes. GOP legislators also remain unlikely to support them after members suffered political consequences for supporting $12 billion in temporary tax hikes.

The Sacramento Democrat, appearing at the Sacramento Press Club, acknowledged the political difficulty of increasing taxes on sales or income this year to help close the state's $19.9 billion budget deficit.

"I don't plan to put forward a general tax increase, because I don't think we'll pass it," Steinberg said. "I'm not interested in my hair on fire when it's not going to lead to an actual, productive result."

He said Democrats instead will look instead at reducing corporate tax benefits, including those won by Republicans in the last two years of budget negotiations. The Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday took steps in that direction by rolling back affiliate tax-credit sharing and deductions for past operating losses as part of a complex gas-tax swap proposal.

The Senate is embracing the age-old resolution to slim down in the New Year.

In terms of committee sizes, at least.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced today that he has cut the membership of the Senate's standing committees. The move is intended to improve the efficiency of the legislative process and give members more time to focus on their committee work.

"Senators have a tremendous amount of talent and expertise," Steinberg said in a statement. "The new committee structure will allow them to dedicate even more of their time and energy to the most pressing issues confronting California and provide greater oversight of state government operations."

Committee leadership has stayed the same with one exception. Republican Sen. Dave Cox will replace Democratic Sen. Pat Wiggins as chair of the Local Government Committee. Democratic Sen. Christine Kehoe, was appointed to fill the vice chair spot previously held by Cox. On the budget subcommittee, Sen. Carol Liu has replaced current chair Sen. Gloria Romero.*

See the revised committee rosters after the jump.

Ever write with a $760 pen?

When former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata was termed out of the Legislature in December 2008, he gave a $760 pen as a gift to his successor, Sen. Darrell Steinberg, state records show.

Steinberg promptly gave it back.

The Fair Political Practices Commission referred to the gift recently in an advice letter it sent to Steinberg.

Steinberg's financial disclosure records from 2008 identified the manufacturer of Perata's pen, Montblanc, but not a particular model. "Upon learning the value of the gift, filer returned it," the records said.

Montblanc, which produces dozens of styles, characterizes its "writing instruments" as an "astonishing and iconic gift" and "the epitome of timeless design."

Amazon.com offers Montblanc pens ranging to thousands of dollars, including the Patron of the Arts Limited Edition Oppenheimer Fountain Pen, $2,495, with only 4,810 made worldwide and features that include "Sterling Silver, gold-plated rings with a grey translucent lacquer on the cap and barrel."

The Fair Political Practices Commission, in its December advice letter, simply said that Steinberg was not required to disclose Perata's gift of a $760 Montblanc model - whose value exceeded the state's gift limit - if it had been returned within 30 days.

From Susan Ferriss and Torey Van Oot

For state lawmakers, ringing in the New Year also means getting ready for what's shaping up to be another painful budget season.

They'll return to the Capitol Jan. 4 to tackle a deficit that is expected to swell to $6.3 billion by the end of the fiscal year.

Filling that hole -- and the $21 billion deficit projected for the next 18 months --tops Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's list of priorities for the new year.

Steinberg said in an interview with The Bee that while further cuts and new revenues will be needed to close that gap, the first place to look for cost savings is in the prisons.

The head of the California Citizens Compensation Commission said Friday that he's not bothered by a legal challenge to his panel's spring decision to slash state lawmakers' pay and benefits by 18 percent.

Commission chairman Charles "Chuck" Murray said in a telephone interview that state legislators have the right to challenge anything anybody does in California, including decisions by his own panel, adding: "That's their job."

The Legislature's top administrators recently asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to decide whether the pending cuts in compensation were legal, suggesting the commission had exceeded its legal jurisdiction.

Murray said that while he doesn't mind the lawmakers appeal to Brown, he still thinks it's a bad idea given the state's troubled finances.

"It makes no sense whatsoever for them to be doing this," he said.

The Governor appoints all seven members of the commission. Murray cited the state's dire financial condition when in May members of his panel voted to cut lawmakers' pay by 18 percent, beginning in December 2010 after the next round of elections.

Later, the commission also slashed lawmakers per-diem payments, car allowances and medical and other benefits by an equal amount - effective December of 2009.

Murray acknowledged that the state Department of Personnel Administration gave him a legal opinion stating that his panel didn't necessarily have a 100 percent right to cut per-diem and car allowances. "But that's just one opinion," Murray said.

Murray said he secured additional verbal legal opinions from an unidentified judge and four Southern California attorneys. They all told him he had authority to order all cuts, he says.

Before voting to make the cuts, Murray said, he went even further and consulted a retired lawmaker and reviewed historical legislative and archival bill files on the issue.

Murray said his own review convinced him that his commission was meant to have the power to cut both pay and fringe benefits. Per-diem and car allowances fit that bill.

The Senate reconvened earlier this afternoon, taking up two budget bills and moved on to the remaining pieces of the water legislation members failed to approve last night. The entire package will then move to meet its fate in the Assembly, which is expected to convene for votes after a 3:30 p.m. Democratic Caucus wraps up.

Watch what Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg had to say about the process and prospects for approving the plan. And in case you missed yesterday's action, click here to read Steve Wiegand's wrap up of last night's events.

Video by The Bee's Hector Amezcua,

No, it's not marathon water talks that are making Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg look older these days.

His 50th birthday was last Thursday.

Party hearty? Nope.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Steinberg a gift certificate to Biba restaurant, his wife took him to lunch, and the senator and his staff celebrated with bagels and fruit, spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.

Other than that, and a few ties that Steinberg received as gifts, his big day was much like any other -- he participated in a press conference about state employee furloughs and held more talks toward a water deal, Trost said.

Steinberg's staff also sang him "Happy Birthday," she said.

And brought him balloons.

With the first year of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's role as Senate leader winding to a close, Susan Ferriss sums up the Sacramento Democrat's political victories and defeats.

"As a Democratic leader in the nation's most populous state, Steinberg has, in theory, enormous influence over proposals with national and state impact. He presided over passage of the most ambitious renewable energy bill in the country - although the governor, while he supports the general concept, vetoed it.

The perilous task of trying to broker one of the West's most ambitious water delivery and conservation plans has won him some new adversaries. He has upset some fellow Northern California politicians and environmentalists who feel the liberal leader has left them out.

But the state's financial debacle is what dominated Steinberg's first months as a leader and tested his skills as a negotiator."

Click here to read the full story and see a scorecard of Steinberg's job performance.

Sen. Darrell Steinberg has more than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bearing down on him when it comes to California water.

Supervisors of the five Delta-region counties have been meeting with the senate president pro tem to air worries, and firing off missives that outline their concerns that the Delta will get the short end of a deal now being negotiated at the Capitol.

The governor has threatened to veto many bills if a deal isn't hatched this weekend.

On Thursday, the Delta supervisors sent a letter to Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, collectively complaining that water proposals on the table have "serious gaps" in policy and financial protection for the counties.

The letter, which you can read here, was signed by the supes of Sacramento, Solano, Yolo, San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties. It praises Steinberg's "clear sensitivity" and dedication to the interests of the Delta region.

But Contra Costa County Supervisor Mary Piepho told The Bee she questions whether Steinberg can effectively defend the Delta's interests while he's trying to broker a deal with other legislative leaders.

"He does not have his sole focus on the Delta," Piepho said. "He's representing everybody. And that's his role as a leader."

Piepho wondered whether Sen. Lois Wolk, the Democrat of Yolo County, couldn't be let in on the negotiating action at this point.

Steinberg didn't appoint Wolk to the joint conference committee that hashed over water bills. That disappointed her, Wolk said.

But Steinberg has spent a lot of time meeting this week with Delta reps, including Wolk, his office said. And he's a Delta leader, too, his staff members point out.

"From the beginning of his leadership of the Senate, Senator Steinberg has made protection of the Delta a top priority in any larger water discussions, as evidenced by including a Delta representative in eight months of intense water work groups," Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.

"As the only Northern California representative in the Big 5 meeting in water," Trost said, "Senator Steinberg has fought for, and won, major concessions that will enhance and protect the Delta's environment and economy while ensuring Californians will have access to a reliable water supply."

The "Big Five" water talks broke for a spell this afternoon and were set to resume around 4 p.m. Here's a video of legislative leaders talking to reporters before the midday round of negotiations.

Video by The Bee's Hector Amezcua.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Pato Alto, sent a letter today to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to reconsider pursuing a legislative mandate for boosting the state's reliance on solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

"(An) Executive Order does not have the force and effect of law. Additionally, such a proclamation will only cause confusion and uncertainty to California's energy markets, jeopardizing California's role as the world leader in renewable energy development and green jobs," they wrote in the letter, which you can read in full after the jump.

The letter is in response to the governor's Executive Order directing the California Air Resources Board to set targets for utilities to generate one-third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

Schwarzenegger issued the order this afternoon after vowing to veto a package of bills aimed at achieving the same goals. He criticized the bills as being too protectionist and prescriptive because of restrictions on sources of the renewable energy.

Simitian is the author of one of the bills Schwarzenegger has said he will veto. For more background on the battle over how to boost California's renewable energy standard, check out this story from The Bee's Susan Ferriss.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has sent a letter asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to consider reducing the number of furlough days for state workers. He also plans to push legislation calling for unspecified budget cuts to offset the cost of one furlough day a month.

Check out the letter here.

Read more, including responses from the governor's office and SEIU Local 1000 at The State Worker blog.

Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, pictured above with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, right, will co-chair a joint legislative commtitee on reform efforts. (Hector Amezcua/SacBee)

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass today announced the creation of a select committee they say could lead efforts to make sweeping changes to California state government.

"Everybody understands that the current system isn't working for anybody," Steinberg said in a statement. "There are plenty of great ideas out there but the Legislature must be part of the reform process. There is a loud cry for change in how we do things and this Legislature hears that cry and is ready to respond."

The Joint Select Committee on Reform will be chaired by Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, and Assemblymember Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles. Additional appointments to the committee and a schedule of hearings will be announced in the coming days.

The committee is tasked with finding fixes for a laundry list of broad, longstanding issues with the current political process, including "making government more efficient and accountable" and "diminishing the influence of special interests." See a list of the goals legislative leaders have set for the committee after the jump.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg met with reporters today to talk about his top priorities as the Legislature makes its final push to the end of the session. Water, prison cuts, restoring the recent round of budget cuts to health and welfare services and reforms dominated the conversation. After the jump, see what Steinberg had to say on several key issues.

As lobbyists for card clubs and Indian gambling tribes push to legalize online poker in California, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said today he's open to the idea but doesn't believe there is enough time in the Legislature's remaining four weeks to make a decision.

Tribes and card clubs are joining forces to propose an online poker consortium that would take advantage of the lucrative Internet poker boom that largely has been run by offshore operators.

With the state hurting for cash -- and Democrats desperate for revenues to soften cuts to social service programs and schools -- Steinberg said he essentially has one thing to say to proponents of online poker: Show me the money.

"I think it is a legitimate idea for consideration," Steinberg said today in a press conference. "I only have one question when I hear a proposal like that: how much money for the state General Fund? It's all I want to know. You know, is it two, three hundred million dollars? If it is, I'd consider it. But I think it's going to take more than four weeks to analyze that kind of proposal and the potential economic benefits."

For more background, read Peter Hecht's story from last week.

Above is a video of Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's remarks before going into caucus earlier this afternoon.

The 'best-case scenario' is still that the Senate will begin voting on the budget-related bills around 5 p.m., but judging by Steinberg's remarks, it's going to be a long night.

No word yet on when Assembly votes could come, but here is the Assembly's final Floor Report on the package.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Darrell Steinberg told reporters this afternoon that the budget agreement is back on track and votes are expected to come Thursday night. A Senate floor session has been scheduled for 2 p.m. tomorrow, but no word on what time the budget voting will begin.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also took some time to address reporters, saying that despite some "hiccups" and "bumps in the road," "the bottom line is we're going to get this budget done."

Lawmakers are being briefed as we post on the details of last night's budget agreement, but in the meantime we're posting a slew of statements we have received in response to the deal.

Legislative leaders emphasized that dire times call for desperate measures (read: deep cuts) in their official statements, while the governor had a more upbeat take on the situation, applauding the effort it took to reach an agreement. Stakeholders in the social services sector expressed disappointment and disgust with the deal that was announced last night. Read a roundup of responses after the jump.

We'll be updating the list as more responses roll in, so be sure to check back throughout the day for more reactions. And you can send your take on the deal to tvanoot@sacbee.com.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has sent members home for the July Fourth holiday weekend with advice to stay within four hours of the Capitol should budget progress require a floor session.

Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and "core members" of the caucus will stay in town to negotiate the spending plan, according to spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

The next scheduled session is noon on Monday, but the Senate remains on call over the weekend.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reiterated Monday that he will veto any majority-vote budget solution with new taxes and went so far as to call such a maneuver "illegal."

As Democrats in the state Senate pursued a majority-vote budget package Monday morning, the Republican governor held a press conference in his office to say that the plan was dead on arrival.

"What they are working on right now is, I think, all part of the kabuki," Schwarzenegger said. "They are wasting time by going through those drills, trying to pass a simple-majority, illegal tax increase. I will never sign anything like this. I think they know I will never sign those kinds of things. So why waste time and run out of time, and then all of a sudden we have to hand out IOUs?"

The "kabuki," as the governor calls it, happens for a reason. By sending the governor a majority-vote budget package, Democrats want to say that they passed a solution but that Schwarzenegger rejected it. That claim may ring slightly hollow, since a majority-vote plan couldn't take effect for another three months and would not necessarily avoid IOUs, but it's part of the political maneuvering that takes place in the Capitol.

Schwarzenegger emphasized that he wants the Legislature to solve the entire $24 billion budget problem by Tuesday without new taxes and with several reforms, such as eliminating boards and commissions.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's office responded that lawmakers have approved eliminating state agencies and restructuring certain boards, an efficiency plan different from what the governor proposed but which saves the same amount of money.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg convenes a 9 a.m. floor session today, vowing to "work every day" to pass a budget by July 1. Steinberg insists he won't bend on protecting in-home care for the elderly, college assistance for young adults and health care for children. And he is hoping he won't look like a pretzel once the deal is done.

Check out the video of his presser after Wednesday's wranglings to find out more on what's next to come in the "serious business" of sorting out California's fiscal mess.

Speaking of health care, the Health Care for America coalition will be holding rallies today outside offices of U.S. Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco, Fresno, San Diego and Los Angeles to demand more strident support from the California senator for President Barack Obama's universal health care efforts.

The coalition includes Health Access California, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the California Partnership and the Children's Defense Fund.

While the budget and health care may dominate the day's attention, the Little Hoover Commission will hold a 9 a.m. hearing in Capitol Room 437 on management and governance of California's water supply.

Maybe it's just a reminder that all those clouds - ominous or otherwise - around the state house these days couldn't exist without water. Hot air alone is not enough.

Battlelines were hardening today over a Democratic plan to bridge a $24 billion budget gap, a package of more than a dozen bills scheduled to be voted upon Wednesday.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said that Republicans have signaled that they won't support proposed tax increases in the package, including proposals targeting tobacco and oil extraction.

But even without taxes, the Democrats' plan would fill more than $21 billion of the gaping hole that threatens to leave the recession-wracked state unable to pay all its bills next month.

"Why isn't it better to solve $21 billion instead of zero?" said Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

Democrats cannot implement their package without support from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, however, and the governor's spokesman said that any partial or stopgap plan will be rejected.

"Anything less than $24 (billion) doesn't solve the problem," McLear said.

Schwarzenegger also will reject the Democrats' tax increases if they reach his desk, according to McLear.

"Increases in taxes are not an option," he said.

McLear said he expects the Democrats' plan to fall short of the necessary votes for passage Wednesday, prompting more negotiations as the state inches closer to a financial abyss.

Steinberg said that Democrats cannot accept Schwarzenegger's alternative plan, which calls for elimination or deep cuts to services ranging from health insurance for low-income children to financial assistance for college-bound students.

"The price is too high," Steinberg said. "We're not eliminating the safety net for the most vulnerable Californians. It's anathema to everything I believe in and that the members of my caucus believe in."

Republican legislators also threaten to block the Democrats' plan Wednesday.

To take effect immediately, the program cuts proposed in the Democratic package would require at least a handful of GOP votes in each house -- and that support appears increasingly unlikely because many Republicans say the cuts are not deep enough.

Steinberg noted irony in the notion that Republicans, who for years have pushed for smaller government, are threatening to reject a package containing more than $11 billion in program cuts.

"It's a little bit odd," Steinberg said.

In the Legislature's rosiest of budgetary scenarios, voters would approve all the measures on the May 19 ballot and the total funds netted (through transferring from mental health and early childhood programs and borrowing from the lottery) would be about $6 billion.

Even then the nonpartisan legislative budget analyst says the state will face an $8 billion shortfall.

If the ballot measures fail, the deficit hole would grow to $14 billion.

Rightfully so, folks around the Capitol are already peering around the corner to the next budget fight, likely this summer. Given that it's legislative spring break this week, let's do the same.

The Republican legislative leadership has said there will be no more tax hikes.

"We made it clear that any further budget action we may need to take in the coming months must be done solely through savings to government programs," GOP leader Mike Villines said after the latest deficit emerged.

There's been some scuttlebutt about the building about potentially returning to the Democrats' December plan to hike taxes with a majority vote.

The Democrats' plan called for swapping certain taxes for fees, while raising other taxes that then went to the state's general fund. Tax hikes typically require two-thirds support - and thus GOP votes.

A March 9 opinion from the Legislature's lawyer, issued to the tax overhaul commission created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, gives the legal green light to majority-vote approach.

"We think that a tax bill is not subject to the two-thirds vote requirement if the cumulative effect of the 'changes in state taxes,'...when considered in their entirety would be neutral or would produce a net decrease in state tax revenues," Diane Boyer-Vine, the legislative counsel, wrote.

Capitol Alert has posted the full opinion here.

Meanwhile, the GOP senators who broke ranks to vote for the tax hikes in February are doing pretty well for themselves these days.

More committee shuffling by the Senate two weeks ago landed Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, as the vice-chairman of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

And ex-GOP leader Dave Cogdill landed the vice-chairmanship of the Senate Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee, a move requested by Cogdill, approved by GOP leader Dennis Hollingsworth and executed by the Rules Committee controlled by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

(Read about the previous internal Senate shuffling.)

HEALTH FORUM: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be in Los Angeles today for a health forum co-hosted by the White House. It is the fifth and final such forum held across the country.

Schwarzenegger will be joined by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and Melody Barnes, the domestic policy council director for the White House.

Photo: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, goes over the plan for voting on the budget plan with GOP leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, before the Senate voted on the budget on Feb. 19, 2009. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee.

After last fall's elections, the Democratic leaders in the California Senate and Assembly were a mere five votes shy -- in both houses combined -- of a complete two-thirds governing supermajority.

They've never come that close since.

Vacancies -- created through members taking other offices and running for open congressional seats -- are likely to frustrate Democrats and empower Republicans for at least the rest of the year.

"It does create complications," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "You want to have a full house."

The two-thirds majority is a magical combination in California because that is the level of support needed to pass a budget or raise taxes in the Legislature.

Exhibit A, of course, was the February budget debacle, in which Steinberg locked state senators in the Capitol as the taxes-and-cuts package deadlocked one vote shy of passage.

At the time, the Democrats needed three GOP votes to pass the budget, but only had the support of two Republicans. There was one Democratic vacancy, created by ex-Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, resigning his post to join the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

"We would have been out of here Saturday night instead of the following Thursday without all of the drama if we had had a full house, in all likelihood," Steinberg said.

The final GOP vote, Sen. Abel Maldonado, wrestled major concessions from majority Democrats, including placing a constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot to overhaul state elections.
.
To this day, Ridley-Thomas' seat remains unfilled. Democratic Assemblyman Curren Price of Inglewood finished first in the primary last week and is expected to take his place in the upper house after a May 19 runoff.

Of course, that will create a vacancy in the Assembly, which will likely last until early October by virtue of the state's election-scheduling laws.

"Every vote we pick up, it is exponential for the Republicans," said Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines. "It gives us a lot of ability to move the debate and navigate to issues that we care about."

In the Assembly, Democrats control 51 seats in the 80-member house, three shy of a two-thirds majority. That number will rise to four once Price departs for the Senate.

Then there are those open seats in Congress.

The legislative leaders who labored for weeks trying to find a way to patch the $40 billion budget gap closed last month were quick to react today to LAO projections of a new $8 billion hole.

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg even extended a special invitation to GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, who have been critical of the February budget deal.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles

"Given the nation's continuing economic problems since we passed the budget, it is not surprising to see the state's revenue projections continue to fall. We must keep a careful watch on revenues during these volatile times, and all of us, Democrats and Republicans alike, must be prepared to continue to make tough decisions should the May Budget Revision also show significant declines in revenue. We also have to keep in our minds the potential that if the ballot measures fail on May 19th, the budget problem grows by another $6 billion."

Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis

"Republicans take very seriously the warning issued today by California's Legislative Analyst that our economy continues to deteriorate and revenues continue to decline. We understood when we passed the budget in February that our state's fiscal crisis was not over, and that the Legislature may be called upon to make further spending reductions in the months ahead.

"We agree with the Analyst that further tax increases should not be on the table. When we passed the budget in February, we made it clear that any further budget action we may need to take in the coming months must be done solely through savings to government programs.

"The Analyst's report echoes what Republicans have been saying all along -- that economic recovery and job creation must continue to be an important priority for the Legislature in the coming months. We will continue working to try and pass economic recovery measures that will create more jobs for those out of work and inspire more economy activity in our state."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento

"We will solve the challenge outlined this morning by the Legislative Analyst with the same intensity that we solved the $42 billion problem in February."

"It should come as no surprise that the Nation's economic downturn continues to severely impact California's budget - retail sales continue to decline and unemployment continues to rise and American families lost $5.1 TRILLION in the last 3 months of 2008."

"Like thousands of businesses and millions of families, state government has less money to spend."

"But moms and dads will continue to get their kids off to school. Sick people will need an emergency room. There will be fires to put out. Criminals to prosecute. And elderly people to care for."

"Fortunately, the action we took in February makes what we face more manageable."

"For months those who have lobbied us have told us what not to cut, what not to tax, what not to do."

"That time is past. We have entered the post-press release period of our budget crisis."

"I am extending an invitation to both Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner to meet with us. They've both said that as Governor they could close our budget gap without raising taxes. Well now, that's what we need to do and we need their list of cuts and savings."

"We invite any and all people and stakeholders who are skeptical of the magnitude of the challenges we face to step forward with their ideas."

"Senate Budget Subcommittees are already meeting to craft additional changes to the budget. In addition, the Senate Budget Committee will convene in the coming weeks to hear from the Legislative Analyst on this report and what steps we can take to fix this problem."

"We will solve the problem."

Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta

"The fact that the LAO is projecting a $6 Billion deficit for the 2009-2010 Budget is not a surprise. I said early on this budget was not going to fully solve the problem. We had anticipated the budget shortfall would be around $10 billion, and it still could reach that number."

"Now we need to focus on re-evaluating some of the solutions previously discussed that include helping the private sector create jobs and stimulate the economy. We also need to use any federal stimulus money California receives efficiently and effectively and look at streamlining government by reducing spending. We can't go back to the taxpayer's again to ask them to fix the problem, especially after hitting them with a $1,000 price tag just three weeks ago."

"Clearly, more work is needed and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Assembly and Senate to achieve that task."

When Karen Bass first ascended to the Assembly speakership, she named overhauling the state's foster care system among her top three priorities.

(The other two were balancing the budget and modernizing the state's tax codes.)

Today, Bass and a host of others will hold a press conference to highlight a new report that says California "could realize at least a 2-1 benefit-to-cost ratio in extending foster care for youth to age 21."

Among the attendees will be: Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, former Senate leader John Burton and a bipartisan cast of current legislators.

Bass will press for AB 12, legislation she's co-authoring with Assemblyman Jim Beall, to extend the foster care age and try to capture more federal funds.

STEINBERG TO BACK TOBACCO TAX: Senate Democrats will target a familiar foil again in 2009, as Steinberg and Sen. Alex Padilla will roll out tobacco legislation package this Tuesday centered on a $1.50 cigarette tax hike.

Those two Democrats, joined by health advocates, will unveil the four-bill package tomorrow.

In the Assembly, Democrat Tom Torlakson is already pushing to raise the tobacco tax.

Both tax bills would require a two-thirds vote -- and therefore Republican support.

GOING GREEN: It's worth a mention that the Senate Rules Committee -- translation: Darrell Steinberg -- appointed Ross Mirkarimi, a San Francisco supervisor, to the California Coastal Commission last week.

Mirkarimi is a member of the Green Party.

BIRTHDAY: Sen. Alan Lowenthal turned 68 on Sunday. The Long Beach Democrat celebrates today with a fundraiser for his 2010 run for lieutenant governor.

Image credit: Dennis Lowe/AP

Politics is a back-scratching business. And after last month's budget vote, there's a lot of itching going around the Capitol.

On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg rearranged offices in the upper house (made necessary by Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth's selection as GOP leader). Not surprisingly, Sen. Dave Cogdill, the ousted Republican chief who voted for the budget, didn't end up in the smallest of digs.

That honor went to Sen. George Runner, an outspoken member of the anti-tax faction of the caucus.

Cogdill also was handed the chairmanship of a select committee on surplus property this week.

We're hearing that more changes (likely favorable to other GOP voters Abel Maldonado and Roy Ashburn) could be in the pipeline...

Over at the Assembly, Republican Anthony Adams stuck his neck out to vote for the budget. Now, conservative forces are plotting a recall attempt.

So next month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will thank the Hesperia Republican by attending a district fundraiser tentatively scheduled for early April.

There's punishment, too, as meted out by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass when she stripped three then-committee chairmen of their posts.

THE ARNOLD CLASSIC: Schwarzenegger will be spending the weekend in Columbus Ohio, attending the annual Arnold Sports Festival bodybuilding competition, as he does every year.

The last time Schwarzenegger was in Ohio, he headlined a rally for presidential candidate John McCain.

"He needs to do something about those skinny legs," Schwarzenegger teased now-President Barack Obama. "We're going to make him do some squats. And then we're going to give him some biceps to beef up those scrawny arms. If only we could do something about putting some meat on his ideas."

NO, WE'RE NOT KIDDING: The McGeorge School of Law holds a conference on governmental ethics. Former San Francisco Mayor and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown will be the luncheon speaker.

BOXER ON TOP: Voters aren't particularly inclined to reelect U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, with 42 percent in favor and 43 percent opposed, according to the Field Poll.

But California's junior senator does much better when lined up against her potential challengers.

Boxer: 54 percent
Schwarzenegger: 30 percent

and

Boxer: 55 percent
Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina: 25 percent

In the hypothetical GOP primary, Schwarzenegger finishes first, but by a small margin:

Schwarzenegger: 31 percent
Fiorina: 24 percent
Assemblyman Chuck Devore: 9 percent
Undecided: 36 percent

Without the governor, Fiorina leads DeVore 31 percent to 19 percent -- but with half the electorate undecided.

Find the exclusive statistical tabulations on Capitol Alert.

Photo: Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, and then-Senate Republican leader, Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, confer on the Senate floor on Sept. 8, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/ Sacramento Bee.

Photo: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger congratulates Arnold Classic winner Dexter Jackson on March 5, 2005. Credit: Jay LaPrete/Associated Press.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has shuffled office space assignments in the upper house. And - surprise - Sen. Dave Cogdill, who provided a key vote for last month's budget at the cost of his post as GOP leader, won't suffer too badly, at least when it comes to square footage.

New Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth is moving into Cogdill's former space on the third floor, the spacious office reserved for the GOP leader.

But Steinberg has decided to assign Cogdill to the office of Sen. George Runner, a leader of the GOP hardliners against taxes. Runner, R-Lancaster, is being moved to the smaller office of Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, who moves to Hollingsworth's old office.

Runner's soon-to-be former digs have long been the home of the Senate Republican Caucus Chair, the post Runner holds. But Steinberg is breaking that tradition to land Cogdill in the spacious office. The move has rubbed some Senate Republicans the wrong way.

Runner spoke with Capitol Alert early Thursday, but had no comment as he said the move was not yet official. Later, he did update his Facebook status. "George Runner (is) packing up his Capitol office and being moved to smaller space because he stood up for taxpayers and voted no to higher taxes, that's the way it works in Sac."

Steinberg's office is downplaying the changes.

"It is just a routine operational procedure borne out of having to move the former minority leader out of the minority leader's office," said Jim Evans, a Steinberg spokesman.

On Wednesday, Steinberg also created a new select committee on reviewing the state's surplus property, long a GOP priority, and named Cogdill as chair.

"This committee will play a pivotal role in helping the state continue to find ways to save money during these tough economic times," the Modesto lawmaker said in a prepared statement.

Cogdill is also expected to retain all the staff he had as leader, including Ron Rogers, who earns $165,000 per year.

More house changes beneficial to the three GOP votes for the budget package (the others are Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria and Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield) could follow. Potential changes in the make-up of the Senate Rules Committee, another plum GOP assignment, are being discussed, but no shifts have been announced.

Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and ex-Senate leader Dave Cogdill will join hands today for the first campaign event before the upcoming budget special election.

The trio -- alongside other advocates for the package -- will host a press conference this afternoon at a Sacramento-area child development center.

In today's paper: If voters rely solely on ballot arguments when deciding in May whether to pass a constitutional limit on state spending, they will miss the fact that the measure also would extend higher sales, vehicle and income taxes by up to two more years.

The state Senate reconvened Wednesday morning and lifted the call on the tax-hike part of the legislative puzzle.

The roll was called and the votes remained unchanged around 8:30 a.m. 23 ayes. 12 noes.

Senate Democrats immediately called for a private caucus off the floor.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, in a brief interview, reiterated that the Democrats' strategy remains the same, despite the ousting of GOP leader Dave Cogdill late last night.

"The question is does this mean we go back to square one and start over? Absolutely not," the bleary-eyed Sacramento Democrat said.

He is "focused on gaining the one additional vote" needed to pass the budget, he said.

Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado, a potential vote who was critical of the GOP leadership change, echoed those comments.

"I don't want to call it a step back, it's a bump on the road," said Maldonado, who has given the Democratic leadership a list of a demands. "You've got to keep working. I mean we haven't stopped."

Maldonado said Steinberg "with all sincerity, has been working" with his wish list.

"We've got some stuff in leg counsel," Maldonado said, referring to the legislative bill drafting shop.

Steinberg defended the lockdown of the Senate, though he said there had been no shift overnight.

"No one likes the inconvenience," Steinberg said of the lockdown. "But I'll tell you it is a minor inconvenience compared to the plight of real Californians who will be profoundly affected if there isn't another Republican senator who is willing to put his state above any other interest."

California is set to halt more than 270 infrastructure projects across the state in the next 24 hours, should lawmakers fail to reach an accord.

By Kevin Yamamura and Shane Goldmacher

Senate Republicans have a new leader today after the caucus ousted Sen. Dave Cogdill and replaced him with Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth shortly after midnight.

Despite speculation that Senate Republicans may ask to reopen budget talks, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg insisted the change has absolutely no effect on his strategy to break the budget deadlock this week.

"We're going to maintain our focus towards solving the problem of getting one vote regardless of who the leader is," Steinberg said after his house took a recess around 1 a.m. "Leadership doesn't change the fact that there is no other idea put forward that would take $41 billion out of a budget deficit. And so, for me, it doesn't change anything."

After the Senate failed to approve the contentious tax hike bill, Steinberg made good on his threat to keep his members locked in for the night. He said he plans to resume talks later Wednesday with Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, and Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, to see if either one will back the budget package.

"I would describe it as a bit of a discouraging day," Steinberg said of Tuesday. "Despite a lot of effort, and a lot of work today by our office, the governor's office, they're not there. But they have to be there eventually."

Schwarzenegger flew home to Brentwood around 9 p.m., a sign that the budget deal remained elusive Tuesday. His spokesman, Aaron McLear, said the governor plans to continue speaking to Cox and Maldonado on Wednesday.

Hollingsworth, an ardent tax opponent, made it clear that he continues to oppose the budget. When asked whether he wants to reopen the "Big 5" negotiations, he said he'd take a wait-and-see approach.

"I think the majority of my caucus doesn't want to see a tax increase passed in this particular package," Hollingsworth said. "But we'll see what happens in the next few minutes, the next few hours, the next few days."

BIRTHDAY: Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, turns 45.

EVENTS: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell will speak to a conference of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, or CCSESA as people who like long acronyms call the group.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, and Rep. Dan Lungren, a Republican, will be in town today. The congressman and the state's junior U.S. senator will be part of a large panel this morning talking about how to spend the federal stimulus money headed toward California.

Boxer is also slated for a press conference Darrell Steinberg and Karen Bass on the topic.

GOVERNOR 2010: Former eBay chief Meg Whitman gave her first speech as a candidate for governor on Tuesday.

"I love California too much to let it fail, and I refuse to sit by and watch it happen," Whitman said.

She promised the creation of 2 million jobs by 2015.

Ok, so Whitman may be new to running for office, but that's some classic campaign-style promising. 2015 just happens to be a full year after a potential first term would end...meaning there's no way for voters to judge the success of the pledge.

Whitman will give another speech in Irvine today. She's also expected to announce the endorsement of Rep. Ed Royce.

The state Senate today finally debated the single most controversial element of the package designed to close the state's $40 billion budget deficit -- a $14.4 billion melange of income, sales and gasoline taxes -- but retired to private meetings before calling for a vote.

After a week of backroom negotiations, the final Republican vote needed to enact the new taxes remains elusive. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has pledged to keep the Senate in session around the clock, if necessary, to get the job done. The Assembly adjourned until Wednesday but could reconvene tonight if events warrant.

It's generally assumed that Republican leader Dave Cogdill and Bakersfield GOP Sen. Roy Ashburn are committed to vote for the tax bill if a third GOP senator joins them. Most of the pressure has been directed at GOP Sens. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria and Dave Cox of Fair Oaks.

Speaking to reporters, Maldonado said negotiations for his vote and perhaps those of other Republicans were "close" to bearing fruit, but declined to offer specifics.

In today's debate, Democrats urged approval to keep the state solvent and Republicans argued that new taxes would be economic poison during a severe recession.

Cox described the new taxes as an economic "straw that broke the camel's back." He said lawmakers should focus on a short-term fix that does not involve tax increases but generates enough cash flow to keep the state paying its bills.

Kevin Bassett, Cox's chief of staff, said Cox wants the tax package reduced and Democrats to reconsider loosening workplace rules, a GOP demand that was rejected in negotiations with the governor and legislative leaders.

The tax measure is the centerpiece of a 27-bill package aimed at closing a projected $40 billion budget deficit over the next 17 months. The Legislature has been in session night and day since Saturday, approving some of the bills, stalling on others, while legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to nail down the three Republican votes in both houses needed for passage.

The three votes have been nailed down in the Assembly but the third GOP vote in the Senate has proven elusive with the largest tax increase in California history the most controversial element. Anti-tax groups and conservative talk show hosts have thundered against the increase while Democrats and groups with stakes in state spending have urged its passage.

A hopeful Senate leader Darrell Steinberg said he met with Sen. Dave Cox for an hour this morning and delayed a critical budget vote until noon based on "conversations" that could produce the elusive final vote to bridge California's budget gap.

But, Steinberg also acknowledged, he came to the Capitol today with a tube of toothpaste, shaving cream and an extra pair of socks just in case he has to carry out his promise to keep the upper house locked down overnight.

"We're going to get there today," Steinberg predicted. "I can't tell you exactly who (will vote for the budget package). We all know who the candidates are. ...Today has to be the day."

Steinberg and his fellow Democrats have spent three days trying to woo one Republican -- either Cox, R-Fair Oaks, or Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, to cast the decisive vote that would close the gap with cuts borrowing and about $14 billion in tax increases.

They and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration have warned that hundreds of millions in public construction projects will shut down if there is no deal by Wednesday. The administration sent 20,000 layoff notices to state employees today.

Steinberg did not elaborate on his meeting with Cox, who was once thought to be the deciding vote but has since said he could not in good conscience vote for the tax increases.

"Dave and I have known each other for almost 20 years, and we have always had a good relationship," Steinberg said.

On Monday, Steinberg first said he would put up the tax bill at 10 a.m. this morning and keep the roll open -- for hours, if necessary -- to pressure the final vote.

"There are caucuses and conversations that led me to hold off until noon," he said.

California's massive $40 billion-plus budget plan stalled in the state Senate early Sunday morning, as it became clear the three needed Republicans in the upper house were unready to support the plan.

In a preliminary roll call on Saturday night, Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill was the only Republican to cast an "aye" vote on a key piece of the budget puzzle. Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, abstained, while every other Republican senator opposed the budget bill. Ashburn is expected to support the budget plan once a third GOP vote emerges.

Sen. Dave Cox of Fair Oaks, widely viewed as a potential third vote in the Senate, voted no. He was heavily courted by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, throughout the night, having been called into private meetings in both officials' offices late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

Cox emerged from Steinberg's office past 1 a.m. and pronounced that he was a no vote, saying he didn't need any more information.

Senate Democrats believe a new $10,000 state tax credit for homebuyers is enough to sway Ashburn to provide the second Senate Republican vote for the plan, however.

Less controversial parts of the package were winning passage with relative ease and little debate in both houses. But the most contentious measure, a bill that would increase a variety of taxes by a total of $14.3 billion, had not been taken up.

Support for the tax-hike package is believed to be set in the state Assembly, but Republican lawmakers in that house were unwilling to support the plan without assured passage in the Senate.

Floor sessions remained in effect in both houses, though senators were allowed to retreat to the relative comfort of their personal offices. An all-night Valentine's Day session that could stretch into the morning remains a possibility as Democrats and Schwarzenegger scramble to corral a final GOP vote.

Kevin Yamamura and Dan Walters contributed to this report.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Yes, it's Saturday, and yes, you're getting an AM Alert. That's because the Legislature is set to vote today on a huge package -- a 17-month budget fix that includes $15.8 billion in cuts, $14.3 billion in tax increases, and $10.9 billion in borrowing.

Both houses of the Legislature have floor sessions set for 5 p.m.

What happens next is still in the air.

Due to the two-thirds vote requirement in the Legislature, three GOP votes will be needed in both the Assembly and the Senate if every Democrat supports the budget package.

"I expect all the Democrats to vote for the budget. Absolutely. No exception," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg declared earlier this week.

That means you, Lou Correa.

Conventional wisdom around the Capitol is that the bigger battle will be in the Senate, where Capitol Alert outlined the GOP landscape on Friday.

One other thing to watch during session is who goes up first.

As in, if Correa does support the budget, will he vote before his GOP colleagues? Likewise, would any Senate Republican cast an "aye" before Correa? And would Assembly Republicans cast votes for taxes before Senate passage is assured?

All good questions; no clear answers.

What is clear is that Senate Republicans are divided.

On Friday morning, the Senate Republican Caucus sent out a press release with a collection of quotes from editorials, a business leader -- and even one union head -- essentially characterizing the deal as a necessary evil.

Sabrina Demayo Lockhart, a spokeswoman for Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill, said the release "should have gone out under the leader's e-mail, not the caucus e-mail."

Hours later, a second release came, titled, "More Budget Comments."

It contained quotes from GOP senators blasting both taxes and the current budget deal.

"We just wanted to clarify what other members of the caucus had stated publicly," Lockhart said.

NOTE: In Wednesday's AM Alert, we reported that 12 lawmakers had fundraisers scheduled. Well, the number should have been only 11. Assemblyman Jerry Hill had canceled his until after a budget solution is reached.

Photo: Senate President Pro Tem Darrrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, rubs his eyes during a call to a lawmaker concerning the state budget at his Capitol office in Sacramento, Friday, Feb. 13, 2009. Credit: AP Photo/ Rich Pedroncelli

Below is a video of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg speaking to the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday:

If you've been concerned about the secrecy of the Big Five negotiating process, he addresses that at about the 10-minute mark.

He begins to take questions at the 16-minute mark.

Legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not release details of the tentative budget pact they've struck, though that didn't stop details from leaking out.

The 30,000-foot view: $15.8 billion in cuts, $14.3 billion in tax increases, $10.9 billion in borrowing. And if California gets $10 billion in federal stimulus money, cuts drop by $1.2 billion, borrowing by $5.5 billion and tax increases by $1.8 billion.

Delving deeper, the plan: Gives K-12 education $5 billion less than it was otherwise entitled to.

Eliminates two paid holidays for state workers, with the final number of furlough days per month through June 2010 still subject to negotiation.

Cuts UC and CSU by 10 percent.

Eliminates cost-of-living increases for recipients of CAL-Works and SSI-SSP.

Cuts the corrections department's medical budget by 10 percent.

Eliminates funding for local public transit agencies.

On the tax side, the plan increases sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar, vehicle license fees from current 0.65 percent of vehicle value to 1.15 percent, and gasoline taxes by 12 cents a gallon with proceeds to pay off transportation bonds. Income taxpayers would pay a 2.5 percent surcharge on tax liability - 5 percent if federal stimulus comes in under $10 billion. Reduces tax credit for dependents from $309 to $99.

Taxes would be increased for two years, and an additional one to three years if the spending restriction measure is approved on the ballot.

Other new "revenues" include taking from voter-approved taxes for mental health and early childhood programs.

The whole thing would have to go before voters in a whopping five-measure package: borrowing from the lottery, changing Proposition 98, approving the spending cap, and taking funds from Proposition 10 (tobacco tax for early childhood programs) and Proposition 63 (tax on millionaires for mental-health programs).

That, of course, is if the whole thing passes the Legislature in a vote now scheduled for Friday.

"I'm not guaranteeing any votes," Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill said Wednesday.

"I felt it was as good as I could get and I was willing to release my members," he said. "It's up to them (his members) to make that decision."

So far GOP Sens. Dennis Hollingsworth, Sam Aanestad, and Abel Maldonado have all publicly said 'no deal.'

Then there's the case of moderate Democratic Sen. Lou Correa.

"I just don't think it gets out if he doesn't go up on it," Cogdill said

Steve Wiegand's January profile of new Assembly members walking a political tightrope is worth a re-read. (On the Democrats-only budget passed in December, none of the four freshman Dems to win in previously GOP-held seats voted. They all abstained. Schwarzenegger eventually vetoed the proposal.)

"A deal is never a deal around here," Republican Sen. Bob Huff warned Wednesday, "until it's in writing, and you're voting on it."

Which could be as early as tomorrow...

And so the furloughs begin.

In case you're confused about all the back-and-forth on the furloughs for constitutional offices, here's the deal:

Employees in the offices of California's statewide electeds are working today.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger insists he still has the power to furlough them. Both sides are citing the same ruling from a Sacramento Superior Court judge on Thursday.

Long story short: More court battles are likely to follow

Wondering how to spend your furlough day?

Well, the Association of California State Supervisors wants you to head to lawmakers' district offices. "It is vital that your legislators hear from you on this issue, and visiting them in their home offices is one of the most effective ways to approach them," the group wrote to its members earlier this week.

Or you could go skiing.

Squaw Valley USA is offering $30 lift tickets to all furloughed state workers on the first and third Fridays of the month. Just bring your state identification card or a 2009 pay stub as well as a regular ID.

Of course, you can always drink your pay cut woes away. The Rubicon Brewing Company is offering 10 percent off your bill to furloughed statees.

BIRTHDAY: Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, turns 61 today. He's hoping voters give him the gift of becoming attorney general in 2010, after recently filing paperwork to make a run at becoming the state's top cop.

BUDGET UPDATE: The news Thursday was that Senate leader Darrell Steinberg said a vote was upcoming next week. No deal yet, as the negotiations continue behind closed doors.

That secretive process is being pretty well criticized here, here, here, here and here.

Asked if there would be any time for public input before any sort of deal is rammed through the Legislature, Steinberg expounded:

"Certainly, the public has the absolute right to review what we do eventually put forward. And our members certainly do as well. We're going to afford the public, our members that full opportunity," he said. "On the other hand, this is an emergency. We're going to balance those two concerns."

Finally, in Thursday's AM Alert about the Capitol's "wear red day" we reported that Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, the chair of the Women's Caucus and a sponsor of the heart disease awareness day, would skip town for a La Jolla golf fundraiser.

Turns out, Saldaña skipped her own fundraiser and didn't plan to fly back to her district until this morning.

Photo: Signs advise customers that the DMV will be closed Friday as part of state furloughs ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cost savings measure. Photo taken Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

Senate President Darrell Steinberg said Thursday that both houses of the Legislature are planning a budget vote sometime next week, though the Democratic leader was careful to say no final agreement had been reached.

"The process is now coming to a close," Steinberg said, emerging from a closed-door Democratic caucus meeting. "By next week, there will be action on our respective floors."

Steinberg said he did not know on which day a vote would occur.

Steinberg did not directly answer whether any plan put to a floor vote would necessarily pass, or whether the resulting package would be signed by the governor.

A Democratic-backed budget package was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month, while other Democratic plans have been blocked by GOP opposition. Budgets -- and raising taxes -- typically require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, giving minority Republicans veto power.

But, as a sign of hope, the Sacramento Democrat cited "good-faith negotiations" in the last month that have been characterized by "very little finger-pointing."

"This is a very different circumstance because, frankly, we are at the edge of the cliff," he said of next week's vote, compared to past failures.

"Our very fine staffs are drafting as we speak," he said.

California faces an estimated $40 billion shortfall through July 2010. The state also faces a more immediate cash crunch, as the state controller has begun withholding certain payments to be able to continue to fund schools and pay off bond debts.

Steinberg said the package leading lawmakers and Schwarzenegger are negotiating would attempt to tackle the full shortfall.

"The discussions are continuing downstairs because there is not a deal," he said.

Tensions in the California political world are running high.

Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, accused the California Labor Federation of uninviting him to a budget briefing this week that was marked "legislators only."

Apparently, it was for "Democrats only."

"When I was first elected, I attended a briefing hosted by the labor federation, and I was the only Republican in the room," Jeffries said in a statement. "I told them then that I didn't expect we would always agree, but that I hoped we could keep the lines of communication open. Apparently they don't share that desire."

Steve Smith, communications director for the labor federation, responded thusly: "The bottom line, in terms of Assemblymember Jeffries, is this is an individual who has a 13 percent lifetime record on labor issues."

Or, more precisely, labor didn't want no GOP fox in labor's hen house.

"In a meeting like (Monday's), in which we were basically talking about core labor values and how to protect core workers' rights in this budget process, we know who has been supportive of those issues and who hasn't," Smith said.

And that's only the start.

On Tuesday, Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, blasted Democratic state Controller John Chiang for requesting $2 million in new furniture in the last seven months.

"I don't like the fact that hard working people in my district are getting IOUs and he's buying millions of dollars worth of furniture," Maldonado said in an interview. (For the record, taxpayers due refunds from the state and others missing payments aren't getting IOUs just yet. They're simply not receiving anything at all.)

Maldonado even posted the furniture purchase orders online here and here.

Chiang's office struck back, calling Maldonado's accusation "pathetic."

"Had he done any homework, the senator should have realized that the expansion project, including furniture,...began before Controller Chiang took office," his office said.

Further, Chiang's office argued, the controller "demanded that staff cut down the costs, and by changing financing, materials, design, and construction, reduced the overall expense of the project by more than 50 percent" - a $4 million savings.

Part of the frustration - for just about everyone - is the lack of information coming out of the Big Five budget negotiations.

That process leaves 116 lawmakers on the outside looking in.

"What I don't appreciate is the Big Five is meeting and we're going zero information out of it," said Maldonado. "My constituents are asking me daily -- 'what is happening' -- and my response is we're waiting on the Big Five."

Kevin Yamamura delves into the history and politics behind the secret negotiations in today's Bee. The money quote:

"Whether it's education or labor or any of the other groups, when we get wind of something that has significant jeopardy for us, we fight against it," said Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist for hundreds of California school districts. "It's a system set up to defeat the latest idea that's been hatched, which makes it that much harder to get a solution."

And so, the negotiations continue. In private, as best as the leadership can keep them.

Photo: Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, votes no during the floor debate on a Democratic budget plan on Thursday Dec. 18, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

In an effort to ramp up pressure on Republican lawmakers who might agree to a compromise budget deal, a top GOP official has submitted a resolution for the party's convention later this month to formally censure any Republican who votes for new or higher taxes.

"If the Republican party loses the ability to say that we're the party against higher taxes than we've been dealt a grievous blow," said Jon Fleischman, the author of the resolution and a Southern California vice chairman in the California Republican Party.

Fleischman, who publishes the conservative FlashReport Web site, said the resolution is meant as a "stick" to dissuade GOP legislators from agreeing to any budget plan with higher taxes crafted with majority Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I think it is fair to say that if you are a Republican and, between now and the February convention, you vote for tax increases, you are likely to be censured by your party and cast out among the unwanted," he said.

The resolution goes one step further than a censure. It calls for changes in party bylaws to allow the Republican Party "to campaign and contribute funds against these pro-tax Republican legislators in primaries, and in general elections."

The state GOP faithful are set to gather for their semi-annual convention in Sacramento on Feb. 20.

"I think there's enough anger out there that something like this could pass," said Patrick Dorinson, former communications director for California Republican Party.

Legislative leaders and Schwarzenegger have been negotiating behind closed doors -- in what's termed Big Five meetings -- to address the state's roughly $40 billion budget hole through July 2010.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced his endorsement of Assemblyman Curren Price for state Senate on Monday.

"Curren Price has the experience and leadership California needs," Steinberg said in a prepared statement. "He is a tireless and effective advocate for better education, access to healthcare and safer communities."

Price, D-Inglewood, is running to replace former Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in November. Price is campaigning against Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, in the March 24 special election.

"You cannot have a more significant endorsement for state Senate than to have the backing and support of the leader of the upper house of the Legislature," Price said in a prepared statement.

That's probably an overstatement, especially in a Los Angeles-area district where next-to-nobody knows Steinberg. But the endorsement is a significant signal to the Third House donors in Sacramento of where the pro tem's allegiances lie.

Price also has the backing of Ridley-Thomas, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the Service Employees International Union State Council.

Davis touts the backing of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles.

Here's cartoonist Rex Babin take in his 'Caleeforneeya' cartoon:

Beginning next week, state Controller John Chiang has said he will begin issuing IOUs use "payment deferrals."* And Thursday's court decision to allow furloughs means next Friday could be a mass day without work for the state's workforce.

Rightfully so, the focus in the Capitol has been all budget, all the time.

But today marks a different deadline under the dome. It's the last day for lawmakers to submit bill requests to the Office of the Legislative Counsel -- the Legislature's lawyers who draft the bills.

Meanwhile, the California Republican Party is headed to Arizona.

No, the state GOP hasn't given up on the Golden State. But the Republican Party hosts a fundraiser in Scottsdale, Ariz., this weekend, raising money from donors at the FBR Open.

That's one way to get around Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed golf tax.

Top donors are asked to fork over $10,000 for a "Skybox Pass" to the golf tournament and two nights stay at the local Fairmont.

What is a skybox doing at a golf course? Clearly, you've never seen the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, where a stadium surrounds the green and boos rain down on bad shots.

Here in Sacramento, area Rep. Doris Matsui will speak to tonight's Business Awards dinner sponsored by the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce.

During the day, the Public Policy Institute of California hosts a discussion about the state's fiscal future -- and the results of its latest poll.

The noon discussion will feature Mark Baldassare, the PPIC president; Craig Cornett, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's budget director; and H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance.

BIRTHDAY: This Sunday may be the Super Bowl. But it's also the 56th birthday of Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto.

*CORRECTION: The original version of this post said that Chiang would be issuing IOUs next week. That is incorrect. Chiang has said that he will use "payment deferrals" to conserve money, instead.

Photo: Associated Press / The Arizona Republic, Charlie Leight

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg named the full roster of committee members in all the upper house's committees on Tuesday.

Steinberg had announced all but two of the standing policy committee chairmanships in early December.

On Tuesday. Steinberg officially named the chairs of the final two policy panels, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, both of which were chaired by Republicans in the last session.

The Ag committee will flip parties, as Sen. Dean Florez, Steinberg's No. 2 as majority leader, will take the gavel.

Florez, who represents the Central Valley, can use the perch to legislate on agricultural issues and as a bully pulpit as he runs for lieutenant governor in 2010.

Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado had chaired the committee. Maldonado charged that his removal was because "I've been criticizing (the leadership) for refusing to get rid of per diem."

"It is sad to see the legislative leaders behaving so immaturely, but sadly this is not all that unusual in Sacramento. It is this type of childish behavior that tarnishes the reputation of the State Legislature. Regardless of this punishment, I refuse to stop standing up for the rights of taxpaying Californians. I will not be intimidated into silence," Maldonado said in a press release.

Alicia Trost, a Steinberg spokeswoman, said there was "absolutely no fallout" due to Maldonado's per diem criticism.

"We just felt that Sen. Florez was the right man for the position with where we were taking the committee," Trost said.

GOP Sen. Mark Wyland had chaired the veterans panel last session. That chairmanship now goes to Republican Sen. Jeff Denham. GOP Sen. Mimi Walters will chair the Ethics Committee.

See the full list of assignments after the jump:

Neither the Assembly nor the Senate is imposing the mandatory employee furloughs required of most other state workers, but both legislative houses announced plans to cut spending Tuesday.

The Assembly will trim its budget by 10 percent this year, transferring about $15.1 million to some of the state's most underfunded programs, including fire protection, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said in a written statement.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg proposed that a voluntary furlough program be created for Senate employees rather than the mandatory two unpaid days monthly imposed on most state workers by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Steinberg, in a written statement, said he also will ask the Senate Rules Committee to reduce spending and to cut staff, the latter by an unspecified goal to be attained by the end of 2009.

The belt-tightening responds to a projected state budget shortfall of about $40 billion over 18 months.

"During these difficult economic times, spending reductions must be shared by everyone," Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, said in a prepared statement.

Steinberg's announcement about a voluntary furlough program follows decisions by all six Democrats holding key statewide offices, from controller to attorney general, not to impose the governor's mandatory program.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders met Monday to talk budget. Legislative leaders emerged and called the talks "productive."

For whatever that's worth.

And how's this for a telling budgetary juxtaposition.

Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger's director of finance, will headline a lunch event today for the California Chamber of Commerce, the state's business lobby.

Genest will be speaking on the topic of "California's Budget -- on the Brink?" in the second half of the noon hour.

Only blocks away -- at almost the exact same time -- Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg will be giving the keynote address to the California Working Families Policy Summit, an event organized by advocates dedicated to strengthening the state's social services safety net.

Steinberg, meanwhile, is renaming and rejiggering the Senate Agricultural panel, making it the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, to be chaired by Steinberg's No. 2, Sen. Dean Florez.

Steinberg and Florez have an 11:30 a.m. event today to announce the change, but Florez's office let the cat out of the bag with a press release late Monday.

The Ag committee had been one of only two panels in the upper house chaired by a Republican last session (GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado had wielded the gavel). Now, GOP senators will be down to one (Veterans Affairs), at best.

And the good news today for state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell is he will be on CNN for two eight-minute segments this morning.

He'll be talking about the challenges President-elect Barack Obama will face, along with former U.S. Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige and a national Teacher of the Year winner.

The bad news: O'Connell will be airing at 4:24 a.m. and 5:24 a.m. West Coast time.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg named recently termed-out Sen. Mike Machado to a seat on the board of directors of the State Compensation Insurance Fund on Monday.

Machado, a Democrat from Linden, will earn $50,000 per year in the job, plus travel expenses for the job.

State Fund, as it's known, is a semi-public agency that provides workers compensation insurance to California employers.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg wants to limit the amount of legislation members can introduce in 2009 in an effort to keep lawmakers focused on the state's budget.

Steinberg, in an interview with The Bee Capitol Bureau, said Wednesday that the plan is not final, though he has discussed the idea with members of his caucus.

"The only small hesitation is that I want to talk to the speaker about it to make sure that there's some parity as the bills crossover," the Sacramento Democrat said. "But it's our intention to lower the limit."

Bass hasn't signed on just yet.

"Speaker Karen Bass has been very clear that solving California's fiscal crisis is her top priority," said Bass spokeswoman Shannon Murphy in an e-mailed statement. "We have the same bill limits that we have had for the last (two to three legislative) sessions. Our members understand the scope of the fiscal crisis and we don't feel it is necessary to change the Assembly rules."

Steinberg said he hopes to cap the number of bills members can introduce at 15 in 2009. Currently there is no limit in either house on the number of bills a lawmaker can introduce in a single year. The Senate limits members to 50 bills over the two-year session, while the two-year limit in the Assembly stands at 40.

As you may have seen, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, stopped by The Bee's Capitol Bureau on Wednesday. He talked budget. He talked budget. And he talked budget.

Pinching his index and thumb together so close they nearly touched, Steinberg declared Democrats and the governor were "this close" in negotiations over the weekend.

On Sunday, he said, he tried to close the deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"So I asked him if we do this, that and the other thing, will that close the agreement. He said, 'Yes.' And the next day we had a series of meetings and it became kind of clear to me that the whole concept (of a majority-vote budget) was making him uncomfortable," Steinberg said in his account. (The governor's office has steadily maintained the sides were consistently far apart.)

Two of the key areas that kept Democrats and Schwarzenegger apart were easing of the environmental review process and cuts to in-home-support services (IHSS) for the disabled, he said.

"In my view, the people who do IHSS work, they're doing God's work," Steinberg said. He called the governor's environment plan "the pure politicization of environmental review."

As for Schwarzenegger's decision to veto the Democrats' budget, Steinberg continued, "He believes that he can convince the Republicans to vote for revenue increases given that we're now pretty much at the brink. If that's the case, great, then we'll resume a different kind of negotiation. If it's not true, I suspect we'll be right back to our $17 billion-plus proposal to try to close that out."

"We're three weeks away from Feb. 1," Steinberg said of the date when California may begin issuing IOUs, and challenged Schwarzenegger: "What is your plan, and where are the votes?"

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday it is time to "turn the page" on the budget negotiations.

But, before you do that, check out the highlights of Senate leader Darrell Steinberg's visit with The Bee Capitol Bureau on Wednesday.

He talked budget. He talked budget. And he talked budget.

"(Schwarzenegger) believes that he can convince the Republicans to vote for revenue increases given that we're now pretty much at the brink," Steinberg said. "If that's the case, great, then we'll resume a different kind of negotiation. If it's not true, I suspect we'll be right back to our $17 billion-plus proposal to try to close that out."

The governor gets his first crack at corralling GOP support in today's scheduled Big Five meeting.

Of course, the governor has accused Democrats of failing to put up a plan he supports.

"I can't go out and get Republican votes if I wouldn't vote for it," Schwarzenegger said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the campaign for U.S. Senate in 2010 is beginning to heat up.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, an Orange County Republican who wants to challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010, rolled out a long list of GOP endorsements on Wednesday.

Today DeVore hits the fundraising circuit, with an event at the home of Scott Baugh, the chairman of the Orange County Republican Party.

A certain actor-turned-governor could still jump into the race, but that didn't stop 26 of the 29 GOP members of the Assembly (including DeVore) from lending DeVore their support.

Heck, maybe it helped.

Photo credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee, 1/7/09

What happens when "the only game in town" -- as Democrats have taken to calling their budget plan -- ends?

That's the question facing the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as California faces the doom-and-gloom prospect of issuing IOUs in less than four weeks.

In their news conference Tuesday, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass were visibly frustrated with the state of collapsed negotiations.

"We all know how this movie goes," Steinberg said. "The governor will be out again in some community in California attacking the Legislature and elected representatives for failing to act. It's frankly a tired, old movie."

In the end, the Democrats couldn't -- or wouldn't -- meet Schwarzenegger's demands (more cuts, additional public-private partnerships and easing of environmental regulations for at least 10 projects) for him to sign the budget.

"The Legislature has been more than willing to meet the Governor halfway on his proposals, but we cannot in good conscience back an 'anything goes' approach to California's environment and a privatization scheme that would make George W. Bush blush," the Democratic leaders write in an op-ed in today's Bee.

For now, lawmakers and the governor must start over, with Schwarzenegger hoping to use his January budget proposal -- the full language of which will be submitted to the Legislature by week's end -- as the blueprint.

Democrats, however, remain skeptical of any budget plan that requires GOP support.

As Steinberg said Tuesday that Democrats would "be happy to hear" Schwarzenegger could rally Republican support, Bass then blurted out, "That'd be great."

Of course, the Democrats' plan -- even beyond Schwarzenegger's veto -- faces challenges of its own.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and GOP lawmakers filed a lawsuit against the plan Tuesday. And Allen Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, denounced the plan as an "unconstitutional" effort "to subvert Proposition 13."

In non-budget news, Assemblyman Curren Price shakes the money tree today for his run against Assemblyman Mike Davis for the state Senate seat recently vacated by Mark Ridley-Thomas.

The price to attend Price's event at Chops tonight: $1,300.

Photo: Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on Tuesday. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today they were sending down their $18 billion majority-vote package despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vow to veto the plan.

"In sending down our package this afternoon, we are governing," Steinberg declared.

Only hours later, Schwarzenegger reiterated his veto promise.

Steinberg accused Schwarzenegger of having "cold feet" and bowing to pressure from taxpayer groups.

"He is reticent now to take on the Howard Jarvis people," Steinberg said of Schwarzenegger.

The governor's office has said the Democratic leaders have failed to meet Schwarzenegger's demands, in particular for waivers of environmental regulations and changes to labor laws.

"The reasons have sort of shifted back and forth," Steinberg countered. "I am perplexed."

Here's a guide to all the news you missed during your (and our) holiday break.

Yes, California still has a budget problem.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic leadership negotiated during the holiday weeks over whether Schwarzenegger would sign their majority-vote package of $18 billion in cuts and taxes.

First they were "very close" in the words of Senate leader Darrell Steinberg. Then they were "far away" in the words of Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear.

Bee cartoonist Rex Babin sketched the battling sides (see right).

Schwarzenegger headed off to Idaho for a Christmas break, though he kept in touch with legislative leaders via videoconferencing.

Then, on New Year's Eve, Schwarzenegger administration officials unveiled the 2009-10 budget proposal to close the roughly $40 billion deficit.

It was the sixth Schwarzenegger budget proposal of 2008.

The new elements include reducing the dependent care exemption on state income tax returns from the current $309 per dependent to $103; carrying over some of the deficit into the 2010-11 fiscal year; borrowing funds from voter-created programs for the mentally ill and pre-kindergarten children, and borrowing $4.7 billion from the private sector.

Read The Bee's outline of the plan. Or read the governor's document for yourself.

The budget proposes to change state worker health care, reduce the length of the school year, save a billion in prison and parolee costs, and blow up some of those old boxes, among other things.

Schwarzenegger himself wasn't at his own budget unveiling. Legislative leaders seemed unimpressed by the plan.

The Los Angeles Times reported more bad budget news: California fire-fighting expenditures topped $1 billion in 2008.

The California Teachers Association, meanwhile, is taking matters into its own hands, filing an initiative to raise the sales tax by a penny.

"It's time for stable and independent funding that cannot be cut by the Legislature or diverted for other uses," CTA President David Sanchez said in a statement.

Meanwhile, State Controller John Chiang went to Texas to visit family, but he was hospitalized there with chest pains. (It was later determined Chiang suffered a mild heart attack.)

From his hospital bed in Texas, Chiang wrote a letter to state agencies saying California may have to resort to IOUs as early as Feb. 1.

First on the list of recipients: state lawmakers.

On the plus side..."Terminator," the 1984 film starring Schwarzenegger, was one of 25 films added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

In another policy arena, a panel of state leaders is calling for the construction of a canal to divert water around the Delta by 2011. And they're not asking for approval from lawmakers or voters.

Potential Republican candidate for governor Tom Campbell, in an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, makes the case for a temporary hike in the per-gallon gasoline tax combined with a strict spending cap.

Campbell may end up competing with a couple of billionaires (or near-billionaires) in Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, but he's the first one out with some real, concrete ideas to solve the state's fiscal mess. Not that tax hikes are likely to woo the GOP faithful...

Speaking of Whitman, conservative Red County Placer blogger Aaron Park calls the former CEO of eBay, "Al Checci in a skirt."

Speaking of names from the past, you'd never guess who might toss his hat into the 2010 GOP ring.

Bill Simon, the 2002 Republican nominee, tells the Wall Street Journal he's interested.

In fact, Mr. Simon tells me that he would definitely consider running again for governor or lieutenant governor in 2010. He says that the budget crisis in California, including a deficit which he estimates at approximately $40 billion, will "require very fundamental change. This is an issue I understand. Economic issues are a strength for me."

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jerry Brown, who's a could-be, would-be candidate for governor in 2010, announced he was suing the Bush administration (always a popular move) over enforcement of the endangered species act.

It may seem early, but candidates are already sniffing around the open Assembly seats in 2010. The Fresno Bee says Blong Xiong may run.

Other odds and ends:

Big-time GOP donor Alex Spanos, 85, tells his family about his own battle with dementia.

The New York Times profiled California's congressional Sanchez sisters.

There are high levels of arsenic in Kern Valley State Prison, the Los Angeles Times reported. "It's not that major of an issue," said Kelly Harrington, the prison's new warden.

California's new clout on environmental issues was covered by the Washington Post.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a prison sentence granted because of California's three-strikes law was unconstitutional.

Former Assemblyman Todd Spitzer has returned to Orange County as a prosecutor. The OC Register reports he lost his first jury trial.

Spitzer told the Register it "was one of only two "not guiltys" he's even gotten in his career as a prosecutor."

Former Assemblywoman Shirley Horton has a new job. She's taking the helm of the San Diego Downtown Partnership.

Health Access' Anthony Wright assessed health care politics in 2008:

In the fight for quality, affordable health coverage for all Californians, the year 2008 was a year of setbacks and steps back--not just opportunities lost, but decisions that will cause many Californians' coverage to be lost.

It started with the end of the proclaimed "Year of Health Reform," as a much-watched, much-negotiated comprehensive health reform stalled in January. The year was marked by the failure of many more bills, big and small, ambitious and specific, blocked by legislative action or a Governor's veto pen.

The Department of Fish and Game labeled 2008 the "Year of Extreme Poachers and Dangerous Encounters," for what it's worth.

Calitics blogger Brian Leubitz dropped his bid for vice-chairman of the California Democratic Party.

The dynamics of these races are, in fact, quite dynamic. When I got in this race, I did so not simply to make a point. I believed, and continue to believe, that I would do an excellent job as the vice chair of the CDP. And with these changes, it is clear to me that I will not have the votes come April in Sacramento. While I am not afraid to run a race that is merely to make a point, I believe the goals of competing in every race and building the party throughout the party will be made.

Those dynamics involved ex-Senate leader John Burton jumping into the chairmanship race and pushing Eric Bauman, chair of the Los Angeles Democratic Party, to run for vice-chair.

A couple of other blogs are closing up shop.

Boi from Troy, the musings of a gay conservative USC alum (Scott Schmidt), has published its last post.

Ditto for California Faultline.

And it wouldn't be a new year without new laws.

The Bee's Rex Babin gave his take (see right) on the most talked -- and texted -- about new statute.

Photo: John Chiang speaking to The Bee Capitol Bureau in 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

Photo: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, left listens to state finance director Tom Campbell during a press conference at the Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday June 21, 2005. Credit: Randall Benton/Sacramento Bee

If you've been keeping track at home, Wednesday marked the sixth time in 2008 that the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a budget plan.

Here's the message Schwarzenegger gave in a statement accompanying his budget plan:

Today's announcement represents the sixth budget I have proposed to the legislature this year. The fact that the legislature has failed to reach a compromise between Republicans and Democrats and take action during the last three special sessions is inexcusable.

My proposal today follows the same blueprint of my last two proposals which balance cuts with revenue proposals. And, I will continue to stand by my promise to Californians and only sign a budget that does everything we can as a state to reduce spending, create jobs and keep people in their homes.

It's pretty clear from the legislative leaders that they are listening to what they want to hear in the governor's plan.

"I applaud the governor for including elements of the Republican budget plan into the proposal released today," said Senate GOP chief Dave Cogdill in a statement.

"He may finally be coming around and realizing he needs to approve the responsible package of budget solutions the legislature passed December 18," chimed in Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

On the flip are the reactions from the four legislative leaders:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the two Democratic leaders of the Legislature will meet face-to-face today for the first time since Schwarzenegger vowed to veto their deficit-cutting proposal last week.

The leaders and Schwarzenegger spoke Sunday via videoconference in a session where they made "some great progress," the governor said Monday.

But the governor has continued to hammer lawmakers in public appearances. Standing in front of the I-405 freeway Monday in Los Angeles, he declared a deal could be done in "half an hour," if it weren't for the sway that special interests hold over the Legislature.

"But because there are so many stakeholders behind the legislative leaders, and everybody pulling on them saying, don't give in on CEQA, and don't give in on environmental issues and don't give in on cuts and don't give in on that, it makes it very difficult for them," he declared.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass issued a statement in response saying, "As long as he is in press conference/campaign mode, it is hard to figure out how to convince the governor to accept a responsible compromise."

Still, Schwarzenegger sounded his usual optimistic self.

"It could easily be that before Christmas Eve or Christmas Day that we have an agreement, that the legislators can be brought back between Christmas and New Year's to vote on it," he said.

GOP leaders have been all but cut out of the conversation as negotiations on the package are now between only Schwarzenegger and the Democrats.

"It is unfortunate that the governor and Democrats are only interested in raising taxes, not working with Republicans to negotiate a truly bi-partisan solution," said Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines in a statement Monday.

And it may be Christmas week, but a few brave, media-hungry souls are holding press events today.

In Sacramento, injured worker advocates hold a news conference to highlight the case of Richard Chance, who they say will be cut off from his disability workers' compensation this week after being thrown 35 feet after he was hit by a motorcycle two years ago on the job.

And in San Francisco, local lawmakers (Leland Yee, Tom Ammiano and Fiona Ma) hold a news conference to announce new double-fine zones in two heavily trafficked corridors of the city.

On a final note, this is the last AM Alert until the new year. There will be regular posts today and a PM Alert tonight, but Capitol Alert will be off for the holidays, from Christmas Eve through Jan. 5.

Of course, if news breaks, we will still post it online and e-mail it out. But regular AM and PM alerts will start back up in 2009.

Happy holidays!

What's next in a budget saga that began last January and continued steadily since is unclear.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to veto the Democratic budget plan Thursday afternoon.

The Republican governor didn't quibble with the Democrats' scheme to bypass Republicans or the idea of raising billions in news taxes.

He said the "economic stimulus" component of the package wasn't strong enough.

"From day one," Schwarzenegger said, "I always made it clear to Senator Steinberg and also to Speaker Bass that I will be willing to sit down with them and negotiate but it is clear that I need my - exactly what I recommended - economic recovery package."

Speaker Karen Bass didn't think asking for "exactly what I recommended" sounded much like negotiating.

"The governor claims he wants to negotiate but then says things must be exactly as he wants. That is astonishing given the crisis we face," she said in a statement following the veto vow.

Read full responses from Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

"They have to get to the cliff and fall off in order to really take this seriously," Schwarzenegger chided lawmakers.

"I'm damn proud of what the Legislature did today," Steinberg retorted.

Bass said that rank-and-file lawmakers won't be returning to the Capitol until January.

"We'll take a step back and keep on working," she said. She and Steinberg will stay, she added.

Amid all that bickering, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer said Thursday California's already woeful credit rating is likely to sink even lower.

Take a break from reading about the budget and check out Bee photographer Brian Baer's photo gallery of the months-long budget fight between lawmakers and the governor.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg have issued statements in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vow not to sign the Democratic budget plan.

Here the statements are, in full.

Steinberg:

Californians expect the Legislature to solve the state's problems and that's what we began to do tonight.

Democrats passed a responsible plan that reduced the budget deficit by $18 billion, but the Governor rejected it for reasons that have little to do with the deficit itself.

It would be easy to fire back at the Governor for his insults.

I'm damn proud of what the Legislature did today.

Is there any other credible, politically acceptable plan put forward by anyone to make an $18 billion-plus dent in California's budget deficit?

The answer is no.

Bass:

I am frankly surprised how willing Governor Schwarzenegger is to push California over a cliff when he clearly is not fully aware of what the bills we passed today do. The governor said we didn't do economic stimulus. We did $3 billion worth of bond acceleration to get job-creating infrastructure projects moving for transportation, drought relief, park restoration and green technologies.

He said we didn't address CEQA-- we expedited CEQA for transportation projects and surplus property and we eased restrictions for hospital construction. All these actions will also help create jobs. He said we didn't address public private partnerships. We expanded public private partnerships - despite opposition from labor. Yesterday the state's Pooled Money Investment Board said they were stopping 2000 transportation projects in the state, which means a potential loss of thousands of jobs. Those projects weren't stopped because of economic stimulus they were stopped because of California's cash crisis--the cash crisis that the majorities in the Assembly and Senate addressed today passing an $18 billion package of solutions.

California's Treasurer warned today that there would be further dire consequences from Wall Street if Governor Schwarzenegger threw away the solutions passed by the legislature. I am surprised that warning alone didn't give the governor pause enough to thoughtfully consider bills that haven't even reached his desk yet.

The governor's haste is a waste of $18 billion in solutions that could have helped with our cash crisis and our budget deficit. The governor claims he wants to negotiate but then says things must be exactly as he wants. That is astonishing given the crisis we face. We are now waiting anxiously to see what the next step will be from a governor who has consistently been unable to produce even a single vote for a single budget solution.

At Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's first press conference on his first day as leader of the California Senate, he was asked whether he would make sure the budget was in print for 24 hours before a vote was taken.

Yes, he replied, he would.

Well, so much for that. Continuing in the long tradition of last-minute legislation, the state Senate and Assembly passed its $18 billion package of cuts, taxes and fund shifts this afternoon with the ink barely dry on the bills.

As of this morning, when lawmakers were scheduled to begin meeting at 9 a.m., the Legislative Counsel still had not finished drafting the package.

In fairness, the cuts portion of the package has been in print for a few weeks, as lawmakers voted on it at the end of November. The revenues -- that is the complex tax-fee maneuver -- had not.

"I do know that I shared (language) with Sen. Cogdill's staff well, well ahead of time," Steinberg said this afternoon. "And, you know, we're doing the very, very best we can, given the urgency of the crisis."

In the end, the speed was all for naught as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would veto the package.

In a press conference at 4:30 this afternoon, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said of the Democratic budget package, "I will not sign it."

Schwarzenegger criticized the Democratic leadership for watering down his proposed "economic stimulus" package.

"It actually doesn't do anything," Schwarzenegger said of the stimulus plan the Democrats crafted. The governor said he wanted more public-private partnerships, broader exemptions to the state's environmental laws for construction projects and more foreclosure relief.

"They call it economic stimulus but there's nothing there," Schwarzenegger declared. "It fell short on every single level," he added.

The governor did not say he was vetoing the package because it passed without GOP support and he ducked a question about whether he thought the tactic was legal.

"They should stay here and work some more on this budget. I'm willing to stay here. I don't think that anyone should go and celebrate Christmas -- none of the legislators -- and have people out there suffering," he said.

But Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said after the press conference lawmakers won't be returning to the Capitol until January.

"We'll take a step back and keep on working," she said, saying she and Senate leader Darrell Steinberg would remain in Sacramento negotiating with the governor.

The Bee's Dan Walters contributed to this report.

Photo: Gov. Schwarzenegger talks about how he will veto the democrats budget rescue plan, Thursday Dec. 18, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

Plans to vote out a majority-vote budget proposal crafted by Democrats unraveled late Wednesday night, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded more concessions from the Democratic leadership, particularly on the "economic stimulus" part of the package.

Session had originally been scheduled for 5 p.m., before it was pushed back to 7 p.m. and then 9 p.m. and then cancelled for the night, amid closed-door negotiations.

"As the governor has said, we need a balanced proposal that includes legitimate cuts, real revenues and economic stimulus," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said.

"If their proposal does not include these elements, (a) vote will be nothing more than a drill," McLear added.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass pledged to meet the governor "more than halfway."

Both the Assembly and Senate plan to return to the Capitol for scheduled 9 a.m. floor sessions this morning.

Read more about the Democratic plan itself, which would raise the sales tax by 3/4 of a cent, levy a tax on oil produced in California and tack on a 2.5 percent surcharge to income taxes. It would also replace currently taxes on gasoline with a 39-cent-per-gallon fee.

Despite netting California billions in additional taxes, Democrats have structured the plan, they say, in such a way that it does not require the typical two-thirds support of the Legislature.

As John Myers of KQED put it on his blog, "If this were the Olympics and even if you hated it, you'd have to score some style points on the acrobatic budget maneuver."

Judge (and Assembly GOP leader) Mike Villines wasn't so generous. He accused Democrats of "raising taxes on people and playing funny math and calling it fees...(that) is not governing, that's trickery."

Not surprisingly, a legal challenge to the still unpassed Democratic proposal is already being prepared.

The conservative group Americans for Prosperity has organized a 10 a.m. news conference to announce its intent to file a lawsuit, saying the Legislature is illegally raising taxes without a two-thirds vote.

"Obviously, I and my colleagues -- and I am sure a lot of other people in the state -- will believe that what they've done is illegal," Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill said in an interview Wednesady. "I would fully expect there'll be challenges filed."

Among the attendees at the event will be Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal.

On Wednesday, the governor appeared alongside Coupal to tout the passage of Proposition 11, the Schwarzenegger-backed redistricting measure. The governor praised a bipartisan list of supporters, and happened to thank Coupal twice.

"And then Jon Coupal," Schwarzenegger said the second time, before pausing. "... who I mentioned already. I better mention him twice so maybe he won't attack me when I raise the taxes."

Good luck with that, governor.

Less than three weeks into his tenure as Senate leader, Darrell Steinberg has laid down the gauntlet for Republicans in the Legislature, as he prepares to pass a budget package over their objections.

"I still believe in bipartisanship," the Sacramento Democrat pledged at a press conference announcing an end-run around getting Republican support. "But there is a greater responsibility than practicing bipartisanship and that is to govern. And that is what we intend to do here today."

Democrats intend to bring their budget package -- crafted specifically to strip the GOP of its veto authority -- at 5 p.m. today. California law requires a two-thirds vote to raise taxes, but Steinberg and the Democrats have crafted a plan that raises revenues through fees, swapping taxes and leveraging loopholes in the state tax law.

After the longest budget stalemate in California history and a month-and-half of gridlock in a special session, Steinberg claimed Democrats had "made every effort to engage our Republican colleagues in a bipartisan strategy to make a dent in this budget deficit."

"They're very clear," he continued. "They are not going to put up a single vote to raise the necessary revenue."

"You have two choices," Steinberg said. "You can either continue to sort of bang your head against the wall and hope that they will change their mind or you can govern. And we believe the higher responsibility is to govern."

"The message to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is we want you to engage in governing with us. But now and beginning Jan. 1 in the next budget session, we will solve this problem either with you or without."

That approach obviously doesn't sit well with Republicans.

"The only time it's really a compromise with the majority party Democrats is when you give them what they want," said Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines. "Otherwise you're an obstructionist."

The Bee's Jim Sanders contributed to this report.

Photo Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

The Assembly's budget session on the Democrats' latest budget proposal lasted into the night Tuesday.

Republicans, as they have throughout the year, blocked passage, standing firm in their opposition to any new taxes to solve Califronia's nearly $40 billion deficit through July 2010.

No one seemed too surprised. Partisan tensions ran high during much of the debate.

The state Senate takes its budgetary turn this evening, with a 5 p.m. floor session.

Plans are afoot in the upper house, led by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, to craft a majority-vote package that could pass without GOP support.

Meanwhile, today the Pooled Money Investment Board will vote to suspend financing of infrastructure projects across California.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer has released a detailed list of infrastructure projects that would be affected.

The board -- composed of Lockyer, Finance Director Mike Genest and Controller John Chiang -- meets at 10 a.m.

At 1 p.m., Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will return to the site of one of his signature events of the recall campaign -- the California State Railroad Museum.

Schwarzenegger will tout the passage of Proposition 11, the redistricting measure, and promise more political reforms going forward.

Open primaries anyone?

The railroad museum location is all about symbolism, as the state's pioneering political reformer Gov. Hirman Johnson led a series of reforms to curb the influence of railroad barons.

Five years and three months ago, Schwarzenegger declared there that in Sacramento, "the contributions go in, the favors go out, and the people are punished with wasteful spending and high taxes."

He promised a fundraising ban during while negotiating the budget, overhauling redistricting, better open records laws, and to veto any bill that didn't receive a full public hearing.

After the success of the Proposition 11 campaign, Schwarzenegger seems destined to continue to use the Legislature as his foil for political reform.

You know, creating things like a ticking deficit clock.

Legislative Republicans unveiled their budget plan Monday and crossed their fingers that majority Democrats wouldn't immediately toss the $22 billion proposal in the waste bin.

Republicans proposed $15.6 billion in cuts (more than two-thirds of which target education) and $6 billion in revenues. Those revenues, however, are from pots of money approved by voters specifically for health care for children and the mentally ill.

It included no new taxes. Taxes "will only cause (the state) more harm at the end of the day," declared Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines.

"We would hope they wouldn't dismiss this proposal out of hand," said Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill.

Cogdill better hope harder.

"This isn't a negotiated compromise," complained Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear. "This is a drill."

Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans have been at odds recently, and the GOP deficit-cutting plan takes subtle shots at the governor in at least two places.

For one, the plan proposes to eliminate all state funding for the so-called Hydrogen Highway, a pet project of Schwarzenegger's. The move saves a mere $6 million, but merited a separate line-item in the Republican cut list. The GOP plan also cuts $550 million in funding for the state's after-school programs, which were created by the Schwarzenegger-backed 2002 initiative, Proposition 49.

(It's also of note that the GOP plan's biggest chunk of revenues comes from taking money from Proposition 63, the mental health initiative co-authored by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.)

All told, it looks like the Democrats will give the plan 24 hours to live. The Senate will have budget committees consider the proposal this afternoon. The Assembly Budget Committee will review the plan this morning.

Don't expect the hearings to be friendly for the GOP.

The Assembly will meet today at noon for a floor session, but the Democratic leadership is keeping plans for the session under wraps.

Finally, here's some sobering budget math: If you took every cut Republicans proposed (from eliminating transit funds to cutting payments for the aged, blind and disabled to $10.6 billion from schools) and added it to every tax the Democrats propose to raise (tripling the car tax and suspending the indexing of tax rates), you'd still only solve $23.7 billion of the nearly $40 billion deficit.

Photo: Assembly Republican Leader, Mike Villines listens to Senate Republican leader, Dave Cogdill, behind, as they unveil their budget proposal, at the State Capitol, Monday Dec. 15, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee.

Predictably, Democrats don't think much of the Republican budget plan rolled out Monday.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg issued a sharp statement, which began, "Republicans obviously don't think the time for ideology and posturing is over."

Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, accuses the GOP leadership of relying on "phantom revenue" (see the list of revenues) and blasts the size of the cut to education as "the equivalent to shutting down the three largest school districts in the state, or over $1,300 a kid. That's no way to build for the future."

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass was more measured in her statement, saying the GOP package " does appear to be a sign of progress." Not that the Los Angeles Democrat embraced anything the Republicans proposed.

"At first glance it appears this proposal is not the serious response this crisis requires," she said of the plan, which will be the subject of legislative hearings on Tuesday. Her statement continued:

If it's just another hyperpartisan wishlist with items unrelated to the budget, that will come out. If there are responsible elements in the plan like the Democrats have advanced, that will come out. If there are unworkable one-time band-aids or unfounded assumptions, that will also come out.

So yesterday's Big Five meeting didn't go so well.

(Witness Senate Republican leader Dave Codgill pronouncing, "I just don't see this process as being productive or helpful.")

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the two Democratic legislative leaders did get back together in the afternoon to name the 12-member tax commission.

The commission will be chaired by Gerald Parsky, as previously reported.

There will be two veterans of the Hoover Institute (John Cogan and Michael Boskin), three former lawmakers (Fred Keeley, Becky Morgan and Curt Pringle), one dean of the UC Berkeley law school (Christopher Edley) and one publisher of a Spanish-language newspaper (Monica Lozano).

We've posted the brief bios of the dirty dozen on Capitol Alert, courtesy of the governor's office.

Their tax report will be due on April 15. No joke.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has been presenting his own bad budget news to his city this week, will be in Sacramento today.

He'll join newly elected Mayor Kevin Johnson and Fresno Mayor Alan Autry for an event touting Johnson's "proposal for a more accountable government structure."

Read: More power for the mayor.

Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, will celebrate the launch of Bank on California, which will be dedicated to offering checking and savings accounts to those without them. It's a first-state-in-the-nation program.

Of course, with the direction that this state seems to be moving, let's hope all the accounts are FDIC-insured.

In our Daily Piece of Bad Budget News: The Schwarzenegger administration has now put an official number on just how bad the deficit will be through June 2010: $41.8 billion.

They say that includes a $2 billion reserve.

Ain't that quaint.

The California Progress Report, which publishes numerous left-of-center articles daily, has a new editor: David Greenwald.

The founder of the site, Frank Russo, is now the chief of staff to freshman Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley.

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, whose personal funds helped qualify the 2003 recall for the ballot, is in line to become the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"Right now I have the opportunity to attack the problems of government that my constituents are most concerned about. This is my opportunity to do a lot more about fixing government," Issa tells the North County TImes.

Former state Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, sent out this holiday e-card, courtesy of JibJab.

"Here is how NOT to solve the budget crisis," Battin warns.

The faux-video features Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, chief of staff Susan Kennedy, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines in a snowball fight.

Speaking of Villines, the Clovis GOPer has filed paperwork to extend his stay in the Capitol -- by running for state Senate in 2014.

Villines will be termed out of the Assembly in 2010, but the Senate seat he wants to seek -- currently occupied by Cogdill -- won't be free until four years from then.

So why file the paperwork now (six years in advance)? The move could be in part to continue fundraising. If a politician does not have an open account for a future office, under California law, they can't continue to raise money for themselves.

Finally, the cast is in for Tuesday's Christmas tree lighting ceremony outside the state Capitol. Mario Lopez, he of Extra and Saved by the Bell fame, is the emcee.

Rick Springfield, he of "Jessie's Girl" fame, will be performing.

"California's the entertainment capital of the nation, if not the world. And we get... Rick Springfield" is Josh Richman at the Oakland Tribune's take on the booking. "Just another sign of dysfunction in Sacramento, I guess. (Sorry, Rick.)"

The entire state Legislature will meet today in a "joint convention" to get even more dire news about California's woeful financial situation.

Treasurer Bill Lockyer, for instance, will tell lawmakers that unless a budget is adopted the state will stop financing construction projects for roads and other infrastructure. That's not just bond sales for future projects -- those will stop, too. It means projects that are underway will no longer be able to draw down cash from the treasurer's pooled account as the state's general fund moves toward insolvency. Thousands of jobs could be lost.

"No budget, no state financing," said Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar. "The spigot is completely off. We're talking about a complete shut-off of state infrastructure financing unless we get a budget fast."

Lockyer, Controller John Chiang, Department of Finance Director Mike Genest and Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor will describe the consequences of failing to reach a budget compromise.

The state faces an estimated $27.8 billion deficit over the next year and a half.

Barring moves by the Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a letter to state lawmakers last week that, "The state will experience a cash-flow crisis beginning in February or March."

After the lame-duck Legislature failed to reach a budget accord, Schwarzenegger called for a special session of the new Legislature to address the state's "fiscal emergency." The new members -- including 25 "true freshmen" -- were sworn in only a week ago.

Outside of the annual State of the State address or speeches by visiting dignitaries (such as the presidents of Mexico and Spain, in 2003 and 2001, respectively) - joint sessions are rare for California.

"There have been presentations by heads of state and distinguished policy experts but in those instances they were sharing their expertise with the Legislature," said Dotson Wilson, the Assembly's chief clerk and parliamentarian.

"This particular joint convention is much more interactive," Wilson added.

The format of the joint convention -- which is set to begin at 3 p.m. -- allows all 120 lawmakers to ask questions of those testifying before the Legislature.

"All the members are on the floor discussing a policy," said Wilson.

Also, late Friday Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg named the membership and chairmanships of the upper house's five budget subcommittees. See who they are.

Photo: The Assembly Chambers in Nov. 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg named the membership and chairmanships of the upper house's five budget subcommittees late Friday.

UPDATE: Jim Evans from Steinberg's office sent along a note saying these assignments are only for the special session on the budget, not necessarily for the regular 2009-10 session.

They are:

Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Education
Sen. Gloria Romero, Chair (D)
Sen. President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D)
Sen. Majority Leader Dean Florez (D)
Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D)
Sen. Carol Liu (D)
Sen. Mark Wyland (R)
Sen. Abel Maldonado (R)
Sen. Mimi Walters (R)

Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Resources
Sen. Joe Simitian, Chair (D)
Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D)
Sen. Fran Pavley (D)
Sen. Pat Wiggins (D)
Sen. Minority Leader Dave Cogdill (R)
Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R)
Sen. Roy Ashburn (R)

Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Health and Human Services
Sen. Alex Padilla, Chair (D)
Sen. Mark Leno (D)
Sen. Gilbert Cedillo (D)
Sen. Elaine Alquist (D)
Sen. Leland Yee (D)
Sen. Dave Cox (R)
Sen. Bob Huff (R)
Sen. Sam Aanestad (R)

Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration, General Government and Corrections
Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, Chair (D)
Sen. Rod Wright (D)
Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod (D)
Sen. Loni Hancock (D)
Sen. Christine Kehoe (D)
Sen. George Runner (R)
Sen. John Benoit (R)
Sen. Tom Harman (R)

Budget Subcommittee No. 5 on Revenues and the Economy
Sen. Denise Ducheny, Chair (D)
Sen. Lou Correa (D)
Sen. Ron Calderon (D)
Sen. Ellen Corbett (D)
Sen. Lois Wolk (D)
Sen. Robert Dutton (R)
Sen. Jeff Denham (R)
Sen. Tony Strickland (R)

On his second day on the job, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced (almost) a full roster of committee chairmanships in the state Senate.

Most of the picks are as Capitol Alert reported previously:

From Steinberg's office:

• Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego): Senate Appropriations Committee


• Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello): Senate Banking & Finance Committee


• Sen. Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego): Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee


• Sen. Gloria Negrete-McLeod (D-Chino): Senate Business, Professions & Economic Development Committee


• Sen. Gloria Romero (D-East Los Angeles): Senate Education Committee


• Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkley): Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee


• Sen. Alex Padilla (D-San Fernando Valley): Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee


• Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto): Senate Environmental Quality Committee


• Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) Senate Governmental Organization Committee


• Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) Senate Health Committee


• Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco): Senate Public Safety Committee


• Sen. Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro): Senate Judiciary Committee


• Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Augora Hills) Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee


• Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) Senate Transportation and Housing Committee

There are also some committee chairs we did not previously report.

Sen. Carol Liu, a freshman Democrat from Pasadena, will chair the Human Services Committee, previously chaired by the new Health Committee chair Elaine Alquist. Fellow freshman Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Martinez, will chair the Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.

Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, moves from the chairmanship of the Public Employees and Retirement Committee to the Local Government Committee.

Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, replaces her as the so-called PERS committee chair,

Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, will chair the Revenue and Taxation Committee.

There are currently 24 Democrats in the caucus (due to former Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas' recent resignation) and the announced committee chairmanships account for 19 of those members.

Who are the rest?

Well, there's Steinberg (who will chair Rules), Sen. Dean Florez (the new majority leader), Sen. Jenny Oropeza (the new caucus chair), Sen. Gil Cedillo (a member of the Rules Committee) and Sen. Leland Yee (the assistant president pro tem).

Still unannounced? The two GOP-chaired commitees, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, chaired by Republican Sens. Abel Maldonado and Mark Wyland, respectively.

On his first day as Senate pro tem, Sen. Darrell Steinberg reshaped the leadership of the state Senate Monday, confirming several top positions first reported by Capitol Alert.

• Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, is the new Senate majority leader.


• Sen. Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, is the new Democratic caucus chair. Oropeza will also sit on the Senate Rules Committee.


• Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, is the new Appropriations Committee chair.


• Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, remains the budget chair.


• Sen. Gil Cedillo remains on the Rules Committee.

THIS JUST IN: Alyson Huber, the Democratic candidate in Assembly District 10, has taken a come-from-behind lead in the tight race, possibly bringing Democrats to 51 seats in the Assembly next session.

Sieglock had been leading for the three weeks since the election. More votes remain to be tallied, but counties must certify their results by next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the 2008 legislative year ended with a whimper Tuesday.

That, and a lot of cross aisle finger-pointing.

In the end, Democrats put forth a 50-50 package of cuts and taxes that would have eaten away at roughly $17 billion of California's budget deficit in the next two years.

But Republicans just didn't budge on new revenues.

Senate GOP Dave Cogdill told the Democrats that they have "got to find another way."

What exactly that other might be is starting to visibly frustrate many Democratic aides and lawmakers.

"What are your choices?" incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg asked in his floor speech. "What do you propose?"

"Of course I'm disappointed," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass declared after the vote.

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines said Tuesday's plan didn't have key GOP elements: a spending cap, economic stimulus or enough cuts.

"All we're saying is, if we're going to solve the problem, let's do the whole problem," Villines said.

Speaking of whole ... you might have noticed that the whole Legislature wasn't there last night, as some lawmakers seemingly decided that California approaching a fiscal abyss wasn't worth cutting short trips overseas.

If you know where exactly the missing lawmakers were, do tell.

After the whole thing was said and done, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger compared lawmakers to a bunch of kindergarteners.

Funny, the Legislature is usually compared to high school.

Maybe Schwarzenegger just liked Rex Babin's cartoon.

Did we forget to mention that 28 freshmen Assembly members will be sworn in next Monday?

A handful of those members were on hand Tuesday night watching from the back of the chambers. Reports that both their fingers and toes were crossed in hopes of achieving a budget accord before their arrival could not be confirmed by press time.

As Capitol Alert reported on Friday, Sen. Dean Florez will ascend to the number two slot in the Senate, incoming Senate leader Darrell Steinberg told Florez's hometown paper, the Bakersfield Californian.

"He's an outstanding leader," Steinberg told the Californian. "He understands the intricacies of solving different problems and making deals happen on the legislative floor. He is smart and I really look forward to working with him."

Florez is plotting a run for lieutenant governor in 2010 and a top slot in the Senate would leave him well positioned on the fundraising trail.

Steinberg is better known around the Capitol for his quiet leadership, while Florez is better known for his sharp elbows.

Which led to this money quote:

Florez likened Steinberg's temperament to that of President-elect Barack Obama and his own to Obama's reportedly combative pick for chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.

"Every Obama needs a Rahm Emanuel around," Florez said.

That's all the excuse I need to include this Saturday Night Live skit mocking Emanuel.