Julie Small
May 20, 2009
 Listen

California's legislative leaders met with Governor Schwarzenegger Wednesday to start tackling a $21 billion deficit. Lawmakers say voters sent a loud message when they brushed away five budget-related propositions on Tuesday's special election ballot. But KPCC's Julie Small reports that message contained few cues about what lawmakers should do now to balance the budget.

---

Julie Small: Democratic leader Karen Bass heard this message from voters:

Karen Bass: We want you to go back to Sacramento and resolve this.

Small: The Republican Assembly minority leader-elect Sam Blakeslee heard it, too.

Sam Blakeslee: The public expects this legislature to do its job.

Small: But that's where the message breaks up. Voters rejected tax hikes, borrowing, cuts, and spending caps – all the tools legislators use to balance budgets. So where does that leave lawmakers?

Bass: We are going to cut!
Darryl Steinberg: Yeah, we're not– we are gonna cut.

Small: That's Speaker Bass again with Senate leader Darryl Steinberg.

Steinberg: I don't think there is any way to avoid significant across-the-board cuts in all areas.
Bass: Education, health and human services, corrections.
Steinberg: That's right.

Small: Bass says California voters won't like that. She says they want it both ways.

Bass: They want you to cut. They just don't want you to cut education, they don't want you to cut health, they don't want you to cut human services, they don't want you to cut corrections, and so it puts us in a difficult spot.

Small: Democrats say they're willing to cut as long as those cuts don't jeopardize federal funding for health programs like Medi-Cal – or force more people on to the streets. But Republican Assembly minority leader-elect Sam Blakeslee's said there can be no sacred cows.

Blakeslee: All departments, all agencies, all functions of governments need to be on the table for review, for downsizing, and for restructuring.

Small: Except – say the Republicans – for prisons. They reject the governor's idea to transfer some prisoners to local jails. They say "no" to higher taxes. And what about the governor's idea to borrow $6 billion from Wall Street and another $2 billion from local governments? Republican Sam Blakeslee opposes borrowing period, especially from local governments:

Blakeslee: They have been doing a superlative job of balancing their budgets and solving their problems to deal with difficult times. Reaching in their pocket is odious to me.

Small: But with a $21 billion budget hole to fill, Blakeslee, Bass, Steinberg, and everybody in Sacramento will end up voting for a lot of odious stuff this summer.