CSUN University News Clippings

Sunday budget meeting canceled; talks to resume today

(July 20, 2009)

By Kevin Yamamura

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger canceled a pivotal Sunday meeting with legislative leaders because negotiators had trouble coordinating their schedules at the last minute, his office said.

State leaders had hoped to use Sunday’s meeting to finish a deal to bridge the state’s $26 billion deficit; they now plan to resume talks today.

Leaders last week settled on a general framework for solving the deficit, including a way to pay schools an extra $9.5 billion for last year’s budget cuts, confirmed Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles.

The plan relies heavily on spending cuts to most sectors of state government, capturing money from local governments and accounting shifts that take funds from 2010-11.

Schwarzenegger’s press secretary, Aaron McLear, issued a brief memo blaming Sunday’s cancellation on Bass. McLear said Bass informed the governor that she could not make the meeting until after 8 p.m., which Schwarzenegger felt was too late to begin talks.

Bass said she contacted the governor because she was unsure which flight she could take from Los Angeles but said she didn’t intend to cancel the meeting. She told reporters Sunday evening at the Capitol that “maybe some wires got crossed.”

Leaders still need to resolve questions regarding final cuts in prisons and other areas, as well as the size of the reserve and how to take local government funds. They also must tie up loose ends on issues such as a proposed oil lease off the Santa Barbara coast, selling state properties and whether to retain the state’s high school exit exam.

While the scheduling snafu might suggest a setback, Bass and other sources involved in talks insisted no major dispute had occurred and leaders remained on track to finish this week.

“I don’t believe we have any real big hurdles,” Bass said.

Senate leaders confirmed Sunday that state workers will continue taking three monthly unpaid furlough days through June 2010 under the current budget framework.

“The governor’s furloughs that he’s put into place, unfortunately, are something that we’re probably going to have to live with for the time being,” Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta told KCRA-TV.

“We understand the hardship there, but we also are looking at the fact that we’ve got to compare it to the private sector where we have complete layoffs going on,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, confirmed on KCRA that “there’s not going to be short-term relief” for state workers.

McLear said the governor may reduce the number of furlough days if the economy improves but that at this point he intends to retain them.

“I’m extremely angry,” said Yvonne Walker, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state workers. “You’re talking about a 15 percent pay cut for working people who do the state’s business.”

Publication: Sacramento Bee