A Vote Without A Plan

So the legislature has scheduled a weekend vote on a new budget plan for the special session. It could be that they will vote on Governor Schwarzenegger's plan without modification. In fact, that's almost certain, because Denise Ducheny, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, is in India until next Wednesday, and unless she's holding hearings in Mumbai, I don't think she'll be marking anything up.

So what exactly ARE they going to vote on?

The basic political dynamic that caused a record-long impasse over the state budget last summer — Republicans blocking any new taxes, and Democrats vowing to protect services from deep spending cuts — has not changed. Even so, Schwarzenegger is expected to gather with the Democratic and Republican leaders this morning, after more than three hours of talks on Monday.

"We're committed to making a dent in this problem with this Legislature and not waiting until Dec. 1," Darrell Steinberg, the incoming Democratic Senate leader, said after Monday's negotiations. But asked if he knew what legislators would be voting on Sunday during the scheduled floor sessions, he said, "We definitely don't know yet."

The Governor seemed to suggest in this weekend's interview with George Stephanopoulos that his proposal would be changed before the vote, but I don't see how that would happen.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yet, your critics say that this one-and-a-half- cent sales tax is the most regressive form of tax. It's going to hit the people who are going through the toughest times right now the hardest.

SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, no one should be that worried about any of that, because remember, the way it works is that the governor puts up a proposal, and then the legislative leaders go and start debating over that and looking into it, if they maybe have a better idea or a different idea. So we have a very collaborative kind of approach to the whole thing. So they may come up with different type of taxes.

Get to work, Sen. Ducheny! Or maybe the hordes of lobbyists can come up with something.

Meanwhile, at this point, it seems like the best option for the state is to beg the Congress for aid. The stalemate with the Yacht Party is overwhelmingly likely to continue, and the numbers that California would need to survive are dwarfed by the handouts to banks and other industries. The Governor has been lobbying for support as well, and Speaker Pelosi appears to agree that some aid is needed. Without that help, we're going to see cutbacks even worse than lowering future enrollment at CSU by 10,000 students. And sadly, it's better at this point to seek help from Washington than Sacramento.