SACRAMENTO — A defiant state Senate met late into Thursday night, threatening to stay locked down until dawn in a last-ditch effort to do its part to pass a budget by the start of the fiscal year today.
The sudden session, which began in late afternoon, surprised the Capitol. The Assembly had adjourned without acting on the budget. And Senate Leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) had said members could go home for the holiday weekend while legislative leaders negotiated a final agreement with the governor.
But rebellious Democratic senators refused to leave.
"There was not one person that wanted to go home," said Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles). "We are saying, 'Finish it. It can be done.' We just think it is the wrong message to leave on a holiday weekend when the budget isn't done."
Their effort was unsuccessful on an initial Thursday night roll call. Republicans continued to withhold the two votes needed for the Senate to pass a spending plan, and the measure failed 25 to 13. A state budget requires passage by both houses of the Legislature and the governor's signature.
Democrats held the session as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left Sacramento for Los Angeles, where he will attend today's inauguration ceremonies for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Several of the legislators who stayed said they, too, had planned to leave for the event but stayed at the Capitol to show they were willing to make sacrifices to pass a budget.
The Democrats had already yielded to most of the governor's demands on the budget, abandoning plans to fight for new taxes and $3 billion they say is owed to schools. In their $116.6-billion budget, the Democrats have also agreed to accelerate the repayment of a $1.2-billion loan taken from local governments, as the governor has demanded.
Budget talks had stalled since the governor brought some new issues into them last week. He has used the talks to try to extract Democratic support for new powers to cut any government programs he chooses if the budget falls out of balance at midyear. The governor helped place an initiative that would provide him with such powers on the November special election ballot, but it is polling poorly with voters.
Now he is trying to forge a deal with Democrats to place a compromise measure -- one with bipartisan support -- alongside it on the ballot. But Democrats say the budget must be done first, and on Thursday the governor dropped the demand that the new powers be part of a budget deal.
