SACRAMENTO — California's 51-day budget impasse ended Tuesday when Senate Republicans who had been blocking a spending plan gave up their fight, accepting largely symbolic concessions on a few pet issues.
The $145-billion budget they approved is nearly identical to the bipartisan plan passed by the Assembly on July 20 and endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It would increase spending on schools, reduce aid to the elderly and disabled, raise student fees at state universities and delay Los Angeles-area mass transit projects.
More than $1 billion intended for public transportation work, such as widening some freeways and extending the Expo light-rail line, would instead be used to help reduce the multibillion-dollar deficit the state has been carrying for years.
Republicans long ago stated that their objective was to cut state spending, but the absence of significant reductions prompted many in the Capitol to question the point of disrupting state services.
Thousands of medical clinics, child-care facilities, nursing homes and other government contractors have been struggling to make do since payments from the state stopped last month. They will be paid retroactively, but the state will not reimburse interest charges on loans that contractors may have taken to tide them over.
"Thank God this is over with," said Senate Leader Don Perata (D-Oakland). "We had a long holdout . . . and I don't believe the institution is any better for it. It certainly wasn't a moment of distinction for any of us."
Senate Republicans expressed no regrets. They boasted of gains won at the bargaining table, including a temporary prohibition on lawsuits that invoke new global warming laws to stop development. The ban applies to suits aimed at transportation and levee projects authorized by voters last year.
Another concession that Democrats and Schwarzenegger granted the Republicans will allow railroads to access state subsidies for projects to reduce pollution.
"This is the first time in my seven-year legislative career that I've seen Republicans achieve so many of our budget priorities," Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) said.
Republicans stressed that their holdout enabled them to secure a promise from Schwarzenegger to use his line-item veto to cut $700 million more from the budget, which will help eliminate this year's projected deficit. Lawmakers briefed on the additional cuts said privately that they would include a $300-million reduction in healthcare programs for the poor, as well as a drop of at least $50 million in the budgets of state agencies for administrative expenses and other costs.
