SACRAMENTO — After holding up the state budget nearly a month past deadline, Senate Republicans offered Tuesday to end the impasse if Democrats would move tens of thousands of poor families off welfare and make dozens of additional program cuts.
The Republicans will present their proposed state budget before the full Senate today. It would cut numerous programs Democrats hold dear, including the elimination of an institute for labor studies at the University of California. The budget plan includes nearly $1 billion in spending reductions beyond those in the bipartisan plan approved by the Assembly on Friday.
Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) made public only a few of the cuts his caucus would propose.
School groups and law enforcement organizations remain skeptical of his promise that they will be unaffected. On Tuesday, they unleashed an aggressive lobbying and media campaign to pressure moderate GOP senators to vote for the Assembly-approved budget.
"If we are going to educate kids and get them to the next level, we have to start that process now," said Pam Brady, president of the California State PTA. She said school districts can't plan for the coming academic year without a budget in place.
"We are encouraging the Senate to pass the Assembly bill so we can get onto the business of educating children," she said.
Though Democrats command a majority in the Senate, at least two GOP votes are required for passage of a budget. The Republicans in the Senate are holding out those votes in an effort to force down state spending. For weeks, however, they have declined to disclose their specific demands. After an unsuccessful all-night lockdown of the chambers that was designed to force a budget deal, Senate Leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) said Saturday morning that he would not negotiate further until Republicans presented their proposal to the full Senate.
Perata said he was reserving comment until his office received a copy of the proposal. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said the same.
The linchpin of the plan, Ackerman said, is a $324-million cut in the state's welfare program. The cut was initially proposed by the governor in January, but Schwarzenegger had not been aggressively pushing for its inclusion in the spending plan adopted by the Legislature.
