Reporting from Sacramento — The emergency session of the Legislature called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to deal with a budget shortfall that has swollen to $28 billion through mid-2010 is expected to end tonight without any action taken to solve the problem.
Legislative leaders abandoned their effort to reach a compromise budget deal in closed-door negotiations Monday night. Democrats, who control the Legislature, say they will put up for a vote their own plan, which would wipe out most of the deficit by tripling car license fees and cutting billions of dollars from schools, healthcare, welfare and other government services.
The plan is not expected to receive any GOP votes.
"This package was not negotiated with Republicans, it was handed to us and it is not something we can support," said Jennifer Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines of Clovis.
Today's gathering of the full Assembly and Senate, scheduled to begin in the late afternoon, is the last opportunity for the lame-duck Legislature to address the state's massive budget problem. A new class of lawmakers takes office on Dec. 1 and state officials say no legislative business can take place in the intervening days, while they are updating computer systems.
The failure of lawmakers to make any progress on the deficit would put a serious financial strain on the state. California is projected to come up short on the cash it needs to pay routine bills by February or March if action is not taken to stem the flow of red ink before then.
Democrats called on GOP lawmakers to support their proposal.
"We're ready to do the hard thing on cuts," said Assembly Budget Committee Chairman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz). "The question is are they willing to do the hard thing on new revenues."
Halper is a Times staff writer.
evan.halper@latimes.com
Times staff writer Jordan Rau contributed to this report.
