SACRAMENTO — As California's government continued its grinding downshift toward insolvency, efforts to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget gap hit a new snag late Tuesday as Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader.
Around 11 p.m., a group of GOP senators, unhappy with the higher taxes that Senate leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto agreed to as part of a deal with the governor and Democrats, voted to replace him in a private caucus meeting in Cogdill's office. Shortly before midnight, it was still unclear who would replace him.
Cogdill's ouster could be a major setback to budget negotiations. Cogdill was a lead negotiator on the budget package and had committed to voting for it. If he were removed from his leadership post, a new Senate minority leader would likely try to renegotiate the deal, which lawmakers spent three months forging.
Meanwhile, the Senate remained deadlocked after hours of debate, still without the final Republican vote required to achieve the two-thirds majority for approval of more than $14 billion in new taxes.
The frenetic day had begun with legislators carting sleeping bags, pillows and suitcases to work. Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) brought a bottle of cologne. Republican Sen. Sam Aanestad, an oral surgeon from Grass Valley, passed out toothbrushes. Cots were ordered from the state Office of Emergency Services.
An anticipated Senate floor vote hopscotched from the morning into the afternoon and then to late evening while tempers frayed and the clock ticked. In the middle of it all, as lawmakers struggled to keep California's fiscal fortunes from plummeting earthward, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a few moments to honor the Bay Area pilot who safely belly-landed a disabled US Airways jet into the Hudson River last month.
At stake is a plan supported by Democrats and Schwarzenegger, a GOP moderate, that calls for a 1 cent increase in the sales tax, a 12-cents-per-gallon gas tax boost and hikes in vehicle license fees and the personal income tax.
"We need to stop treating the taxpayers across California like a personal ATM," Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) said from the Senate floor, hands pounding the air to drive home his point.
"This is a balanced package," countered Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego), fixing her gaze on the Republicans across the aisle. "It asks everybody to pay a little bit more in a variety of ways."
