SACRAMENTO — For years it has been this government town's equivalent of a stone fortress, a bastion of public policy under the watchful eye of a potent political army.
But this summer, Proposition 98, the law that guarantees public schools roughly 40% of general fund revenue, is being tested as it has been only a few times before.
In the final stages of the weeks-long negotiations over the state's $26.3-billion budget gap, what to do about Proposition 98 has emerged among the last, and toughest, issues.
After saying they were close to a deal Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders did not meet Thursday, with the governor's spokesman saying the talks were hung up over school funds.
Schwarzenegger has talked of suspending Proposition 98 and has reopened a battle with the law's guardian and protector, the powerful California Teachers Assn. Both sides have waged war over the airwaves for the last week, with dueling TV commercials typically not seen in a nonelection year.
The governor and Republicans have rejected Democratic calls for new taxes on oil or tobacco. With no added taxes, cuts to schools are among the last ways the state can balance its books.
The unpopularity of such cuts guarantees difficult negotiations. But the talks over Proposition 98 have been made even more complex by lingering suspicions each side has of the other's motives.
Democrats concede they can't avoid more cuts to schools, but they want assurances that money being carved from school budgets will be restored in future years as the economy recovers.
The exact amount of cuts from schools is still uncertain, but education officials say there will be more teacher layoffs, more kids stuffed into classes, fewer librarians and counselors and reductions in art, music and gym classes.
"For us, it's been worse than the Great Depression," said Lisa Kaplan, a Sacramento attorney and a trustee at the suburban Natomas Unified School District, which has endured steeper funding cuts than during the early 1930s.
Proposition 98 and Proposition 13 -- one a touchstone for liberals, the other for conservatives -- are the enduring benchmarks of California's initiative wars.
In a state that has seen ballot measures win and lose but mostly disappear from memory like sandcastles in a high tide, "they're the twin pillars of political sanctity," said Dan Schnur, executive director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.
