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| State Budget Deal Back on Track |
| By sfgate.com |
| Published: 07/23/2009 |
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State budget deal back on track Matthew Yi-Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Thursday, July 23, 2009 (07-23)Sacramento --Republican lawmakers backed off a threat to derail a tentative budget deal to fix the state's gaping deficit after Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised Wednesday to push aside a controversial prison release proposal. With that assurance, the Legislature is expected to vote today on the deal to close a $26.3 billion deficit in the state's general fund. The tentative deal includes $1.2 billion in prison spending cuts. But specifics on how, exactly, prison spending will be cut are not in the plan. Instead, those details will be debated in August. In the compromise to close the deficit that was reached late Monday, the leaders did not specify how prison cuts would be achieved. But on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger's top prison official unveiled the governor's plan to reduce the number of prison inmates by nearly 27,000 - from 167,700 - in part by reforming the state's parole system, and moving some elderly, sick and low-risk offenders to local hospitals, halfway houses and house arrest. Republican lawmakers balked at the proposal, saying early release of prisoners and attempts to change sentencing laws were not acceptable and a threat to public safety. After the recess But on Wednesday, Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders agreed to wait until August when they return from their summer recess to decide how the prison spending reductions will be made. Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that "hiccups and some obstacles and bumps in the road" have been sorted out. "The bottom line is that we're going to get this budget done," he said. Democratic legislative leaders said they are confident the tentative deal would be approved by the Legislature today. "Everything's on track," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said. Assembly Republican leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo said he is gratified that the prison cuts debate can occur in coming weeks in full public view, avoiding "an 11th-hour jam job." Still, Schwarzenegger's prison plan, which has the backing of Democratic lawmakers and support of law enforcement officials such as the California Police Chiefs Association, can be approved in a simple majority vote without any GOP support in either house of the Legislature. Blakeslee said Republicans will unveil their own plans to find savings in the state prison budget that avoids the early release of prison inmates. "We believe that the force and the quality of the views of which we're going to put forward will ultimately not only earn the support of the public, but a majority of both houses of the Legislature," he said. Less leverage But one GOP strategist said Republican lawmakers will not have the same kind of negotiating leverage in August after the budget proposal is approved. Read More. |
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