Area reps mixed on new budget

BURBANK — More than a week after the governor signed a state budget, local lawmakers and public agencies are still coming to terms with the contentious $145-billion spending bill, and the 52-day political battle that delayed its passage.

In enacting the plan, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger followed through with a promise to Republicans to cut an additional $703 million from a budget that Democrats say had already gone under the knife.

“Before [the Assembly] broke for vacation, we passed a budget that was already fiscally responsible,” said Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, a Democrat whose district includes Glendale and Burbank. “It was already a budget that protected the most vulnerable Californians without raising taxes, kept a healthy reserve and fully funded education and public safety.”

When the Assembly departed Sacramento on July 20, they left a $145-billion budget in the hands of the Senate. That plan already came with a list of “painful cuts,” including about $1.3 billion in state transportation funds, Krekorian said.

But the Assembly budget stalled in the Senate, where Republicans were reportedly holding out for an additional $1 billion in cuts, which they say were necessary for a balanced budget.

After a month of debate within the state Senate, however, the budget package that made its way to the governor’s desk was largely the same as what the Assembly had already approved, said state Sen. Jack Scott, a Democrat whose district includes Glendale and Burbank.

“I really felt that the delay was unfortunate and I felt that the Republican senators actually accomplished little as a result of their holdout because the governor already promised that he would make those $700 million in cuts. . .  and he did,” Scott said.

A constitutional rule that requires a 2/3 majority in the legislature to pass a state budget — a practice in place in only two other states, Rhode Island and Arkansas — allowed the minority Republicans to delay a budget that was largely backed by Democrats, Krekorian said.

That power allowed the Republicans to notch — in addition to the governor’s promised line-item vetoes — one key victory.