SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers passed a massive tax increase Thursday along with making billions in spending cuts, ending a grueling week of negotiations over closing the state’s $42 billion budget deficit.
The package of bills was sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after the early-morning votes in the Assembly and Senate, and the Republican governor was scheduled to sign it today.
Schwarzenegger called the Legislature’s work courageous, noting that Democrats compromised on their opposition to deep spending cuts and some Republican lawmakers set aside their opposition to tax increases.
“Now, instead of worrying every day only about IOUs and about red ink, we can start moving California forward once again,” he said. “This action to solve our $42 billion deficit was difficult but courageous and just what California needs.”
Both houses of the Legislature got the bare minimum of votes to reach the two-thirds requirement needed to pass the package, which includes $12.8 billion in tax hikes, $15.1 billion in cuts, billions in borrowing and measures intended to stimulate the state’s economy.
If the economy doesn’t worsen considerably, the plan is intended to balance the state’s budget through June 2010. The Senate began debating before dawn Thursday after a moderate Republican, Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria, agreed to provide the final vote.
In exchange, he won major concessions from Democrats and the governor. Maldonado was able to strip out a 12 cent-a-gallon gas tax from an earlier version of the package and have two measures placed on a future ballot: One seeks fully open primary elections and another would freeze lawmakers’ pay when the state runs a deficit. He also got $1 million for office furniture in the controller’s office deleted.
Maldonado acknowledged the vote for tax increases could come back to haunt him in a future election but said it was the right decision.
“My friends, this might be the end for me,” he said. “This ensures it’s not the end for California.”
The Legislature routinely needs to trade votes to reach the two-thirds threshold necessary for passing budgets. Other anti-tax senators won their own provisions, including a tax credit for buyers of new homes to appease Republican Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield and, for Lou Correa, a Democrat from Anaheim, tens of millions of dollars for Orange County.
The accord came after both houses began meeting on Valentine’s Day and set two records for the longest continuous legislative sessions in state history — one by the Assembly earlier in the week and the 451/2-hour marathon that ended Thursday in the Senate.
“This has been a long, very painful journey,” said state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles.
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