Two members of the Assembly -- a Democrat and a Republican -- bucked their party leaders Tuesday to propose a budget that makes deep cuts and temporarily raises the sales tax to bring state finances back into balance.
Assemblymen Keith Richman, R-Northridge, and Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg, in the past several months headed a group of 18 or so lawmakers trying to forge a bipartisan approach to the state's $38.2 billion budget gap.

But in the end, the two presented their plan Tuesday without the approval of the other members of the bipartisan group -- a reflection of the growing polarization over the budget crisis.

Both legislators said their parties are bound by rigid ideologies that impede progress toward a budget deal less than two weeks before the start of the fiscal year.

"I think it's because 'no new taxes' is a political orthodoxy, almost like a religious orthodoxy," Richman said when asked about the failure of his GOP colleagues to support the plan.

Canciamilla added, "The orthodoxy on my side is that you can never spend too much. I think there is difficulty on my side of the aisle with a lot of members who believe that the role of government is to answer every question, respond to every need, provide a service to everyone who can't otherwise afford it and to tax those who can afford it in order to provide for those who can't."

As the two men spoke in Richman's Capitol office, several hundred purple-shirted members of the Service Employees International Union rallied outside the building. They urged lawmakers to increase taxes to protect health care and schools from deep budget cuts.

The Canciamilla-Richman plan attempts to strike a balance by making cuts that have been rejected as too harsh by many Democrats and by imposing a temporary half-cent sales tax increase to pay off $10.7 billion of the deficit over about five years, as Gov. Gray Davis proposed in May.

It rejects other tax increases proposed by Davis to provide revenue to counties for taking over several state health care and social service programs.

Among the largest cuts the plan would make to Davis' May spending plan:

* Trimming school spending by $162 million to the minimum guaranteed by Proposition 98.

* Reducing the rates the state pays to Medi-Cal providers, for savings of $405 million.

* Cutting grants to the aged, blind and disabled to the minimum required by the federal government, for savings of $497 million.

* A one-time reduction of $500 million in the amount the state pays to local governments.

Like Davis' May budget revision, the plan also assumes that under current law, the annual vehicle license fee will be increased to its former level, making unnecessary a $4 billion payment that the state has made to local governments while the fee was reduced.

While Davis' proposal would leave a $9 billion deficit in coming years, the Canciamilla-Richman plan would whittle it down to $3.9 billion in the 2005-06 fiscal year. It would roll back per capita state spending and the state payroll to levels that existed in the late 1990s, before a stock market-driven bubble in state revenues, and impose fiscal reforms such as a spending cap and a required 5 percent rainy-day reserve.

Response to the plan Tuesday was measured and noncommittal.

"I applaud this bipartisan effort," Davis said. "I appreciate anyone who undertakes the difficult task of putting together a detailed, balanced budget.

"I'm not prepared to respond to specifics in the plan."

Assembly Republican leader Dave Cox of Fair Oaks said in a prepared statement that he was still reviewing the proposal. But he reiterated his opposition to tax increases and said that the Richman-Canciamilla proposal, at the least, demonstrated that deeper cuts could be made than Democrats have accepted so far.

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, dismissed the proposal with a shrug.

"What, two people?" But he added, "At least it's people trying to do something."

One Assembly Republican, Patricia Bates of Laguna Niguel, issued a press release declaring she was no longer part of the bipartisan group.

Other members of the group also distanced themselves from the proposal.

Because of the cuts proposed in health care, "even at a cursory glance I couldn't possibly support it," said Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood. Cutting Medi-Cal provider rates would cause some nursing homes to go under, he said.

"I think it's impossible to do this without some revenue enhancements," Koretz said.

The possibility of a bipartisan solution became more remote when Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga said he would work to unseat any Republican who votes for a tax increase, Koretz said.

"I liked the idea of the bipartisan group," he said. "I tend to think it's somewhat out the window now."

Another member of the group, Assemblyman Thomas Harman, R-Huntington Beach, said it became clear in the past week that the bipartisan group would not agree on a plan.

Harman said he couldn't support the sales tax increase or the proposed one-time $500 million cut to local government. He said he'd prefer to find budget reductions elsewhere.

Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, called the proposal a good starting point, although she couldn't embrace it in all its particulars.

"It's the only plan that has one vote from each party," she said.