SACRAMENTO – The state Senate voted on a budget Tuesday and it failed – and no one was surprised. The Senate's budget vote, one week before the fiscal year begins, is the first of three so-called budget drills in the Legislature this week. Another Senate vote is expected today. "This is usually what they do when they get big divides between them. It's important for them to do their drill and for people to stake out their views and what their values are," said Fred Silva, a fiscal analyst for the Public Policy Institute of California and a longtime budget watcher. "Now, the next step is whether they can finish this thing." The party-line vote in the Senate was 24-14. It takes two-thirds, or 27 votes, to pass the budget.


"We put this out knowing full well that we weren't going to get any votes on the other side, but you do what you gotta do," said Senate Leader John Burton, D-San Francisco, who admits the budget stalemate at the moment is intractable and the budget will be late.

Lawmakers and the governor are stumped on how to close a $38.2 billion budget gap. At this point everything is sacrosanct, and the political rhetoric Tuesday reflected that. Republicans reiterated their no-tax stance. Democrats said they have cut as much as they could – $11 billion in programs for the poor – and will do no more.

Republicans accused Democrats of bloating the state budget and breaking the law when the state's vehicle license fees increased last week.

"California deserves much better. In fact, hell deserves no worse," said Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks.

Democrats accused Republicans of distorting numbers, contradicting themselves and forgetting that they also voted to increase spending in education and other programs - contributing to the current problem.

"Your information is truly lacking, and your behavior mathematically doesn't make sense," said Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara.

Burton sized the problem up: "We have the same problem as a family. A wife wants to go see her family; the husband wants to go see his family, and they're stopped in the road. Unfortunately, I see us there."

An Assembly vote on a different budget Thursday is expected to yield much the same rhetoric and result.

"It's a necessary exercise to allow people an opportunity to say to the constituents, 'This is what we're fighting for.' It releases frustration," said Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Martinez.

But he added: "I don't mind the drill so much, but I wish we spent as much time working on compromise as working on these drills."

Canciamilla last week presented a bipartisan budget plan with Assemblyman Keith Richman, a Northridge Republican, and earlier this year put together a bipartisan legislator group to try to discourage such walls being built between the parties.

"Clearly, the discussion is not for the member. It's not going to be changing anyone's mind," he said.

DAILY BUDGET UPDATE
What's new
Senate failed to pass a budget bill with a half-cent sales-tax increase. Senate Leader John Burton called the stalemate "impossible." Gov. Gray Davis was optimistic. Another Senate vote is set for today.
Today's deficit index
$78.7 million: The amount needed per day through June 30, 2004, to balance the budget. Fluctuates with changes in economy, taxes, state service levels and the time the state has left to correct the problem.
Coming up
• State Assembly to vote on a version of the budget Thursday.
• 2003-04 fiscal year begins Tuesday.