Senate President Pro Tem John Burton called Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal "unworthy" Monday in an opening skirmish of what promises to be another extended budget battle.
"I don't see any hope and aspiration there," the San Francisco Democrat said, referring to Schwarzenegger's description of California last week as "an empire of hope and aspirations."

"I see despair there," Burton continued. "I see a state that is turning its back on the most vulnerable in our society in order to pay for a tax cut."

Schwarzenegger's budget proposal, released Friday, includes no tax increases, and assumes the continuation of his rollback of the state vehicle license fee. He proposes to cut benefits, cap new enrollment in some programs and slash payments to health care providers who serve the needy. His budget would reduce payments to families on welfare, while increasing their work requirements.

Burton, generally considered second only to the governor in influence in the Capitol, said he wouldn't vote for a budget that didn't soften the impact on social services with new revenue.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance, said the GOP governor had to make tough decisions because "the bill has finally come due for years of overspending."

Schwarzenegger had to focus on health and welfare, he said, because it's the second-biggest category of state spending and includes some of the fastest-growing programs.

Rather than simply freezing or axing the programs, Palmer said, the governor cushioned the blow by suggesting steps such as capping enrollment, allowing people to sign up as others leave.

As Burton spoke inside the Capitol, advocates for poor families were kicking off their lobbying campaigns against proposed cuts to social services and health care.

On the Capitol steps, a group of welfare recipients held up T-shirts inscribed with the message, "Don't balance the budget on the backs of our children."

Low Income Families Empowerment Though Education, a group founded by university students on welfare, decried the governor's plan to cut children's assistance checks by 25 percent if their parents exceed their five-year time limit on benefits.

"Gov. Schwarzenegger isn't asking the prison guards' lobby to cut their salaries by 25 percent," said Diana Spatz, director of the organization. "He's not asking state legislators to cut their expense accounts by 25 percent. Don't target our children."

Burton said that many of the harshest cuts could be avoided by raising the income tax rate on the wealthiest, a move that he said would garner $2 billion to $3 billion. Wealthy taxpayers have benefited from federal tax cuts, he said, and could write off the additional amount they pay the state.

Some of the governor's proposals, Burton said, don't make fiscal sense or may turn out to be illegal.

In one case Burton cited -- which Schwarzenegger first proposed in November -- the state would save about $4 million in the food stamp program, but the cut would result in low-income households losing $165 million in federal food stamp benefits.

He questioned the administration's rationale for asking for the repeal of a bill that would develop guidelines for research using human embryonic stem cells. Palmer said Schwarzenegger wants that and several other bills repealed because they didn't include funding -- not because they were opposed on ideological grounds by conservative lawmakers.

The governor's proposed suspension of Proposition 42, which sets aside sales tax on gasoline for transportation projects, undermines his pledge to stimulate the economy, Burton said.

"It flies in the face of 'jobs, jobs jobs.' A lot of construction jobs will be lost as a result of this," he said.

Burton was likewise skeptical of Schwarzenegger's promise to reorganize state government to make it more efficient and root out waste and fraud.

"Put it all together, and you're going to come up with chump change," he said.

Burton said that serious budget negotiations probably won't get going until March, unless Schwarzenegger pushes to start earlier.

On a more conciliatory note, Burton said that he and Schwarzenegger would be talking.

"We're just two guys trying to get along, trying to do the best we can do for the people of the state, given the variance of our points of view," he said.

Schwarzenegger had nothing but flattery for Burton later in the day when the governor showed up at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Sacramento to appear on a San Diego radio show that was broadcast Monday from the California capital. He was asked about his biggest surprise so far in office.

"The biggest surprise has been what a great man, what a great gentleman John Burton has been," he said.

"We have to just meet and talk and talk and talk and negotiate, and we will find a way how to do this together."