Calif. Legislature to vote on Brown's budget plan

— The leaders of both legislative houses on Tuesday scheduled votes on Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal, even though it's unclear what plan lawmakers will consider.

The state Senate and Assembly are scheduled to meet early Wednesday afternoon for floor votes on closing California's $26.6 billion deficit.

The Democratic governor wants to balance $12.5 billion in spending cuts with a five-year extension of temporary increases in the sales, personal income and vehicle taxes enacted two years ago. He has asked the Legislature to call a special election in June to allow voters to decide the tax question.


"Unfortunately, now the more extreme elements of the Republican Party are about to brand any Republican legislator a terrorist and some evil being if they give the people the right to vote," Brown told reporters Tuesday before a luncheon speech to state probation officers. "And if it comes to a situation in America where letting the people vote becomes an act of terrorism, we're in a very serious situation when a major party thinks that way."


Two Republicans are needed in the Assembly and Senate to reach the two-thirds vote threshold required to place the tax question before voters. Although no GOP lawmakers have yet committed to providing those votes, five in the Senate have been negotiating with Brown.


"Our members believe taxes would further damage our economy, and instead we're looking at reforms that would fix our chronic budget problems," said Sabrina Lockhart, spokeswoman for Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway.



The group of Republican senators, referred to in the Capitol as the GOP 5, did not join the Taxpayer Caucus and seemed to be Democrats' best hope of reaching a budget deal in at least one house. But negotiations stalled over the weekend, with Republicans saying they did not get the reforms they wanted.


