Calif. lawmakers begin voting on budget package

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California lawmakers on Thursday began voting on a complex budget deal struck by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders that is designed to reverse the state's slide toward insolvency.

The compromise before the 80-member Assembly and 40-member state Senate eliminates nearly 60 percent of a projected $26 billion deficit with spending cuts. The rest is reached by one-time raids on local government funding and accounting maneuvers, such as deferring state employee paychecks by one day for a savings on paper of $1.2 billion.

The Senate took the first step toward approving the massive legislative package. On a two-thirds vote, senators passed a bill that cuts higher education funding, college grants, health programs, welfare, in-home supportive services and state prisons.

It was the first of 31 bills that, if passed by both houses of the Legislature and signed by the governor, would close the state's budget shortfall through June 2010.

Given past budget debates, the voting was expected to last late into the night. Some bills will require two-thirds approval, which means they need support from a handful of Republicans, the minority party in each house.

Legislative leaders have acknowledged the solution is imperfect and contains distasteful provisions such as offshore oil drilling and cuts across all major programs, including education, prisons, health care and welfare.

"Nobody likes this budget because there is not much to like about it," said state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, as he opened debate.