GOP senator says he'll vote for budget if it includes constitutional amendments

Sen. Abel Maldonado says he reached a deal with the governor to vote for the budget in exchange for changes in the law to allow open primaries and punish legislators for not meeting budget deadlines.

By Patrick McGreevy and Eric Bailey

February 18, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento — State Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) says he brokered a deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday that may position him to break the logjam in Sacramento and cast the final GOP vote needed for budget passage.

But there is a catch -- the agreement could cost some Democratic votes for the bipartisan spending plan that the governor and legislative leaders have put together. And there are none to spare.

Under the deal, Schwarzenegger would support items that Maldonado has demanded from any budget package. They include constitutional amendments, requiring voter approval, that would allow an open primary election, cut legislators' pay if they miss a budget deadline and prohibit pay raises for lawmakers when there are deficits.

"The governor is on board with my constitutional amendments," Maldonado said. "If everybody is happy with the drafts, we'll have a budget for the state of California."

Democrats, however, are skeptical.

"I'm open to discussion on the merits of the open primary," said Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto). "But I'm hard-pressed to understand what on earth it has to do with solving the state budget deficit."

Maldonado and the governor discussed the details at a long lunch meeting on the enclosed smoking porch of the posh Spataro Restaurant and Bar a couple of blocks from the Capitol. Afterward there were cigars, including one for the governor's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy.

Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, declined to discuss details of the lunch meeting but said the governor has spoken before in favor of an open primary and consequences for legislators who fail to approve budgets on time.

"He has expressed support for both of those ideas in the past," McLear said. "We continue to meet with members of both sides of the aisle to resolve the budget situation."

Schwarzenegger had said this afternoon that GOP lawmakers who insist that the budget could be balanced without new revenue had "a math problem" and that he would not abandon the bipartisan spending plan he helped negotiate, which includes $14.4 billion in tax increases.

The governor's remarks at a Capitol press conference came hours after the newly elected leader of the state Senate's Republicans, who replaced his predecessor in an overnight ouster, said he hoped to kill the existing bipartisan plan to wipe out the state's deficit.

"Anyone who runs around and says this can be done without raising taxes, I think, has not really looked at it carefully or has a math problem and has to go back and take Math 101," Schwarzenegger said.

Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta had said this morning that he would like to scrap the agreement Schwarzenegger reached with legislative leaders and renegotiate a package without raising taxes.

"The vast majority of my caucus does not want to see a budget passed with a tax increase," he said. "We don't think it's necessary."

The current plan is one GOP vote shy of passing the Legislature. But Republican opposition to the $14.4 billion in higher taxes that it contains led to the late-night overthrow of Dave Cogdill of Modesto, who as Senate GOP leader helped negotiate the package with Schwarzenegger and other legislative leaders.