California continues to remain at a budget impasse over a deficit of some $15 billion in program funding and expenditures. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to temporarily reduce the wages of 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum wage, as well as terminating some 22,000 retired annuities, temporary, and seasonal workers' income. This is, he claims, the result of the State Legislature's inability to pass a budget.

There is some truth to this. Since no budget was enacted by July 31, many state agencies and departments were forced to tap their lines of credit, which will allow them to continue operations until the end of September. For agencies such as mine (though a non-profit, we are funded solely by the state and our budgets are line-items in the Department of Developmental Services budget), this means the loss of tens of thousands of dollars in credit interest and fees to our operations dollars (service dollars remain untouched). In some ways, this is fairly typical of the last dozen years or so worth of California politics. What is unprecedented is the Governor's behavior. Despite the occasional dramatic flourish, such as the pen stroke of doom to public servants' paychecks, Governor Schwarzenegger has remained largely silent throughout the whole budget process since submitting his proposed budget in May. Indeed, this is all the more dramatic because it is a waste of time: State Controller John Chiang, who actually controls payment on all the state's bills, has said he will not enforce Schwarzenegger's executive order.

This overall silence, with the occasional petulant outburst, is appalling -- not just because the budget is virtually unchanged from the form he proposed, but because the impasse is entirely the fault of the Governor's own political party. The Republican Party of California remains not just obstinate about the budget, but completely disengaged from the process. California is a "2/3rds" state, meaning the Senate must have a 2/3 majority vote to pass a budget. With 14 seats, the Senate Republicans control two more seats than necessary to have an effective eternal filibuster. They have voted down proposed budget items and attempts at passing the budget.

And they do this in silence. Typically, in the budget process, the two parties meet (often with the Governor) to hash out their differences. The state Republicans have simply refused to communicate with the Democrats. They won't come to the table or offer opposing measures. They won't propose an alternative budget. You can't compromise if one side won't state what its terms and desires are, or even speak.

The Governor, who used to make a big deal out of holding legislators' feet to the fire in order to pass needed legislation -- like a budget -- in the past, has proven wholly unwilling to call out the obstructionists that form his own party. Republican Senate leader Dave Codgill and Assembly leader Mike Villiness flat out lied when they issued a statement stating:

"Republicans understand the urgency of getting the budget done as soon as possible, which is our main focus right now. We are working very hard to avoid drastic measures like the one that is being proposed." [via the Sacramento Bee article linked above.]