The State Senate could vote as early as Friday on what to do about the current fiscal year's budget deficit. From Sacramento, Marianne Russ reports.
Back in January, as the state faced a $14.5 billion budget deficit, Governor Schwarzenegger called a fiscal emergency. That called lawmakers into a special session to deal with the current year deficit of just over $3 billion. And if lawmakers haven't addressed the problem by the 23rd of this month, they're not allowed to do any other work.
Perata : One way or the other, we're going to get it done.
That's Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.
Perata : Californians cannot afford everything they want. We're going to have to make some priority decisions. The governor did not make any priorities. He just went with a 10 percent across the board. That is not the way we're going to do business.
Schwarzenegger proposed cuts to nearly every department. Republicans have said the across the board cuts are fair -- but they disagree with reductions that would allow some state prisoners to be released early.
