California state lawmakers from both the Senate and the Assembly will gather in a special joint committee Thursday to tackle the budget. And Senate Democrats are making one thing clear: new taxes must be part of the solution. From Sacramento, Marianne Russ reports.
Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to fill the $15 billion budget gap includes cuts to education, health and social programs. Democrats have largely rejected those. So where are they going to get the money? Senate Leader Don Perata is pretty clear:
Perata: "How we're going to do it? We're proposing to raise taxes. When they say new revenues, we're talking about raising taxes."
Perata isn't saying which taxes they'd like to increase. The Senate Democrats plan calls for more than $11 billion in new revenue. But Republicans have pledged not to approve any new taxes and their votes are needed to pass them. They say that would hurt the economy. Perata says the budget probably won't be finished in time for the new fiscal year in July but he hopes it will be ready by August, when California may run out of cash.
