RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Lawmakers here in California appear to be on the verge of an agreement to fix the state's $41 billion budget deficit. The legislators have been deadlocked for months, but with the clock ticking toward a financial meltdown, they now look ready to make a deal. NPR's Ina Jaffe reports.
INA JAFFE: At the Sacramento Press Club yesterday, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg said where there finally is a budget deal, no one's going to love it.
DARRELL STEINBERG: I don't know any good news to come out of solving a $41 billion deficit. The only good news is getting it behind us responsibly.
JAFFE: Unidentified Man: What do we want?
MONTAGNE: Unidentified Group: Now.
JAFFE: Earlier this week, about 100 union members who work on state transportation projects picketed outside the L.A. office of the speaker of the state assembly. Danny Curtain, the director of the California Conference of Carpenters, said those road building jobs will disappear unless there's a budget deal soon.
DANNY CURTAIN: This is the biggest budget problem we've ever seen. It will require massive cuts and massive tax increases. And to nitpick around the edge and say you can't cut this and you can't cut that or you can't increase this tax or that tax is not going to get it done.
JAFFE: Though 5,600 construction projects have already been put on hold, the pain goes well beyond the building trades. At the end of the week, Schwarzenegger is notifying 20,000 state workers they may be laid off. That's on top of the 200,000 who are already being forced to take days off without pay. And this month, State Controller John Chiang deferred income tax refunds, stopped the state grants that some college students use to pay tuition, and halted payments to counties for an array of social service programs.
JOHN CHIANG: When you have $6 to pay $10 worth of bills, your options are limited.
JAFFE: Says the controller. What money there is must first be used to pay for public schools and to pay California's bond holders. Even if a budget is adopted soon, Chiang says the counties will still have to wait.
CHIANG: There is a lag time before the tax revenues would come into the state coffers.
DIANNE JACOB: We're fighting back. We're not going to take this lying down.
JAFFE: That's Dianne Jacob, chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. San Diego is one of several counties planning to sue the state to get the money designated for some of California's most vulnerable.
JACOB: We're talking about foster families. We're talking about at risk kids. We're talking about welfare-to-work moms.
JAFFE: Senate leader Darrell Steinberg put it this way.
STEINBERG: We are living in the midst of the worst national and international economic crisis in decades. In order for us to get through this together, there's going to have to be shared sacrifice.
JAFFE: Ina Jaffe, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
