Lawmakers Face Budget Crisis as Session Begins

SACRAMENTO —  The pomp of swearing-in ceremonies fizzled fast Monday as a new Legislature peered into a budget hole deep enough to consume all of their spending plans and pet projects.

“If we fired every state employee -- I mean every Highway Patrol officer, every UC professor, every parks patrol officer -- we would still be more than $6 billion short,” Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) said of a budget deficit that is estimated at $21 billion to $30 billion over the next year and a half. “Yet somehow, we must find a way to get this job done.”

The 80 members of the Assembly and 40 members of the Senate, including 39 rookies elected last month, arrived in Sacramento on Monday for the opening of the 2003-04 session.

The weight of the enormous projected budget shortfall occasionally stifled celebrations, which drew hundreds of family members, friends, fund-raisers and campaign workers to the Capitol.

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill has estimated the gap at $21 billion, but Gov. Gray Davis has warned that it could reach or exceed $30 billion.

“They walk in here and the first thing we tell them is, remember to turn on your [voting] key and the second thing is to balance a $21-billion deficit,” said Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). With four years in the Assembly, in an era of six-year term limits, she has become a senior member.

“It’s a daunting task,” Jackson said, “even for people who are seasoned, who have been through a number of budgets, good and bad.”

In the Senate, even the honorary chaplain, Simone Campbell of the Sisters of Social Services, recognized the difficult fiscal task ahead. In a prayer, Campbell advised senators to “take a deep breath” and commit themselves to finding a bipartisan solution that was free of the usual “stifling and predictable rhetoric.”

The Assembly unanimously reelected Wesson speaker, and he was sworn in by former Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr., now mayor of San Francisco.

Wesson warned that even eliminating the budgets for state colleges and universities, state prisons, the Department of Mental Health and the California Youth Authority wouldn’t be enough to eliminate the budget shortage.

But he promised that the budget would not be balanced at the expense of needy Californians, and he urged the public to defend their favorite programs.

“This is no time for silence, for apathy,” Wesson said. “We need to hear from you, because everything that you care about is on the line.... You’ve got to strategize, you’ve got to organize, you’ve got to mobilize, or you risk being marginalized.”

Senate President Pro Tem John L. Burton (D-San Francisco) welcomed seven new members to the Senate, but warned of a bumpy road ahead.

“I’d like to say we are going to have fun in the next two years,” he said. “As much as I try, I don’t know how we are going to do that.”

He got a round of applause from Senate members, particularly Democrats who sported John Burton bobblehead lapel pins, complete with his trademark pink shirt and white collar. A staff member said the pins, paid for in part by retired prison guard lobbyist Don Novey, were intended to celebrate Burton’s reelection as the Senate leader.

In all, 20 senators were elected or reelected to the Senate, including freshman Republican Jeff Denham, who narrowly defeated Democrat Rusty Areias, a former assemblyman, for a San Joaquin Valley seat.

Denham’s election increased the GOP roster in the upper house from 14 to 15, and reduced the Democratic majority from 26 to 25. The Republican gain means it will be even tougher for Democrats to pass the state budget or enact new taxes, which require a two-thirds majority vote, without help from at least two Republicans.

Among the 80 members of the Assembly are 32 first-timers. Some were old hands at politics, including former Berkeley Mayor Loni Hancock and Democrat Mervyn Dymally, the former lieutenant governor and congressman from Compton who was first elected to the Assembly in 1962.

Wesson has said repeatedly that solving the projected budget gap will require a mix of cuts and tax hikes. Republicans said they will vote against higher taxes. To pass the budget with the necessary two-thirds vote, Wesson must win the support of at least six of the 32 Republicans.

Freshman Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, a Stockton Republican, said he won’t be one of them.

“What we need to do is cut excess spending,” Aghazarian said before being sworn in. “Raising taxes in an environment like this, with a bad economy, would make matters worse.... I have a short-term, medium-term and long-term solution: Create jobs.”

Bonnie Garcia, a new Republican assemblywoman from Cathedral City, saw in the budget crisis an opportunity to “return to common-sense decision-making” about government spending.

“No more bells and whistles,” she said. Asked if she would support tax increases, Garcia said she would wait and take a hard look at the budget the governor proposes next month.

It was unclear whether the two houses would remain in session until the start of the special session next Monday or even if there would be daily floor meetings then.

The 2003-04 regular session will start Jan. 6. The two sessions will run concurrently.