No Vote on the California State Budget, But Some Interesting Developments: Tasty Morsels from the Hallways of the Capitol

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

No white smoke yet from the Capitol on a budget agreement, and it would probably violate clean air rules anyway.

There’s no official word, other than the budget vote today has been postponed following a meeting last night that the Speaker of the Assembly described as “productive,” and that legislative leaders are expected to meet throughout the day with staff on the budget.

But hanging out in the hallways, there are a few bits of information to chew upon. Reporters are on a semi stakeout in the Rotunda near the Speaker’s office.

The following is a transcript of the Speaker's hallway interview this morning with KCRA-TV's Kevin Riggs and Araceli Martinez of La Opinion.

Q: The fact that there’s been a cancellation of this budget vote today, am I to interpret that to mean there’s some serious progress being made?

SFN: I think what happened last night when we had a meeting of the four legislative leaders – I think we all realized we wanted to get to a close. Senator Perata and I were going to declare an impasse this morning and have a vote on a Democratic version of a budget, and we decided not to do that. And that’s for a reason: because we’re making considerable progress.

We’re proud of our friends on the other side of the aisle. In particular I’m proud of Mike Villines. He’s a great leader for California. He’s a great Republican, a good human being, and a wonderful human being.

No, in all honesty, I think we’re demonstrating real leadership, when the four legislative leaders, on their own, can get together and agree on a budget that makes sense for California. So, we feel really good about where we are, and I’m not going to tell you when we go up for a vote or I’m not going to tell you that we have an agreement – because we don’t have an agreement – but I feel very good about the progress that has been made over the past 24 hours.

Q: What have the Democrats been willing to offer the Republicans to get those votes you need?