OK, everyone ready for day two of "As State Government Grows"?
The big fat state budget (ok, it is a little less big and fat due to some negotiations) has been passed in the Assembly and transmitted over to the Senate, where it awaits action.
The big question is what will happen to it there. There has been some coverage of Senate President Don Perata grousing about provisions in the package that he doesn’t like. I don’t buy that for a minute. Can you say "posturing" — I can! Perata is an old hand at this game. He knows that passing out the existing Democrat-driven (GOP tinkered with) budget is a great deal for all of California’s special interests as it by and large maintains the status quo on how our state operates.
That said, as a shrewd negotiator will do, he HAS to be vocally critical of the plan from the left, in order to "do the dance" with Senate Republicans who have been saying the plan does not go far enough in terms of being fiscally prudent. Perata would like to choreograph this dance so that waiting at the center of the dance floor is the Assembly-passed bill.
Senate Republicans are discussing their plans. As they do, I would counsel them to tune out the rhetoric of Don Perata, and focus on whether the package in front of them meets the criteria they set out as a caucus.
Remember the golden rule of th budget — in the Senate, it takes 27. That means that Senate Republicans hold all of the cards.