Darrell Steinberg to be New Head of State Senate at End of Session: Perata to Stay at Helm During Rocky Times This Year With California Budget

Steinberg thanked Senator Perata and his fellow Senators for their collegiality and the “smooth fashion that befits getting on with the people’s business.” When Perata was asked if he could be a lame duck because of term limits and the transition that was planned, Steinberg jumped in and said, “I want to make it clear—there’s one leader at a time.” When Perata was asked if this would make the budget more difficult to pass, with a scenario of folks going down the hall to Darrell’s office to see what he was thinking, Steinberg once again repeated this theme, saying those who know him know that he is a team player and promised, “You won’t see an inch of distance between me and Senator Perata—there’s way too much at stake for the people of California to even contemplate that happening.”

Also thick in the air was the question of who would want to step in with the extreme and immediate budget problems the state faces. Perata said he was “incredibly disturbed with the prospects that lie ahead next week when we’re talking about cutting down the current year’s budget.” He told reporters afterwards that he hoped to get this done next Friday, because it doesn’t get better with time.

Perata said he was thankful that “there’s not a person in our caucus who doesn’t understand the dire consequences we’re faced with in this budget .”He even referenced the Bible, saying: “Jesus was on his knees in Gethsemane waiting for someone else to take the cut from him.” He then noted: “Anyone elected to public office does not want to cut things they believe in. And yet we’re in a situation today where we don’t know where else we’re going to go.” He turned to Steinberg and said, “I may wake up one morning and say “I’ve had enough,” to which Steinberg quickly retorted, “I’m going to change my phone number.”

Perata showed some of the strain he has been under and despite some of the nice things Arnold Schwarzenegger had said about him and the legislature, how he is tired of some of the Governor’s comments.

He was asked: ”What do you make of the governor essentially saying that Prop 93 failed because of you guys—it was sort of the lawmakers and the public’s perception of the lawmakers?” He replied: “I will tell you this; I wasn’t surprised about his comments.”

The press, not wanting to leave this alone pressed him as to why, and Perata erupted: "This has always been a one politician state, as far as he is concerned. And we are being used to be pointed at for not doing stuff. Everywhere he goes, with the exception of when he’s in “big five” talking to us, he seems to find lots of criticism for the Legislature. And I just remind everyone that he is no longer a citizen politician--He is a real, for real politician, he’s just like the rest of us.

"If you want to blame us for what's been going on in this state, he's not first. I am sure he won't be the last. But I don't think it's very constructive with what we are faced with today."

Later on, with a circle of reporters around him, he said:

“This is dismal. I think the Governor has overstated the tax revenues, particularly the property tax revenues. All the indicators are facing downward. So, California is in a recession and I don’t think the governor’s budget has come to grips with that yet. But the first thing we’ve got to do is to not run out of cash. If we don’t act swiftly, we’re going to run out of cash and California will become insolvent and that’s simply not going to happen in the Senate. I’m sure I’m speaking for Democrats and Republicans alike.”

Asked about whether he was supporting some of the accounting techniques the Governor is proposing, he carried on: “Don’t infer anything that I said as endorsing anything that the Governor wants. We are going to do what we’re going to do. He gave us his budget and now we’re going to go to work on it. The Governor has said we can cut our way out of this and I don’t believe that for a second. The first step is, let’s not be insolvent, let’s meet our cash obligations—we will do that and we will make the cuts necessary to accomplish that."

When asked about taxes as an alternative to painful cuts, he said:

“Until we demonstrate that we have wrung every dime out of every possible office, agency, and department of this state, it would be futile for people to talk about taxes. But I do think you’ll see a lot of changes in the way California does business in the future, primarily because Californians cannot afford everything that they want. We’re going to have to make some priority decisions. The Governor did not make any priorities; he just went with a 10% across the board. That is not the way that we’re going to do business. The Democrats in the Senate will set priorities and then we will work with the Governor.”

He clarified he thinks the budget hole is greater than the $14.5 billion indicated by the Governor, saying every day he get up the stock market is not doing great.

Previews of coming attractions.