“We have hard questions that need to be asked and answered,” he said. “But we need a good budget, and if it takes going into September, so be it. What we need is a good, comprehensive and conservative budget that will make sure we can match revenues with expenses. But I don’t want it to go on forever, I don’t want to see small entrepreneurs be impacted in any way. There are just an awful lot of programs that need to be reviewed and, frankly, we need to say yes or no to them.”
Currently, four of the state’s top leaders from both political parties — Assembly speaker Karen Bass, Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Republican Minority Leader Dave Cogdill — are negotiating privately.
Schwarzenegger will join them when more progress has been made, Portantino said.
“It’s going to take both parties and the governor to get this solved,” he said. “The sooner we have a budget, the better it is. No one wants to see the state cash flow be challenged. Many people’s lives would be affected.”
