3-WAY BUDGET BATTLE TO BEGIN IN CAPITAL.Byline: Jennifer Kerr Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there. Pretty soon, it's real California taxpayer money. This week, the state Senate and Assembly will put their proposed drafts of the state budget, sure to be drastically different, on view and start the summer budget battle. Republican Gov. Pete Wilson For others named Pete Wilson, see . Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American Republican politician from California. Wilson served as the thirty-sixth Governor of California (1991–1999), the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that presented his newest budget proposal last week, a $63 billion plan to run the state during the fiscal year that begins on July 1. A rosy economy and healthy tax revenues mean budget negotiators this year have the pleasant tax of giving out unanticipated funds, mostly to public schools. Budget votes won't be the only action in the Legislature this week. After taking today off for Memorial Day, both houses will have floor sessions every day to consider hundreds of bills before Friday's deadline for bills to pass their first house.o The Assembly, in particular, has a full agenda, with controversial bills that include a ban on certain late-term abortions, a shift of $87 million from San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden to 43 other counties, an end to affirmative action affirmative action, in the United States, programs to overcome the effects of past societal discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of specific groups, such as minorities and women. programs and a subminimum wage sub·min·i·mum wage n. A wage paid under certain conditions to certain categories of workers, such as trainees, that is less than the established minimum wage. for disabled workers. This week's budget actions are the real start to the long negotiation process and will provide the first look at the Senate and Assembly bargaining positions. This is the first year that Republicans control the Assembly budget. Assembly budget subcommittees have in many instances gone even further than Wilson in making health and welfare cuts. For example, the Assembly budget subcommittee cut family planning family planning Use of measures designed to regulate the number and spacing of children within a family, largely to curb population growth and ensure each family’s access to limited resources. funds that Wilson had sought. The Senate budget plan, by contrast, is determined by the upper house's Democratic majority and contains more spending than Wilson wants for many health and welfare programs. The Senate and Assembly budget committees plan to vote Tuesday on their respective budget plans, which have been written over the past three months by subcommittees. Those budget versions will then get floor votes before the end of the week. The usual plan is to put the three differing budgets - governor's, Assembly's and Senate's - before a six-legislator conference committee to seek compromises. However, the most controversial items will probably be decided in closed-door meetings of Wilson and the Legislature's top four leaders. The California Constitution The California Constitution is the document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of California. The original constitution, adopted in November 1849 in the U.S. requires the Legislature to pass a budget by June 15. |
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