LAT: California budget negotiations hit a new snag

Reporting from Sacramento — As California's government continued its grinding downshift toward insolvency, efforts to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget gap hit a new snag late Tuesday as Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader.

Around 11 p.m., a group of GOP senators, unhappy with the higher taxes that Senate leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto agreed to as part of a deal with the governor and Democrats, voted to replace him in a private caucus meeting in Cogdill's office.

They chose Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, a staunchly antitax lawmaker from Murrieta, as their new leader.

Cogdill's ouster could be a major setback to budget negotiations. Cogdill was a lead negotiator on the budget package and had committed to voting for it. Hollingsworth will likely try to renegotiate the deal, which lawmakers spent three months forging.

"It's a shame it ended this way," Cogdill said to reporters. "This budget needs to get out, and we need to put people to work again in this state."

Hollingsworth said he does not want to see a tax increase passed, but he offered no plan for resolving the budget crisis.

"All of that will be determined in the next couple of days," he said.

Soon after the leadership change, lawmakers returned to the Senate chamber, where they voted down the $14.4 billion in proposed tax hikes that are part of the budget package. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have been trying to get the package approved since Saturday.

The vote, concluded shortly after 1 a.m., was the first on the tax hikes, which had been set aside as the governor and party leaders scurried to round up the three Senate GOP votes needed to pass the spending plan.

That plan could still survive the leadership change. Three GOP senators abstained from voting this morning. They also refused to take part in Cogdill's ouster, sitting out the caucus vote on his replacement. Those lawmakers have been in negotiations with the governor and Democrats about possibly supporting the bipartisan budget plan.

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