Why does State legislators meet but make no progress on budget?
State legislators meet but make no progress on budget Lawmakers convene for less than two hours in the Capitol office of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in hopes of closing the state’s $15.2-billion budget gap. They remain divided on how to do so. August 04, 2008 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders convened Sunday night in hopes of ending a budget stalemate that is entering its sixth week, but they made no progress and dispersed after less than two hours, according to several participants. “We have some big, deep differences, but at least we were together and we’ll just keep working through it,” Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis said after the meeting in the governor’s Capitol office. Lawmakers have been at odds over how to close a $15.2-billion budget gap, the largest since Schwarzenegger took office in 2003. Although the state’s fiscal morass has been apparent all year, the pressure for a resolution is extreme now because the state could run out of money by
