Abel Maldonado has the weight of the Golden State on his shoulders. Or he is holding the state's budget process hostage. It depends on how you look at it.
As California prepares to lay off 10,000 state workers, and as the length of the partisan battle over the budget reaches 100 days, the moderate Republican State Senator is seen by Democrats as the man who can break the stalemate.
For his part, Maldonado, whose 15th district Senate seat stretches across California's Central Coast, has found himself in a unique position to make demands, and he is seizing the opportunity.
California is careening ever closer to the financial brink. It is among the states worst hit by the home-foreclosure epidemic, and its unemployment rate has reached 9.3 percent, compared to the nation's 7.6 percent.
The spiraling financial situation has left the state with a historic $41 billion budget gap. To close it, Gov. Schwarzenegger and a small band of legislators have floated a spending plan that calls for $14 billion in tax increases, $15 billion in cuts and $11 billion in borrowing.
Compounding the debacle is the state's uncommon law requiring spending plans and tax hikes to be approved by at least two-thirds of the state legislature. Only two other states -- Rhode Island and Arkansas -- require such a high threshold.
In California, although Democrats dominate both the Senate and Assembly, they are three votes shy of being able to pass the budget without Republican support.
The Assembly might have its three Republican votes, but with the Senate still coming up short, all eyes are on Maldonado, one of the only moderates in the chamber, who broke ranks with his party on a budget in 2007.
But Maldonado said he cannot support the $143 billion budget unless it includes several reforms. Chief among them is his call for non-partisan primary elections. As it is, Californians, like people in most other states, can vote only on the primary races of their registered party. Doing away with this restriction, Maldonado says, would help reverse the partisan politics that has long plagued the state.
"It would get rid of party bosses, and allow people to elect the best candidate," Maldonado's communication's director, Brooke Armour, told HispanicBusiness.com. "It would put the focus on the people, not the party. As it is, in Sacramento a lot of the focus is on the party, and not the people."
Maldonado also wants to see stiffer penalties visited upon legislators who fail to pass a budget on time. For instance, he believes lawmakers in Sacramento should be forced to sacrifice their $173-a-day stipends after the adoption deadline of June 15.
Maldonado also would like to prohibit California legislators -- who earn on average $116,000 yearly -- from receiving a raise when there is a budget deficit.
Some question Maldonado's sincerity.
State Controller John Chiang, whom Maldonado has publicly blasted for requesting $1 million in the budget for office furniture, told the Contra Costa Times he believes Maldonado is grandstanding.
"We would urge the senator to check his math, stop grandstanding and get back to work on negotiating a solution to the state's $42 billion budget gap," said Chiang's spokeswoman, Hallye Jordan.
Meanwhile, the governor's office on Tuesday sent out 20,000 pink slips to government employees, with the ultimate goal of shaving 10,000 positions.
Francisco Castillo of the governor's office said the layoff notices will be distributed across the board to every department based on seniority. The only departments spared will be the ones not bankrolled by the general fund, such as the California Highway Patrol, Castillo said.
All told, the pink slips will land on the desks of about 10 percent of the government's employees, and job cuts will affect roughly 5 percent of all the state's government positions. The plan, Castillo said, will save the state $750 million annually.
Castillo added that not all the positions will be shed through layoffs; some will be eliminated through attrition and hiring freezes.
