California budget battle begins again in Capitol

[alp227]

(11-13) 04:00 PST Sacramento - --

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that the $6 billion hole in the budget he signed just over a month ago was unforeseen, and he blamed the deficit on the Legislature and voters, who passed a ballot measure last week that zaps revenue the state expected to collect.

But while Schwarzenegger may not have seen trouble coming, others at the Capitol did.

The largest portion of that $6 billion hole can be attributed to the Schwarzenegger administration, said State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who was a key player in the budget negotiations. Steinberg said that as Democrats fought to save public services from being trimmed, the administration estimated billions in revenue from the federal government that had never been promised.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/12/BASQ1GBE1F.DTL