State lawmakers approve new spending California spending

California lawmakers on Thursday gave the green light to bills that will add millions in new spending to the state's budget just weeks after slashing $16 billion in services for some of the neediest people in the state.

They also halted dozens of bills that would have added hundreds of million of dollars in state spending.

Among the bills passed by the state Senate and Assembly appropriations committees by Thursday's deadline were:

-- $3 million to continue survivor benefits for California Highway Patrol officers, firefighters, peace officers and school classified employees who do not pay into Social Security and thus their survivors would not receive benefits if they died.

-- $300,000 for costs that would result from a bill that mandates spaying and neutering for most pets. That money would go to animal shelters for an anticipated increase in surrendered pets from people who would rather not pay for the surgery.

-- $2.8 million in disaster relief funds to help victims of the 2008 and 2009 Santa Barbara fires.

Alicia Trost, spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, acknowledged the state is in a tough financial position but said, "We're not spending on frivolous things.

"Five million dollars is a pittance to spend when you consider that half of it is to pay firefighting costs already incurred by counties that suffered through wildfires," said Trost, who predicted the other expenditures would save the state money in the long term.

Republicans on the committees did not support general fund spending - which is where the state's deficit has been - and instead voted in favor of spending that would not be paid from the state's general fund or contribute to any deficit. The bills they approved are to be paid for from special funds.

"Here's the problem as I see it: We don't have any money," said Assemblywoman Connie Conway, R-Tulare, who is vice chair of the appropriations committee. "I've heard them say it's less than some years and we have fewer bills, but we've never been in a year like this before."

The committees approved proposals that could come with significant price tags in future years, such as a bill that mandates an underground tunnel for a proposed Los Angeles freeway. Taking the project underground as opposed to above ground will add hundreds of millions of dollars in costs, according to a legislative analysis, though construction is likely years away.

Assemblyman Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, emphasized that the Assembly committee considering the new spending cut a list of about $600 million in proposed spending to $4 million.

"I want to highlight, underline, bold and italicize that," said de Leon, chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. Assembly staffers said it was the smallest amount of general fund spending approved in decades and the voting that typically drags on for hours was finished in a mere 25 minutes.

The measures that got the nod Thursday now move to the floors of the Legislature for final consideration before going to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor's office declined to comment on lawmakers' actions.

Some measures halted by the committees would have saved the state money, such as a proposal by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, to limit the pay of executive officers in the California State University system and request the UC Regents do the same.

Many legislators significantly changed their original proposals to win approval, such as Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, who altered a proposed employment program for people with developmental disabilities, wiping out the state's price tag entirely - estimated to range from $12 million to $24 million in the next few years to $50,000 that would come from the federal government.