Republicans’ Budget Negotiations with Schwarzenegger are Terminated

Remember yesterday how we said that Gov.  Schwarzenegger’s attempts at “reaching-out” to the Republicans legislators wouldn’t work, especially after he wished he had the power to lock them all in the state capitol building until they came up with a solution to the financial crisis?  You don’t remember?  Well go read it here and then come back and read this post.  Bottom line:  We were right.

The SacBee is reporting that today’s “Big Five” meeting was a complete disaster:

Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill declared legislative negotiations with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger essentially dead after an apparently hostile meeting Thursday in the governor’s office.

The Republican governor and legislative leaders publicly blamed one another this week for their failure to resolve a $14.8 billion gap in the current $100 billion state general fund budget. Cogdill, of Modesto, said leaks from “Big 5″ meetings between four legislative leaders and the governor have undermined future talks.

Cogdill said he would attend future meetings with Schwarzenegger “out of respect for him and out of respect for his office.” But he said he believes any deal will now be brokered among the legislative leaders and without Schwarzenegger.

“I believe that the Big 5 process has been irreparably compromised as a result of comments in the press over the last couple of days, and it’s pretty difficult to negotiate in good faith in that situation,” Cogdill said. “My personal belief is that any resolution to this that is going to be negotiated will result from efforts with the Big 4 similar to what we were able to accomplish with the budget last year, because, again, I just don’t see this process as being productive or helpful.”

The Republican governor and legislative leaders publicly blamed one another this week for their failure to resolve a $14.8 billion gap in the current $100 billion state general fund budget. Cogdill, of Modesto, said leaks from “Big 5″ meetings between four legislative leaders and the governor have undermined future talks.

Cogdill said he would attend future meetings with Schwarzenegger “out of respect for him and out of respect for his office.” But he said he believes any deal will now be brokered among the legislative leaders and without Schwarzenegger.