Jerry Brown ends talks on bipartisan budget deal

(From the latimes.com) Gov. Jerry Brown has abandoned his effort to negotiate a bipartisan budget, charging that Republicans were unwilling to support his plan unless he yielded to “an ever-changing list of collateral demands.”

The governor’s announcement that he is walking away from the negotiating table, made in a late-afternoon news release Tuesday, further roils the state’s finances and marks the biggest setback yet for the 72-year-old Brown. He returned to Sacramento this year for his third term as governor promising that he had the political skills and policy expertise to resolve the state’s chronic financial mess.

Earlier in the day, key GOP lawmakers who had been negotiating with the governor declared the talks fruitless.

“We gave it our best. We’re very disappointed. It’s done,” said Sen. Bill Emmerson (R-Hemet).

Budget cuts that lawmakers approved earlier this month closed only $11.2 billion of the estimated $26-billion deficit. Brown wanted to address most of the rest of the gap with a special election in June, when he hoped that voters would agree to continue paying temporary increases in taxes on income, sales and vehicles. All will have expired by July 1; higher income taxes already have stopped.

Read more here: Jerry Brown ends talks on bipartisan budget deal

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110330,0,746144.story