GOP Won't Budge As Brown Faces Tax-Vote Deadline

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Republican lawmakers aren't budging as Gov. Jerry Brown enters the last stretch of a self-imposed budget deadline for a legislative vote to call a June special election.

GOP Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said Tuesday that the Legislature remains a "long ways from any budget agreement" a day after five Republican senators said they had reached an impasse with the governor.

The Democratic governor wants voters to authorize extensions of temporary tax increases enacted two years as part of his plan to close California's $26.6 billion deficit. He says he needs the Legislature to act by Thursday for a special election before the next fiscal year in July.

Despite winning support from counties, law enforcement and business groups, Brown doesn't appear to have GOP support.

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