California state legislators facing rapidly approaching political party national conventions may end the budget stalemate before the Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 25-28, say California Catholic Conference officials.

"There's more of a hard deadline than in years past because of the conventions coming up," said Carol Hogan, CCC director for pastoral projects and communications. The Republican National Convention will be held Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.

More than a month overdue, the $101 billion state budget has an estimated $15.2 billion shortfall. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's executive order last week directing the state to reduce workers' pay to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour until a budget agreement is attained may also help to "speed up the process. [However], it will probably be the third week of August before we get a budget," said Linda Wanner, CCC associate director for governmental relations.

On Aug. 4, Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed a temporary one-cent sales tax increase to legislative leaders in budget negotiations. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, the plan would collect an extra penny on every dollar spent on taxable purchases for three years, raising an estimated $6 billion annually. The sales tax proposal is presumably an attempt to move Democrats to accept a budget spending cap.

On Aug. 1, Democratic legislators issued a press release challenging Republicans to quickly pass a budget in order to avoid reductions in health care and other state services. Without a budget in place, Medi-Cal funding will soon run out, causing a fiscal crisis in many clinics, hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities.