(Sacramento, CA) — California Democrats are forging ahead with Governor Gavin Newsom on plans to address a major budget shortfall but Republicans feel left out of the process. Newsom and legislative leaders are fast-tracking an “Early Action Budget Package” which aims to take as much as 18-Billion dollars out of the expected shortfall. The total deficit is somewhere between 38-billion and 73-billion. The Governor and the Legislative Analyst’s Office has come out with drastically different numbers.

Republican budget vice-chair Roger Niello says “the budget process has been degraded…with unilateral decision-making happening behind closed doors by one political party.” Niello wants to see a return of the budget conference committee process which enables more public discussion between legislative houses.