Schwarzenegger: Budget Stalemate Won't Affect Trade Mission

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS/AP) - A trade mission to Asia critical for creating jobs will not be canceled even if the legislature fails to deliver a budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday.

Schwarzenegger is scheduled to embark on a six-day trip to China, Japan and South Korea on September 9. Those countries are among California's five largest export markets.

Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have not reached agreement on how to close a $19 billion budget shortfall. The impasse has led to delayed payments to school districts and counties, furloughs of state employees and the prospect of the state issuing IOUs.

A gubernatorial spokesman, Aaron McLear, said the trip is too important to put off just because lawmakers have not delivered on a budget.

"The governor has been on time. The governor put his budget out in January, revised that budget in May. He has done his job, and then for whatever reason Senator Steinberg and the legislature have once again not done their job and failed to produce a budget," McLear said.

KCBS political analyst Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University, said the governor could be trying to use the trip for leverage.

"Is this enough in itself to get the Democrats and Republicans to a point where they're willing to go ahead, hold their noses and put something on the governor's desk? I think they may well do it before September 9th, but I'm not sure it's going to be because of this issue," he said.

Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg tells the Sacramento Bee the trip is a positive sign that the governor thinks a deal can be struck before he goes on vacation.