From the Mercury News:
Inthe end, Democrats blinked — as much for lack of sleep as the starkrealization that, by further stalling on the state budget, Californiawould blow up before their weary eyes.
The agreement they reachedwith Republican holdout Sen. Abel Maldonado before dawn Thursday wasprobably as good as anyone could hope, given the unyielding requirementfor passage by a two-thirds majority. The budget for the next 17 monthswill be balanced by spreading the hardship of reduced services andhigher taxes fairly evenly, with notable exceptions, starting with theevisceration of public transit funding. There will be a few budgetreforms, including more public-private building projects. And atMaldonado's insistence, there's an unexpected opportunity for truepolitical reform: Californians will decide in June 2010 whether toswitch to an open system of primary elections that will allow voters tochoose whatever candidates they want, regardless of party affiliation.The two top vote getters would face a runoff.
Political partieshate open primaries, for they will loosen their grip on the Legislaturewhile producing more pragmatic and independent legislators. So they andtheir supporters — unions allied with Democrats, anti-tax groups behindRepublicans — will campaign against the plan. The past four months ofbrinkmanship at the Capitol, with furloughs and a precipitous drop inCalifornia's credit rating, prove the case for reform.