Features

SACRAMENTO — The state budget cleared its final legislative hurdle Monday night, more than three weeks after it was supposed to take effect. 

The Assembly approved a batch of bills required to enact the estimated $101 billion spending plan. It now goes to Gov. Gray Davis, who has said he will to make an expected $600 million more in cuts and sign the budget into law. 

The vote capped intense partisan standoffs and negotiations among Democrat Davis, the Legislature’s majority Democrats and minority Republicans. The budget was supposed to go into effect July 1. 

Republicans held back their votes for weeks, saying they objected to a quarter-cent sales tax increase that is automatically triggered if the state’s reserves dipped too low. 

In the Assembly, four Republicans finally broke ranks early last week, won over by projects for their districts and nearly $80 million in tax breaks for farmers and grants for rural police. 

But Assembly members, who approved the main budget bill a week ago, failed to collect the necessary votes for the accompanying legislation until Monday. 

The Monday vote followed a marathon weekend session during which state Senators approved the budget and the bills to implement it and adjourned for their summer recess. The Senate version of the budget and the legislation approved by the Assembly approved Monday included several compromises. 

They include: 

— Relaxing the required reserve level for the quarter-cent sales tax cut to take effect. Under current state law, the cut kicks in if in back-to-back years the state’s reserve fund bulges above 4 percent of the budget. Under the new measure, the cut kicks in if the reserves rise above 3 percent for one year. 

— Asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment dedicating gasoline sales tax revenues to transit and transportation projects beginning in the 2003-04 budget year. 

— Tax credits for farmers and senior citizens. 

— $40 million in school funds to balance what many call unfair school funding formulas.