Workers’ Comp Executive has confirmed that the final budget deal hashed out last night by the 'Big 5' includes the controversial plan to book $1 billion in savings by selling a portion of the State Compensation Insurance Fund's book of business. Legislative sources also confirm that the proposed language is virtually unchanged from when it was first proposed, which means that Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and the Attorney General Jerry Brown would be excluded from the process.

Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) emerged from the governor’s office happy that they had agreed on a framework for a state budget that will close the $26 billion budget gap. This framework contains the revenue solutions from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May revise, including the proposal to sell a portion of SCIF.

Bass and Steinberg waxed eloquent on sacrifice and hard work, but did not provide details of the deal. This was left to staffers who spoke on background. Even there details were sketchy, but they didn’t “believe” the SCIF language has been changed.

The SCIF sale measure is not without controversy. SCIF’s board of directors voted unanimously at its board meeting two weeks ago to oppose the sale of any of its assets. This will make things difficult for the governor seeing as how the previously released draft language requires the concurrence of the board (see The $1 Billion Lie…).

The governor’s office did not return calls in time to confirm whether the language legislators will be considering this week regarding the SCIF sale is set in stone.

Legislative staffers will now begin the process of writing final trailer bill language to implement the draft budget provisions. A vote on the policy measures is expected on Thursday.

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