Huge cuts in welfare spending are being proposed in California as the state struggles with a budget deficit of $US19 billion.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state had no choice but to eliminate spending programmes that help more than one million poor people.
Democrats will not agree to a budget that protects tax breaks for business at the expense of the unemployed. Some social programmes have already been cut.
Governor Schwarzenegger said California had no choice: tax revenues last month were $US3 billion lower than hoped and unemployment is above the US average.
California is the world's eighth largest economy. The state constitution requires its budget to be approved by a two-thirds majority of lawmakers.
