On Tuesday, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's warned that California's state leaders might attempt "to use gimmicks to pass a state budget this year," the "kind of habitual budget trickery" Gov. Brown "vowed would not happen on his watch," according a Ventura County Star editorial. In response to the report, Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D) said lawmakers "are prepared to make the tough decisions required to balance a credible budget on time." However, "Both S&P and recent history suggest that the nation's highest-paid state legislators aren't up to the challenge," the editorial concludes.