Creating a state-run health care system for all Californians will be a high legislative priority this year, the state’s top lawmaker said on Wednesday in a challenge to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“The burden of proof really will fall to those who want to defend the existing system,” said Don Perata, the state Senate’s president pro tem and its highest-ranking Democrat.

The Republican governor has proposed another lean state budget and partially privatizing state pension funds including Calpers, the No. 1 U.S. pension fund.

Analysts say they expect the divergent positions to trigger contentious debates.

“This is not going to be the year of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in California,” said Larry Gerston, a political scientist at San Jose State University.

The partisan divide will widen even more if the bill for a state-run health care system - covering some 30 million people including 4.7 million uninsured Californians - spills into the broader issue of the state’s shaky finances.

“Everybody in California wants better health coverage, but everybody in California knows that the state’s cupboard is bare,” said Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

To support her bill for a state-run health care program, Democratic state Sen. Sheila Kuehl unveiled a study that said such a system would cut California’s health spending by $8 billion in its first year.

Less bureaucracy and buying drugs and medical gear in bulk would offset $17.1 billion in new spending with $25 billion in savings, according to the Lewin Group study.

The analysis firm estimated health spending in California will total about $184.2 billion next year, compared with an estimated $166.8 billion under Kuehl’s bill.

“It includes virtually everything except long-term care,” Kuehl told Reuters of the system her bill proposes.

To support such a system, California would require $94.6 billion in new taxes to replace existing premiums paid by employers and individuals, the Lewin Group said.

“I’m sort of surprised that they’re pressing that in light of the governor’s position and in light of the last election,” Republican state Sen. Dick Ackerman said.

He was referring to Schwarzenegger’s vow not to raise taxes and the defeat of a statewide measure in November that would have required employers to provide employees with health care coverage.