Two developments this morning on the health care front… Democrats will not put Governor Schwarzenegger’s health care proposal up for a vote in the Assembly, and another business group joins the call for a sales tax increase to pay for health care reform.

First, the non-vote. After several days of telling reporters the Schwarzenegger plan would be written in bill form and put up for a vote, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has changed his mind.

“We are talking and making progress,” said Nunez spokesman Steve Maviglio in an email. However, Maviglio says Democrats will put the governor’s plan up for a floor vote if those negotiations don’t continue to make progress.

The Speaker has been telling reporters that the point of putting the governor’s plan up for a full vote in the Assembly was to prove to Schwarzenegger that it’s not politically viable; the proposal — never before introduced in the Legislature — has been scored as a tax increase by legislative lawyers and would need GOP votes to pass… votes that aren’t there.

Meanwhile, in the wake of yesterday’s announcement, add another business interest group to the call for a sales tax increase to pay for health care reform.

The California Retailers Association says it’s joining forces with the California Restaurant Association and the California Small Business Association in supporting the idea of a one penny hike in the state sales tax, which some analysts suggest could bring in enough money to make a major dent in the cost of health care reform.

The retailers, like the restaurant and small business folks, all prefer a sales tax increase to the assessment that would be levied on employers under the Democratic health care plan and the governor’s own proposal.

“We need to find stable and equitable funding sources,” said CRA president Bill Dumbrowski in a written statement.