Cassandra Schwarzenegger: I Told You So
The message of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s press conference this afternoon to introduce his revised May budget?
I told you so.
Schwarzenegger mentioned that the budget was bad but focused mostly on
his argument that things might have been better if legislators had
adopted his fiscal proposals over his seven years in office.
He
talked about budget reform and a real rainy day fund: "I have proposed
that so many times," he lamented. "I have begged." He claimed a
previous rainy day proposal of his would have created a $12 billion
reserve, which he said could have been spent over four years to prevent
university tuition increases and teacher layoffs.
An Unworthy Budget That May Advance Two Worthy Goals
It’s guaranteed. No one is going to like Gov. Schwarzenegger’s revised budget when it’s released today, not even Gov. Schwarzenegger.
According to advance reports, it’s likely to eliminate key health and human services programs and make deeper cuts than are wise, given the recession. It’s a budget unworthy of California.
But such a budget could be very useful to California. In fact, the nastier and meaner it is, the better it may be for California. How’s that? Because the state is so stuck in an endless cycle of budget deficits, cuts and accounting gimmicks that an embarrassingly awful budget proposal may serve two goals.
Tax Increases Then and Now
The Governor
announces his May Revision of the budget today. Early indications are
that the Governor will hold the line on tax increases and instead
propose a budget heavy on expenditure cuts and other non-revenue
solutions.
The Governor has probably learned that raising taxes during a recession is tricky business.
The hard fought and politically-damaging battle to increase taxes in
February of 2009 has been the equivalent of dumping rip-rap into a
burst levy – for every ton that’s dumped in, hundreds of pounds wash
away.
Should the L.A. City Council Tell the Lakers Not to Play in Phoenix?
I’m trying to determine what the Los Angeles City Council actually did with their move to boycott Arizona over that state’s immigration law. From reports, it seems like there are a number of loopholes in the L.A. resolution.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the "resolution would still allow city officials to travel to Arizona under "special circumstances" that are in the city’s interests. Also, existing contracts with Arizona firms would be exempt from the ban if canceling them would lead to "significant additional cost" to the city.
You can read this as: We will punish you unless it hurts us, then forget about it.
Make Reform Part Of Budget Talks
Another difficult budget season is upon California. The results will be
painful. The real question is, will we have anything to show for it?
We want the answer to be yes. That’s why, in a letter to the state’s
legislative leaders, we called on them to address the long-neglected
need for lasting and fundamental budget reform as part of this year’s
negotiations over the state budget.
For the last two months, leaders from both parties have devoted both
time and energy to thoughtfully examining the non-partisan proposals
California Forward has offered to reform our state’s spending
practices.