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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Once arrested, a terrorist suspect should be interrogated for
information regarding any imminent terrorist attacks. That is the top
priority. It is critical not to give such suspects the chance to delay
answering questions while waiting for a court-appointed attorney.
Reminding the terrorist suspect that he or she has the right to remain
silent can only increase the possibility that the terrorist suspect
will remain silent. It is completely contrary to our country’s
immediate interest in preventing the loss of innocent life from more
terrorist attacks.  

It was, therefore, amazing to hear Carly Fiorina and Chuck Devore in
the recent League of Women Voters’ debate both announce that terrorist
suspects who were American citizens should be given Miranda warnings
before any questioning. Such a view is tremendously short-sighted and
reflects a lack of knowledge of US Constitutional law.

Emerging from the deepest recession since the 1930s has been especially difficult for Southern California and the state as a whole.  California’s unemployment rate remains at record high levels – higher than 46 other states.

Small businesses, which provide more than half of private sector jobs, have experienced an 81% increase in bankruptcies.  The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranked California one of the nation’s worst public policy climates for small business and entrepreneurship.

In short: Almost every state is more hospitable to business and has a lower unemployment rate than California.  

The California Chamber of Commerce is at the forefront of a broad,
non-partisan effort to rehabilitate the state’s image and improve the
climate for investment and job creation.

California will eventually
enjoy an economic recovery, but the strength and depth of our rebound –
and the fiscal health of state and local governments – will depend upon
making the state more competitive for job creation, new business
formation and new capital investment.

The five pillars of economic recovery are:

The recent news from the state’s Finance Department about our population growth seemed reassuring enough.

The
city of Los Angeles added an estimated 44,000 residents last year,
bringing the population on Jan. 1 to almost 4,095,000, the department
said April 29.

Likewise, California gained residents, pushing the total population to an estimated 38.6 million.