Dan Walters: Schwarzenegger may have given up on balancing state's budget

Sacramento Bee ^ | January 11, 2006 | Dan Walters

[calcowgirl]

Six years after former Gov. Gray Davis and state legislators created chronic budget deficits by squandering a one-time revenue windfall, and nearly three years after voters dumped Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to fix the state's tortured finances, the budget is still out of whack. And as spending climbs, it may ooze red ink indefinitely.

As Schwarzenegger on Tuesday proposed a $125.6 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, he described it as continuing the state "on a path toward fiscal responsibility and economic recovery." But he was wrong on both counts.

The budget, if adopted as proposed, would widen the deficit for still another year, and the state's economy is already humming along quite powerfully - and that's why continuing deficits are so troublesome. If politicians can't balance the budget during a year of record employment and personal income, how could they hope to do so when the inevitable economic downturn occurs?

Inferentially, balancing the budget has become a much lower priority for Schwarzenegger as he expands spending to make peace with a Democrat-controlled Legislature that always wants more, and as he proposes billions of dollars in new public works projects to regain traction with voters, even as he pays lip service to fiscal responsibility. "We must not forget we still have a structural deficit," Schwarzenegger said as he introduced the budget to reporters, adding, "We still have the spending ... no matter how much money we make. ..."

The Republican governor even acknowledged that he could have balanced the budget this year had he not decided to boost school spending sharply in a tacit acknowledgment that the powerful, union-led "Education Coalition" won ...

[goldstategop]

Not going to happen. Hey, we'll just borrow some more money. Its free, right? ;-)

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")