Posted on 01/07/2008 6:36:34 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Faced with a huge budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is having to scale back his ambitions this year and will be forced to resurrect old ideas during Tuesday's State of the State address.
Aides say he plans to renew his push for health care reform, while making a plea for budget reforms he has tried twice before but failed to achieve.
The governor's strategists hope the Democrats' alliance with Schwarzenegger late last year over a plan to expand health coverage to millions of uninsured Californians will prevent them from launching an all-out war over the deep budget cuts he is planning to lay out on Thursday.
But even the Democratic interest groups with a big stake in health reform aren't sounding docile. They say they will not abandon their defense of current programs for the promise of future reform.
"We're going to fight him," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a union-backed group that has been involved in the health reform debate and that also takes the lead in fighting cuts to state health programs. "We believe we can walk and chew gum at the same time."
Democrats in the state Assembly compromised with the governor to pass a health reform bill in December that they say does not need money from the state's general fund.
But the Democratic leader in the Senate refused to vote on it before receiving an analysis from the state's nonpartisan analyst on how it might affect future budgets. He also wants to see the extent of Schwarzenegger's budget cuts.
At the dawn of his fifth year in office, Schwarzenegger is staring backward into the future, facing the same chronic budget problems that upended the term of his predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis.
The budget deficit is projected to reach $14 billion by July of 2009. That is only a few billion dollars less that what Schwarzenegger inherited when he assumed office in 2003.
Schwarzenegger's inability to resolve the imbalance between what the state takes in and what it spends has forced him to diminish his appetite for bold ideas that cost money.
He has all but dropped plans to make major education reforms this year because of the state's budget problems. Instead, he appears likely to propose cutting education, which is by far the largest piece of the state budget.
"For Gov. Schwarzenegger, the budget is his priority this year - getting through the current budget and addressing the systemic problems in the California budget," said his communications director, Adam Mendelsohn.
Schwarzenegger also is suffering from a case of bad timing. He will be laying out his plan for the coming year just hours before results pour in from the eagerly awaited New Hampshire presidential primary.
The governor has tried budget reform before.
When he first took office, he asked the Legislature to adopt a spending cap. When that failed, he pushed a ballot measure in 2005 to adopt a cap and give him midyear budget-cutting authority. But voters rejected that, too.
This year, according to aides, the governor will seek the authority to enact midyear cuts in bad times, while banking surpluses in good years.
Democrats are calling for tax increases to be part of the solution to the budget gap.
"That's going to have to be part of the discussion," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said Tuesday, while rejecting what he termed "robocuts."
He said the state and the governor were facing a fiscal reckoning.
"This is a day I know he hoped would never come," Perata said.
Schwarzenegger's aides say he remains opposed to tax increases and instead will propose balancing next year's budget with across-the-board cuts.
But even if the governor does win the authority to make midyear cuts, it would not likely come in time to address the current deficit, which is estimated at nearly $2 billion in the fiscal year that will end June 30.
Schwarzenegger will formally declare a fiscal emergency this week to force the Legislature to find a way of dealing with that. Lawmakers must act within 45 days after Schwarzenegger delivers his proposed fixes, which he is expected to do Thursday after releasing his proposed 2008-09 spending plan.
Schwarzenegger hopes GOP lawmakers, who have been alienated by his positions on the environment and health care, will come to his aid on the budget.
Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines said Monday that given the volatility of state funding, the governor should have the authority to make midyear cuts and stash away money in good times.
"We see this all the time," said Villines, R-Clovis. "We go up, and we go down. We should balance that out."
But program cuts are the sort of thing that drive well-funded interest groups to take to the airwaves and denounce the governor. And if Schwarzenegger takes his budget reform ideas to the ballot, he may face stiff resistance.
"If there is an effort to try to cut public education, the reaction of the education community will not be unlike 2005," said Kevin Gordon, president and chief executive of School Innovations and Advocacy, an education lobbying group. "I just hope we don't have to relive 2005 again. But I think there's some chance that that's on the horizon."
isn’t this where
we entered this class b movie?
Strange huh?
We saved your old seat for you btw, right next to the exit.
if this state would elect tom mcclintock,
this problem would go away.
We’d need to kick quite a few dems out of office too.. but at least he would then have the upper hand on proposing the budget, refining it and vetoing as necessary.
The Governor can, and should, simply discard the arbitration of Prop 187 and appeal it to the Supreme Court.
And start to enforce the provisions currently that were never in contention, but which have never been enforced.
If 187 is found Constitutional by the SCOTUS, he instantly loses about $6 billion in problems, but probably double or triple that if the illegals pack up and head on.
All he has to do is restore democracy in California, and he ends up a winner.
Excellent point but probably lost on most. Unfortunately, our colorful and unique AG, Moonbeam, probably wouldn't cooperate.
Just read that CA has unfunded liabilities of 180 BILLION dollars. This resultant debt is a forgone conclusion when Public Employee Unions demand and their gov’t allies deliver. Reality is such an ugly thing.
I find this hard to believe. Just a couple of months ago Arnold was saying how ‘fontastic’ everything was.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The Democrats won’t get the blame. “Ahhhnold” (and through him, the Republicans) will get the blame.
Not that this will bother the Governator much.
Morally, he needs to do whatever he can to deal with the issue then let the Democrats override him. At least then, they might get some of the blame.
Naturally, the Democrat "solution" is to confiscate even more money from productive citizens. Guess we'll find out if the Republican firewall can withstand another onslaught by the rats. It will also be interesting to see if Arnold finally breaks down.
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