Posted on 01/04/2010 7:42:35 AM PST by SmithL
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made it sound easy to fix California when he first ran for governor, but his last six years have proved otherwise.
He took office in 2003 on a promise to "end the crazy deficit spending" and change state government as we knew it.
As Schwarzenegger enters his final year in office, however, California faces massive fiscal problems, while advocates of government reform say a constitutional convention, not an ambitious chief executive, is the best cure for the state's woes.
"Schwarzenegger swept in on this wave of 'I'm going to clean office and be the reformer governor' rhetoric we haven't heard since Hiram Johnson," said Jessica Levinson, director of political reform at the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. "In many ways, I think he has failed to deliver."
The Republican governor still believes he can finish the job he promised in his final year. He wants long-term changes to the state's tax structure to end wild budget swings. He hopes to create a stronger rainy-day reserve. He will advocate for a "top-two" primary ballot measure that theoretically would lead to elected officials more open to compromise.
Schwarzenegger will ask voters to pass an $11 billion water bond. And he is considering ways to reduce California pension benefits for new public employees, hoping to reduce the state's long-term obligations.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
"In many ways, I think he has failed to deliver."Gee, ya reckon?
Does Arnold go back to “acting” at the end of the year, or does he have other political aspirations, such as the U.S. Senate?
“Schwarzenegger sets the bar high for his last year in office.”
Good, I hope it hangs the Rhino!
LOL, I really don’t think he has a snowball’s chance to getting a Senate seat now that people have taken him for a test drive.
I think it basically shows that partisan ship undermines any level of reform, state or federal. No one can cut run away spending. Everyone wants their sacred cow.
As I see it, the only hope for true reform is through term limits. GEt these lazy long term bastar*s out of office.
Put people in gov’t who will cut govt waste and spending.
If he sets it high enough, he can limbo under it...
The bond requires pay back and that just removes debt service monies from discretionary funding. We need a balanced budget amendment to impose spending limits on the legislature so that they cannot spend more than they take in. We also need to repeal that proposition allocating a set amount to schools.
A high bar is easy to limbo under, hard to jump over. I don’t look for Arnold to set high-jump records in government during his last year.
Ole Smokie
Ahnold had the opportunity to do things the right way, but unfortunately it would appear that his WIFE wound up actually running things and we all know how astute those Kennedy family types are when it comes to REAL governing!
I predicted 7 years ago on FR that this Austrian Socialist would be a fiasco, and he hasn’t let me down.
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