Free Republic

>Nebraska State Senator DiAnna Schimek's 20-year legislative career is nearly over. She feels victimized, no doubt, by the voter-enacted term limits that make this her final year in power. Still, Senator Schimek hopes to go out with her boots on, firing one final shotgun blast to maim or kill the initiative process she has long abhorred. You see, it was only through the voter initiative that Nebraskans passed term limits . . . three times. Yup. It took three petition drives and three votes of the people. Of course, term limits passed overwhelmingly each time. But a charmed third initiative...

Fourth in a series of 10 columns ... (snip) As he took office, the state faced a huge repayment of short-term budget deficit loans in June 2004 that it didn't have the money to make. The proposed solution was stretching out repayment through a $15 billion debt refinancing bond - much like a family's taking out a new home mortgage to cover crushing credit card bills - but it would require voter approval at the March 2004 primary election, so time was short, and Republicans were demanding a tough state spending limit. Initially, Schwarzenegger backed the strict limit, but Democrats...

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, Republicans were hopeful he would restore the credibility of their party. Since Pete Wilson's reelection in 1994, the party had been in steady decline for nearly a decade-losing every single statewide office, and mired hopelessly in the minority in both legislative houses. Schwarzenegger built early momentum during his first year in office. But after the November 2004 election, Schwarzenegger and his advisors hatched an ambitious agenda, which would be laid out in the State of the State address in January 2005. The agenda would amount to a declaration of political war on many...

The scene may seem familiar to Californians: a Republican governor warning that fiscal meltdown is imminent unless voters approve new rules on how much money the state can spend each year. But Colorado Gov. Bill Owens isn't looking for the kind of budget cap that California Republicans want voters to approve next month. That was imposed 13 years ago. Now he is pleading with voters to lift it. The problem: Colorado's spending controls appear to have worked too well. Now some of the most strident fiscal conservatives in Colorado — long viewed as a model for others considering such restraints...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implored California's mayors Thursday to support Proposition 76, a ballot measure intended to stabilize state finances and end deficit spending. He warned that if the measure fails to pass during the Nov. 8 special election, state lawmakers would likely raid local treasuries for funds to close the state's persistent budget gap. "I've already been informed in Sacramento that that's the very money they're going to go after next year if they don't have money," Schwarzenegger told several hundred officials at the annual conference of the League of California Cities. "Remember, they can. The...

Former Silicon Valley Rep. Tom Campbell brought the fight over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives to San Jose on Wednesday, warning members of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce that new taxes are "highly likely" if a proposal to curb government spending is not passed by voters in the Nov. 8 special election. Last week Campbell announced he was taking an unpaid two-month leave from his job as the state finance director to campaign for Proposition 76, a proposed state spending cap. "This is the most important thing I can do for our state," Campbell said at a round-table discussion...

SACRAMENTO – The politically potent T-word "taxes" is being used by both sides in the debate over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's main ballot measure in his special election Nov. 8. Analyses of Proposition 76 dryly talk about a limit on state spending, new power for the governor to make mid-year cuts if the Legislature fails to keep the budget in balance, and a change in the school-funding guarantee. In early television ads for his initiative, and in campaign events, the governor is hitting a hot-button issue: A spending limit is needed to prevent out-of-control spending by the Legislature from forcing a...

The cap on state spending that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants voters to pass in November is emerging as a centerpiece of a nationwide strategy by influential conservatives to slash government spending in state capitals across the country. Although the authors of the California proposal say they were not influenced by out-of-state groups, a loose affiliation of ideologically conservative organizations are hoping that the proposed California "Live Within Our Means Act" will help fuel a national taxpayer revolt they are working to coordinate in more than two dozen other states. "This is the next big thing at the state level," said...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants a key provision in his spending-limit initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot to be part of an agreement on a new state budget, deepening a deadlock as the new fiscal year begins tomorrow. The governor is pushing for the power to make midyear cuts when the budget falls out of balance if the Legislature does not act to close the gap. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said that a new budget proposed by Democratic legislators, which Republicans are expected to block in votes in the Senate and Assembly today, will result in wider budget gaps....

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled his "Year of Reform" special election from his populist playbook, predicting that California voters will support his agenda because they want change in the way state government operates. Yet several of the measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, including two of Schwarzenegger's, have that "been there, done that" feeling. The election lineup includes at least three initiatives that are similar to ones California voters have rejected in the past, suggesting the governor could have a difficult selling job in the months ahead. In elections dating to the 1970s, voters have rejected variations of...

The following initiatives are likely to be on the ballot Nov. 8 if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls a special election by Monday, as he said he would. Five already have qualified. Others are awaiting verification by the Secretary of State's Office. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing three initiatives(all qualified for ballot): TEACHER TENURE: CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS: STATE SPENDING CAP: Other initiatives: PARENTAL PERMISSION FOR ABORTION: (Q) PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNION DUES: (Q) PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISCOUNTS (by D)(pending) PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISCOUNTS: (other) (pending)ELECTRIC SERVICE PROVIDERS: (pending)

Too bad there’s never an egg timer around when you need one. Arnold Schwarzenegger cooked his political future some more this week, recklessly endorsing the anti-illegal-immigrant Minuteman Project vigilantes and helplessly watching as a public poll showed him losing a third of his popularity in three months. Maria Shriver was on the warpath about her husband’s downward spiral, urging wholesale firings at the top of Team Arnold and consulting such unlikely counselors about saving her husband’s career as Dick Morris, the Republican who engineered Bill Clinton’s revival before becoming Fox’s favorite Clinton hater. The wily Morris made his national reputation...

Early last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recruited Democrats for a bipartisan campaign for twin ballot measures he called vital to restoring the state's fiscal health. In a Sacramento Bee commentary he co-wrote in February 2004 with Democratic state Controller Steve Westly, he said Propositions 57 and 58 would "make sure we would never face another deficit crisis." "Under Proposition 58, California would have to live within its means," Schwarzenegger said. This year, as California again faces a multibillion-dollar deficit, the governor has proposed asking voters to approve another new measure - one titled the "Live Within Our Means Act." He...

SACRAMENTO - Elected in part to clean up California's finances, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger quickly sold voters on a balanced budget proposition that would shred the state's "credit card" and make sure the state "never again" outspent its income. Thirteen months after voters approved it, and a companion $15 billion bond, the Republican governor is staking his political fortunes on a sequel measure that would restrict state spending and give the governor sweeping new budgetary powers. The governor's supporters say it will finally fix a broken budget process that helped drive Gray Davis from office. Democrats and their union allies call...

SACRAMENTO -- A high-powered committee formed to bankroll ballot initiatives to implement Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger's reform agenda announced Wednesday it has decided not to fund a political redistricting measure sought by the governor. In addition, after weeks of intense internal debate, Citizens to Save California has settled on the budget-reform proposal it will back. It chose the version with the least restrictive limit on future state spending, but one that would significantly undercut the constitutional guarantee of specified annual increases in funding for public schools. Committee co-chairman Joel Fox said the time is right to move forward with the four...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday backed a ballot initiative that would require fewer spending cuts than the reform measure he proposed during his State of the State speech in January - an apparent softening of his views on a key element of his reform agenda. The "California Live Within Our Means Act," drafted by members of a business-backed political committee, would let the state budget increase in line with past revenue growth. Though billed as a solution to California's chronic overspending, the measure's formulas, if enacted a decade ago, would have let lawmakers spend more than they actually...

Arnold Schwarzenegger wants some kind of spending limit for state government to prevent future budget crises, but he is learning that translating desire into action is infinitely complicated. As Schwarzenegger began his governorship 15 months ago, he denounced legislators as "spending addicts" and pledged to lead a ballot measure campaign for a tough spending limit. Schwarzenegger, however, soon backed away from that threat and agreed to a much-weaker ballot measure, written by Democratic legislative leaders, which merely declared state policy to balance the budget, and then oversold it to voters as something that would "cut up the credit cards" and...

This is a new political environment. This is the first time California has had an Austrian-born Mr. Universe as governor.-- Arnold Schwarzenegger, November 17, 2003 When Arnold Schwarzenegger came calling on Halloween night -- appropriately, my kids were out trick-or-treating in Terminator costumes -- to ask if I would serve on his budget-audit committee, I already knew that California's budget situation was a horrible mess. But I had no idea just how gloomy the fiscal outlook really was. After countless hours combing through the budget with star budget director Donna Arduin, we realized that the state faces roughly $15...

Schwarzenegger Caves on Spending Limit Written By: Michael New Published In: Budget & Tax News Publication Date: February 1, 2004 Publisher: The Heartland Institute Michael New is an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger abandoned a core campaign promise in mid-December when he signed a fiscal-reform package that did not include a constitutional spending limit. The plan includes a bond to cover the state’s current budget deficit, but replaces the spending limit with a provision that merely strengthens California’s existing balanced budget amendment. The governor’s package cleared both chambers of the state legislature by wide margins...

<p>Gov. Schwarzenegger and his team have done yeoman's work on the budget. But in simply trying to slow the growth of spending, they have been caught in the "liberal flack" budget trap. Has anybody else noticed how much of every newscast is devoted to stories of the "taking wheelchairs from invalids" variety? In his effort to merely halt spending increases, not actually cut spending, the governor is tarred as Simon Legree.</p>

<p>Rescue California, the campaign committee funded by Rep. Darrell Issa to gather signatures for last year’s recall campaign, has morphed into “Rescue California… from budget deficits” and will sponsor a spending limit initiative that it hopes to place on the November ballot. The measure is largely patterned after a limit authored by Assemblyman John Campbell and Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and offered as the most conservative alternative during December’s debate over spending limits and reserve requirements. It would cap spending growth at the rate of population growth and inflation, with half of any revenue above that amount going toward an accelerated repayment of Schwarzenegger’s $15 billion bond, if that passes in March. The other half would go to a new budget reserve that could reach 10 percent of the general fund. Excess monies after that would be split between school construction and sales tax reductions.</p>

<p>The Terminator, who stormed into Sacramento vowing to throw out the rascals who broke California, has met his match. She looks like his wife.</p> <p>The deal that put a $15 billion bond issue on the ballot as the solution to the state's money mess may be the cure for what ails California. Or it may just be more of the hair of the ravenous dog that threatens to eat the nation's largest state. Whatever. Maria Shriver's getting the credit is all the buzz.</p>

<p>The outcome suggests that Schwarzenegger is not as good a negotiator as he thinks he is, or at least those skills weren't evident in this round. He was smart to demand more than he needed and then scale back from there. And he was smart to abandon the concept of a formula-driven spending cap. But in the end, he swung too far in the other direction. This looks as if his only bottom line was ending the negotiations with a deal, any deal. And now, to make it worse, he has begun to try to sell this package as more than it is. He should just admit the truth: this is the best he could get from the Democrats. It's a harmless first step but not nearly enough to achieve the goal he set for himself and the state. More work will have to be done.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO – With just hours left for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to agree to his budget-balancing proposal so it can be placed on the March ballot, the two sides seemed no closer to reaching agreement late Tuesday.</p> <p>In a potentially costly blow to the state, Moody's Investors Service took California's bond rating another step closer to junk bond status, noting the state's deficit will balloon by $7.5 billion this year as a result of the car tax reduction if no other steps are taken.</p>

<p>As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pushes a plan to put before voters two initiatives - a $15 billion bond and a spending cap - to fix the state's budget crisis, the state's Democrats are showing they have yet to understand the clear message of California voters: No new taxes. Had the public wanted tax increases to fix a problem caused by overspending, they would have voted differently in October.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif.--For the past five years, California government has spent $23 billion more than it has taken in. Over the past five years, while revenues have increased by 25%, state expenditures have risen by 43%. If government had simply spent at the same rate that California's economy has grown, the state's budget would be balanced today. Instead of resolving imbalances, the previous administration and the Legislature chose to borrow $25 billion from future state budgets in order to create or expand programs that the state couldn't afford. In health and human services alone, significant program expansions have totaled $1.3 billion.</p>

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked legislators Tuesday to approve a constitutional cap on state spending that would greatly expand the governor's power over the budget and eliminate the long-standing guarantee that roughly half of all new state revenue go to public schools and community colleges. The cap — which would be imposed next fiscal year if placed on the March ballot and approved by voters as a constitutional amendment — drew sharp criticism from educators and lawmakers who fear it would gradually restrict the flow of money to school programs.

Some of the most fiscally conservative advisors to Schwarzenegger say there may not be any other options if Schwarzenegger intends to keep his promise not to raise taxes and to rescind the recent increase in the state's vehicle license fee. "You are probably going to need to have this kind of borrowing package," said Carl DeMaio of the Reason Foundation, which is advising Schwarzenegger on the budget. "Otherwise you are talking about massive cuts in services." Joel Fox, a Schwarzenegger campaign advisor and the former president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said: "You're looking at a lesser of two...

Under one version, which Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine) has proposed, surplus revenue collected during good economic times would go into a rainy-day fund that could be used to support state programs during downturns. That approach might require changes in the current state requirement that roughly 40% of all new state revenues go to public schools, although Campbell said the cap could be put in place without violating that rule. Campbell, who compared the rainy-day account to programs that withhold money from an employee's paycheck for retirement, said that Schwarzenegger is "in support of the concept" but that details are still...