The Budget: July 2007 Archives

Much has been made of the fact that today, July 30th is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 60th birthday and wouldn't it be a great present if the Reps. would come together, sing Happy Birthday and Kumbaya and give the state a budget and move on with the other important business at hand.

Such thinking is sweet, but as far from reality as one can get in Sacramento, where reality is usually cast by political consultants and clever media-spinners. No, the Gov. can't rely on his flock for support---or likely even a birthday card. So much for the much ballyhooed smoking tent, late night schnaps and heavily testosteroned bantering in the beautiful outdoors of the "horseshoe" in the Capitol. Must be pretty quiet these days as former Senate Democratic leader and first-buddy to the Gov.John Burton is long gone and any sense of Republican comraderie with the Gov. has taken a similar route.

Nope, there's no fun today in Mudville for this Governor. Of course, he doesn't much mind. After all, he's had his mug all over national and international newspapers and magazines, been meeting with the heads of state, the UN leadership and NYC's own number one honcho, possible presidential candidate Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He's also been seen at the Capitol gym while budget negotiations have been taking place, photographed down in Miami raising over $1.5 Million last week on a jaunt to that city a couple thousand miles away from our shores. This and several other long-distance photo-ops have demonstrated a less than a total commitment to getting a budget passed here in the place Schwarzenegger is actually authorized to oversee and govern.

From The Courage Campaign

Over the weekend, California Republican Senators were given some homework – since they couldn’t stop voting “No” on a compromise budget plan approved by Democrats and Republicans in the Assembly, the Senate Republicans had to come up with their own budget plan.  In a lucky coincidence, President Bush had a colonoscopy on Monday, and doctors apparently found the Republican budget plan lodged somewhere in the First Colon.

How else can we explain where this GOP budget came from?  The Republican proposal would leave tens of thousands of poor people to die, would end several environmental protection laws (??), and would close down several University of California institutes.  And that’s just what they made public.  Apparently there’s even more draconian and unnecessary spending cuts they’re holding back for some reason.  Maybe the rest of the spending cuts are still stuck up Bush’s… colon.

OK, all kidding aside -- I don’t want to be accused of just slinging mud, so let’s take a closer look at the main parts of the GOP budget proposal.

All eyes will be on the California Senate Wednesday as they are back from a few days hiatus while the Republicans have been challenged to put up a budget of their own. With a put-up-or-shut-up challenge by President Pro Tem of the Senate, Don Perata, the Reps were sent back to the drawing board to propose their own budget after they refused, en masse, to approve the deal the Assembly had passed with bipartisan support, and lobbed over to the Senior Chamber last week.

So what can we expect will happen? The deal that was struck by both sides in the Assembly has been narrowed down as follows: (For other Speak Out California stories on this, scroll down to the Budget section under "Archives" part-way down on the left-hand side of the page)

We've been counting down(or should I say up) the days since the State's budget was due. It really doesn't matter whether you start from June 15th or July 1st because it rarely comes in on time, regardless of the date you pick. While it is always easiest for the public to focus on the simple fact that the budget is late rather than why, it's about time we looked at the why so maybe we can start fixing the fundamental problems that make this yearly exercise so exercising to the public.

Unlike the almost whimsical reports of spay/neuter issues that have aroused the extraordinary passions on both sides of that issue,(will Lassie or Bob Barker from the Price is Right prevail?) it's hard to get people to focus on the more mundane aspects of why we have this annual food-fight when it comes to getting our financial house in order. Let's start with the fundamental problem that exists in California and those two other large and complex states--Rhode Island and Alabama: It requires two-thirds of the legislature to approve a budget. Until one of the two parties in this state grows big enough to take over 2/3's of each of the legislative houses, this will continue to be the fundamental roadblock to an on-time budget.