Governor Schwarzenegger is framing California’s budget crisis ($15 BILLION and growing) as a spending problem. In conjunction with the release of his draft budget on January 10, he is calling a special session of the legislature (under the auspices of a “state of fiscal emergency”) where he will introduce cuts to deal with the growing funding gap problem for the current fiscal year.
If you go back to before Gray Davis was recalled, and Arnold Schwarzenegger rose from his ashes (hiring much of Davis’ staff in the process), Republican legislators have been decrying the steady and rapid increase in state spending that has occured in budget after budget after budget. As such, GOP legislators are resolute that California taxpayers not pay the price for the Democrat-led fiscal insanity.
That said, you watch the liberal Democrats scramble and scream at any proposed cuts in spending. As for me, it may sound simplistic, but why don’t we just adopt the budget of five years ago, and acknowledge that our spending increases since then were, in retrospect, unaffordable and unsustainable!
In the meantime, I guess we’ll offer “limited” praise for the Governor, and his approach to this shortfall. That said, it is totally irresponsible to be pushing massive tax increases and an expanded role for state government when we are so far in the red…