Ok, so everyone will be talking about the budget today, and we will hear lots of comments about the budget, about bloat, about special interests, and the like. The good news–it has tax cuts in it. I hear that the Democrats have all the signatures they want on the term limits initiative and want to turn it in as soon as possible. They don’t want to turn them in while the budget impasse continues. Something about bad public relations or something. The bad news, it still has a $105 billion spending plan, and keeps the structural deficits. To put this in perspective, the first budget I voted on was a $40.9 billion general fund plan. The budget when Gray Davis took office was $57 billion general fund, and when Schwarzenegger took office it was $78 billion general fund. Interestingly enough, all of the Davis increases ($21 billion) took place in his first two years in office, and then the budget collapsed. Schwarzenegger has increased the budget by $27 billion in 4 years, and it continues to grow.
The truth is, this budget was lost in January when the Governor submitted the budget.
But now for the off topic subject.
Two weeks ago, Governor Davis appointed Mary Nichols as the chair of the Air Resources Board. Nichols, former head of Cal-EPA in the previous administration was best known for her sponsorship of poetry reading at Cal-EPA, spending around $25,000 for state employees to sit around and listen to a poet in the midst of the last budget crisis. She was chided by the press (and some Republicans) for this irresponsible expenditure, but it doesn’t seem to have disqualified her for this new position.
I am not sure what anyone was thinking when this appointment was made, but it is sure to sail through the Legislature.
The problem in the ARB is that it is bureaucracy out of control. There is currently an investigation into the activities of some of the employees, who were visiting businesses, testing the emissions from the business, threatening the business with fines, and then informing the business owner that if he or she hired a specific company to fix the maching causing the violation, the fines would be dropped. It was later discovered that these investigators were getting kickbacks from the business hired to help these companies "reduce pollution."
Schwarzenegger was correct to get rid of the former chair, but to bring in Nichols was a huge mistake. The ARB needs a major shakeup, and the former chair’s attitude that ARB could act without oversight by the executive was a symptom of the major problem at ARB. Nichols is not likely to push for a change in attitude. She might read them some poetry, and talk about the symbiotic relationship between people and plankton, but she won’t disturb the status quo.
The ARB is an example of what happens when you give a government bureaucracy a lot of power, and not very much oversight. The bureaucrats cloak themselves in their mission to cover their corruption and quest for power. If someone, like Schwarzenegger, challenges that power, they run to the press and claim that they are being thwarted by a corrupt politician, when they, in fact, are the corrupt power brokers.
Big government is bad for a reason, and the ARB has demonstrated the reason. It needs a reformer, not a poet, in charge. Schwarzenegger was the right the first time, and messed it up with appointment of Nichols. Just another day in the Davis administration.