According to the LAO, the only way out of our budget mess is raising taxes. And here’s another shocker—the Democrats think her recommendations are BRILLANT! Oh, and so does George Skelton.
None of this is a surprise. Nor is the fact that the budget gap continues to grow. It all comes down to Gov. Schwarzenegger.
Many of us here on the pages of the Flashreport have been disappointed with many decisions that have come out of the Governor’s Office in the past couple of years. We’re not happy with the people—effectively Gov. Gray Davis’ top staffers—with whom the governor has filled his office (at the same time, there some good people continue to work on the governor’s behalf, both in and out of the horseshoe). But the real test of the governor’s leadership—and his ability to stand by his word to the people of this state—will be the budget battle of 2008.
I’m hoping that Schwarzenegger has a heart-to-heart with Gov. Pete Wilson about how to deal with this budget mess. Wilson can share with him his experience, including raising taxes only to face several more major budget deficits in the years following. And he can remind Schwarzenegger of the Democrats’ never-ending appetite for tax increases.
Of course, that’s the only way the Dems can see to solve this problem. It is not in their nature to cut government. But that’s what the governor told the people of this state that he’d do when he ran for governor originally. At that time, he said that he would “end the fiscal mess." His plan? "Audit everything, open the books, and then we will end the crazy deficit spending."
Reining in government spending wasn’t as easy as candidate Schwarzenegger thought it would be. But this year, if the governor is going to solve the budget deficit without raising taxes, he’ll have to weather pressure from the Democrats and from interest groups (including the teachers, seniors and welfare groups) trying to avoid any cuts to their programs. But if he holds firm, it will, all of a sudden, start feeling like the special election of 2005. There will be picketing by disabled and senior Californians, the editorial pages will pile on and it will seem like the GOP are the only ones in his camp. That’s not exactly where the governor’s current team of advisors wants to find themselves. But then again, the polls (or the economy) won’t look good if the governor flip flops and raises taxes.
In the end, there needs to be fundamental budget reform, combined with across-the-board and targeted budget cuts, or we’ll just find ourselves in the same mess next year.