Well, earlier today Governor Schwarzenegger signed the budget. But he didn’t sign everything — the Governor took the opportunity to make healthy use of his line-item veto authority. One distinct advantage of a budget getting to the Governor’s desk over his own objection is that he has no commitment to authorize all spending in the budget — and he didn’t.
The Governor has used his line-item veto authority to cut $510 million out of liberal spending programs sponsored by Democrats and championed by the special interest groups that push their buttons.
Also, remember the executive order the Governor signed terminating thousands of part-time, retired annuitant and other state workers? Well, first and foremost, it has saved us $340 million since it was put into place. But better yet, my sources in the Governor’s office tell me that Finance Director Mike Genest and Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer alerted all agencies today that the executive order will remain in effect through the year. That means no hiring back all of the state workers who, apparently, we were able to do without for the past couple of months. More good news for smaller government. at least for now.
Looking at the big picture, the General Fund budget is at $103.4 billion this, compared to $103.3 billion last year, according to the Department of Finance — which means virtually no growth in state government.
Now, California’s state budget hasn’t actually gone down from one year to the next since the first years of Governor Wilson’s administration. While that’s what we’d rather see – the size of state government cut dramatically – holding steady is a much better place to be (with grown in population and factoring in inflation, you can argue that this budget shrinks government as a percentage of the economy).
I should note that from my cursory examination that the line-item vetoes the Governor made were pretty much across the board — except for the areas where he has no authority to make cuts because of court orders or otherwise, and it looks like he spared public safety. The Governor pretty much took every other state program a notch down in order to bring spending down.
So, if we are tallying the wins within the budget, we have: no tax increases (unless you are buying a yacht), no stealing from local government pockets, a decent budget reform mechanism that takes a good step forward (provided labor unions don’t kill it during the necessary special election to pass it), and now virtually no growth in general fund spending.
As I have said, there is a lot to not like about this year’s budget. But I can tell you that the budget only got better while it was sitting on the Governor’s desk.
I’ll be bold and set a goal for next year — let’s try to actually spend LESS in actual dollars than we do this year!
September 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Jon, don’t fall into the trap of thinking about the Democrats’ so-called “yacht tax” as an actual tax on yacht owners. The new rule applies to vehicles, vessels, and aircraft — but most people affected by the rule own regular cars like yours and mine. So, once again, a Democrat tax on the “rich” is really a tax on the poor and middle class. We shouldn’t be surprised.
To be more specific, yacht buyers have far more resources to legally avoid the sales/use tax on their vessels, even with a change in the rules. Yacht brokers and financiers will make sure they know the rules. By contrast, some poor family that bought a used car in Ohio last year, then got transferred to California for work is less likely to have kept detailed records showing the amount of the Ohio sales tax on that car (which tax should be applied as a credit against the California use tax). The poor family will end up paying the sales & use tax on their car twice, once in the state where they bought it and again when they register the car at the California DMV.
This new policy to close the so-called “sloophole” is especially cruel to military families, who may be transferred involuntarily. Far more soldiers and sailors will end up paying the tax than yacht owners, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the Democrats (or the Governor or the media) to call this new policy a “military family relocation tax.”