Governor Schwarzenegger trumpeting the age of borrowing with his proposal to place a
$68,000,000,000.00 (that’s how $68 billion would look on a calculator, except calculators don’t have enough digits!). You would think that he rang the cow bell — because here come the Democrats. Their voracious appetite to spend money has the entire herd cramming into the feed barn at once!
The only good news, if you can call it that, is that the Democrats can’t really propose borrowing more than the Governor (since he pretty much maxes out the state credit card). Maybe when the Governor sees how enthusiast all of these liberals are about the Bondinator, he will come to his senses, and scale back this massive proposal. No one is saying there are not major infrastructure investments needed, but a plan that includes no reforms so that we, starting with this fiscal year, pay as we go? Given that the general fund is approaching $100 billion this year, California taxpayers already pay plenty for a well-run state government AND pay-as-you-go infrastructure investment.
Steve Lawrence of the Associated Press has a piece that starts to give you an idea of the frenzy — it starts out:
Hospital, housing, park, rail bonds vie with governor’s proposals
By STEVE LAWRENCE, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 11:02 am PST Sunday, January 15, 2006
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's massive $222.6 billion public works program is about to undergo some legislative surgery. If it survives, it may not look a whole lot like the initial proposal when it comes out of the operating room.
The governor's plan to sell $68 billion in bonds to help pay for his program faces competition from lawmakers and interest groups looking for money for earthquake safety improvements for hospitals, new parks, affordable housing and high-speed rail.
They say their projects shouldn't be shut out by the governor's proposal, which would virtually tie up the state's ability to borrow money by selling bonds for the next 10 years.
Schwarzenegger also is likely to run into opposition from lawmakers worried about the amount of money he wants to borrow and about his proposal to place bond measures on ballots as far into the future as 2014.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said the governor's legislation will face alterations "just like any other bill."
"You bring them in the front door," he said. "They come out the back door - if you're lucky. And there's a lot of changes that take place in every room that they've gone into. That's going to be the case here."
Read the entire story here.