From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…
Old enemies are facing each other again in California’s fiscal meltdown and have taken their battle to the airwaves. A new spot airing statewide by the California Teachers Association insists the teachers won’t give up anything in the state’s current fiscal crisis and even demands that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger restore cuts enacted in 2005: "He said he was sorry," the ad intones. "He said never again. . . . And now Schwarzenegger says he’ll break the minimum guarantee to our schools again."
The governor has launched an ad of his own, saying he won’t sign any budget that raises taxes or "spends money we do not have." On Wednesday, the California Democratic Party hit back with an ethics filing, insisting the ads were improperly funded — a complaint the governor’s office called a "political attack."
The state continues to teeter toward total meltdown. It has already issued more than 72,000 IOUs totaling $109 million because it no longer has cash to pay its bills. Its credit rating has collapsed as political leaders wrangle over how to close a $26 billion deficit.
Democratic legislators come out marginally worse in recent polls, but Mr. Schwarzenegger has hardly benefited from the crisis. Few Californians seem to believe any of the current players are capable of fixing the mess. Instead, a blue ribbon tax commission is expected to report its recommendations soon if not bogged down by its liberal faction’s opposition to a flat tax proposal. Changes already in the works will also help by suppressing gerrymandering. But many business leaders insist only a constitutional convention can make California governable again.
— Allysia Finley