Arnold to prez hopefuls: show me the money
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento today was asked if he would tell us who he endorses in the presidential race.
Smiling, he replied, "I will go as far as to say ... any candidate that writes a $14.5 billion check to the state of California, I will endorse."
That was the ending to a half hour of Q&A at the California Newspaper Publisher's Association annual Government Day here in Sacramento which I am attending. I have to say Arnold is an impressive speaker and his star quality has not faded. This is, of course, a governor with an important agenda at the moment and talking to publishers and editors from throughout the state probably seemed like a good idea. He has a $14.5 billion budget deficit to deal with and he knows we in the media will be hearing from all the interests that the state government touches about how their ox is being gored.
The Governor is pushing a 10 percent across the board cut to all state spending, which panels of legislators we heard earlier in the day assured us would never happen.
Everyone agrees, however, that there will be severe cuts and this may finally be a time when the state legislators do some serious soul searching about transforming the state's taxation and spending systems to avoid the hills and valleys that the budget suffers every time there's a bump in the economy.
The Governor believes we ought to have two things: first a rainy day fund that is set aside whenever the state's revenues are climbing. Instead of allocating it all to additional program spending or new programs, Gov. S. believes we ought to set at least $4 billion aside for economic downturns. Second he thinks we ought to have systematic budget adjustments any time revenues begin to fall off. In other words, set up budgetary triggers that automatically cut spending in certain ways whenever sales taxes, business taxes, income taxes or other revenue streams decline. He was asked if that doesn't eliminate the accountability of legislators to make the hard decisions when these times come along. No, says Gov. S.: the triggers are planned out and decided on by the legislature after serious consideration and votes during times when a crisis is not at hand. The decisions are still made, but at a time when everyone is more rational and when there is time to make thoughtful choices.
At any rate, all that will have to come after the legislature deals with the immediate crisis which is to make mid-year cuts right now and 2008-09 cuts in 30-60 days.
One Democratic legislator earlier in the day noted that if Gov. S. would reinstate the vehicle license fee upon which he was elected in the recall election against Gray Davis, that would be $6 billion in the coffers right off the bat.
Gov. S. was also asked if he felt he had been a little hard on Davis on the subject of special interest funding given the amount he's taken himself for his own campaign chest. He said that there's nothing wrong with taking money as long as you don't sell out your constituents (in his case the people of California) when you do.
He was then asked how a voter is supposed to know which politician is going to sell them out and which isn't. He said it's the same thing we do when we decide to choose a presidential candidate. We look them right in the eye and we decide whether we can trust them.
On the subject of the economy, he said he would be trying to fast track infrastructure projects that are already funded through the $37 billion public works bond the voters have already approved. Instead of spending the $29 billion that's left, over 10 years, he'd like to get some of the projects speeded up to create employment now. Of course he also said that will mean getting past some regulations.
On water supplies state wide he said that the legislature is looking to put a
water supply bond measure on the ballot in November but there is still wrangling about how the process of approving things like new dams will be carried out. Gov. S. believes that if the legislature is given the last word every time no new dam will ever get built.
Earlier in the day we heard from a panel of sophomore legislators who had come to speak as newbies last year. Now they've had a year to see what being a legislator is like. Those who came from the local governmental process, like mayors or county supervisors said they were pleasantly surprised at the level of respect and civility in Sacramento compared to local politics. Some said the sheer pace was daunting.
They otherwise had views adhering to party lines.
Even though this was after all a meeting of newspaper publishers and editors, I was still surprised at the sheer number of photographers that follow Gov. S. around. He had no secrets to reveal or special information for our group, and he was here in Sacramento where he is a lot of the time - and yet there are a dozen or so photographers (TV and still) on hand to record the event. Of course they all left with him. I wonder if these people do nothing but follow him around all day every day.