Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed all 15 of the budget deficit reduction bills passed by state legislators this December in a attempt to deal with the growing state budget crisis. The Governor cited the increase in revenues and lack of sufficient budget cuts as reasons for his veto. Schwarzenegger will release his proposed 2009-2010 budget Friday morning. Read the summary here. He will also hold a press conference on the budget for 2:00 p.m. today. Watch the conference live.
The December deficit reduction bills were passed without a single Republican vote, and Republican lawmakers had filed suit to block the proposals from taking effect, although Schwarzenegger's veto makes the move unnecessary. As with the 2008 budget stalemate, Republican lawmakers remain unwilling to increase state revenues via tax or fee increases, while Democrats are unwilling to consider budget proposals that do not incorporate revenue increases.
This power struggle at the Capitol holds the entire state ransom while the political parties battle things out. In many ways, state officials face a Solomon's choice. The longer the budget battle drags on, the less time there is for budget cuts to have their cost-saving effect, so the deeper the cuts will have to become. The party that holds out the longest to have things their way may win the power struggle, but they force Californians to pay for it. Paradoxically, a party that cares more about the state than their own position in the power hierarchy is more likely to cave into the demands of the other party and accept proposals that they don't actually feel are in the best interests of the state, in order to prevent a worse crisis through delay.
The budget balancing act is a tough one. For example, Schwarzenegger is actually proposing fewer immediate cuts to education programs, but wants them made permanent in a way that would leave schools perpetually underfunded. So do we choose the axe, or the slow bleed? Either way, the patient dies. Under either plan, balancing the budget by forcing education to take a big financial hit means we're making California's kids pay the bill.
The state budget deficit is projected at nearly $42 billion by the end of June, 2010. Reliance on inaccurate revenue projections, at a time when it should have been clear to legislators that the economy was much more likely to go down than up, has made the situation even worse than it would already have been.
The state may be unable to pay vendors as soon as February. As we pointed out during the 2008 budget crisis, when the state fails to pay vendors California takes a huge economic hit, as small businesses and families who rely on state vendor contracts become unable to pay their own bills.
We need a legislature and a governor who are willing to put California ahead of their own political power. Tell the Governor and your state legislators that they shouldn't make the whole state suffer for their political differences. Call the Governor: 916-445-2841 or Email him, and contact your state legislators.
Let us try using common since to this budget crisis. All the CA measures are failing except for 1F Elected Official Salaries. Of course the voters rejected them because Californians are losing their jobs, health care, pensions, retirement income, retirement, etc. We voted yes on 1F because the Elected Officials are getting paid well for doing a poor job. This should be proof to all Elected Officials that there needs to be a balance between high income earners & low income earners. You can see for yourself during these economical crisis that the American people will not and cannot do any unnecessary spending. I am sure you know that the American people do not want budget cuts in high return investments like, education, health care, energy, police force, fire fighters, etc. So what is the answer. I am sure that there are huge number of Californians that have extremely high incomes, that would be willing to pay more taxes in order to balance the budget, help their fellow Americans out, help their government out, & help themselves out. Also get rid of waste, abuse, and fraud.
Posted by: bob8jv | May 20, 2009 at 01:53 AM
This is where the 2/3 requirement for raising any taxes really hamstrings us. The Legislature literally cannot raise taxes unless both parties agree on what to raise and how, and on whom, and how likely is that?
Posted by: tiggrrl | May 22, 2009 at 01:46 PM