Free Republic

Ever since California voters recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sacramento has been passing gimmicky state budgets that did not raise taxes, but also kicked structural deficit spending into the next year. Well, the party's over. In September, Schwarzenegger signed another kick-the-shortfall budget. Then the Wall Street meltdown caused capital gains to disappear, rich people's income to retract - and state revenues to shrink. As the Legislative Analyst reported this week, the state budget shortfall could reach $28 billion over the next two years. State Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer noted...

This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release a revised budget proposal to rein in spending and set California on firm financial ground. As in the economic slowdown earlier this decade, state revenue growth has slowed. California is once again the poster child for poor fiscal management, and legislators in other states should watch it and learn. With an estimated gap between proposed spending and revenues of up to $20 billion, it's going to take more than Schwarzenegger's proposals to tax property insurance and close tax loopholes to fix the state budget. Each new cut in spending will likely bring a...

Were Arnold Schwarzenegger the bold reformer he purports to be, were he truly committed to "blowing up boxes" and obliterating "politics as usual," he would have vetoed Assembly Bill 1077 and signed Assembly Bill 2106. But he did exactly the opposite, thus perpetuating - and even solidifying - two aspects of state government that epitomize its dysfunction. AB 1077, the bill Schwarzenegger signed last month, originally dealt with complaints against police officers, but a few days before the 2004 session ended, Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, did a classic "gut and amend," stripping out the original contents and inserting authorization...

09-23) 16:56 PDT COLFAX, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chose a woodsy mountain setting Thursday to sign legislation establishing a 25 million-acre Sierra Nevada Conservancy, while also signing nearly 20 other bills to protect the Pacific Ocean, curb smog and clean up blighted urban land. With numerous strokes of the pen, Schwarzenegger opened 1,100 miles of car pool lanes to hybrid cars, established the nation's first Cabinet-level Ocean Protection Council in state government and barred cruise ships from burning garbage and dumping sewage inside state waters. He also banned commercial fishing fleets from bottom trawling along designated parts of...