Posted on 03/13/2004 1:18:14 PM PST by RWR8189
Schwarzenegger takes care of business.
Sacramento CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR Arnold Schwarzenegger's political clout continues to grow. Having won landslide victories this month on two referendums, he is now whipsawing Democrats on his latest agenda item, reforming the state's out-of-control worker's compensation system. Allies of the Republican governor were on the steps of the California capitol last week, signing petitions to get a referendum to overhaul worker's comp on the ballot in November. Inside the capitol, Schwarzenegger was negotiating with Democrats to get a tough reform measure through the legislature.
With his dual strategy, the new governor has given Democrats an unenviable choice: Either retreat on worker's comp, now widely viewed as a job-killer in California, and agree to a compromise acceptable to the governor and most Republicans in the legislature, or face Schwarzenegger in a referendum this fall that could approve even more sweeping reform. Not surprisingly, Democrats are inclined to seek a compromise and avoid another referendum battle with the governor.
Just four months in office, Schwarzenegger is on offense. Republican legislators are in awe of him. When he drops by their meetings, they stand up as if royalty has entered the room. A Republican legislator running in the primary for a U.S. House seat aired a TV ad that showed a picture on his desk--not of his wife and kids, but of his friend Arnold.
Democrats fear dealing with him, but they fear even more what might happen if they don't deal with him. California voters have responded enthusiastically to Schwarzenegger's call for bipartisan solutions to their state's fiscal and economic problems. Given Schwarzenegger's popularity, Democrats don't feel safe obstructing his agenda. But they know if they cooperate, the bipartisan agreements will be mostly on his terms. Democrats are on defense.
When Schwarzenegger came to office last November after winning an impressive victory in the special recall election, it was assumed that governing with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature would be difficult. It's been easy. And now, after the success of Schwarzenegger's two propositions on the March 2 ballot, his position is stronger than ever. One proposition--to sell $15 billion in bonds to avert a tax hike--attracted less than 40 percent support in polls several weeks before the vote. But Schwarzenegger campaigned hard for it, with a whirlwind of personal appearances and TV ads. The proposition won with 63 percent. The second proposition (mandating a balanced budget) got 71 percent.
More victories seem likely. His negotiations with Indian casinos should produce more revenue soon. When Schwarzenegger picked Donna Arduin as his finance director, Republicans worried she might not be confirmed by the legislature. After all, she is known, from her work with other Republican governors, for being exceptionally skilled at slashing spending. In fact, the new budget Schwarzenegger unveiled in January proposed $11.5 billion in cuts and no tax increase. Nonetheless, Arduin's nomination was approved 5-0 by a Senate committee last week. And she was praised by the legislature's leading Democrat and foremost liberal, John Burton.
Democrats, Burton especially, would love to force Schwarzenegger to swallow a tax increase to get a budget passed. The governor has said, "A tax increase would be the final nail in California's financial coffin." If he yields, Republicans believe he would be seen by voters as no better than the pols here. "He'd become one of us," says Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte. He probably won't have to buckle. The new Democratic assembly leader, Fabian Núñez, is already talking about a budget with no new taxes. And since no Republican legislator would dare back a tax boost Schwarzenegger opposes, Democrats wouldn't get the two-thirds majority required to raise taxes anyway.
Before the budget is resolved, Schwarzenegger may reach a deal with Democrats on worker's comp. In recent years with Democrats in total control in Sacramento, premiums paid by businesses have tripled, further adding to the state's reputation as hostile to business. Schwarzenegger wants to slash premiums--California's are the highest in the nation--as part of his "Sell California" strategy to attract jobs and businesses to the state.
It's on worker's comp that Schwarzenegger's political prowess comes heavily into play. Democrats are bound to dislike any reform package the governor favors. But the alternative is a Republican-written proposition that would be all the more devastating to the current system. Absent agreement on worker's comp legislation, "there's a point in time when we decide we've got to go to the ballot," says Arduin. And Schwarzenegger has demonstrated he knows how to win a referendum.
Democrats will have enough trouble combating a separate proposition that's already made it onto the November ballot. It would repeal the law passed last year that requires businesses with 50 employees or more to provide health insurance to employees. So far, Schwarzenegger hasn't taken a position, and Democrats don't want to goad him into one. They're fearful that if he endorses the proposition, the health insurance mandate is doomed. They have every reason to feel that way.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
NO on 56!!!
-PJ
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) addresses California Army National Guard soldiers who are departing to serve in Iraq (news - web sites), at the U.S. Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, March 12, 2004. The soldiers are members of the 81st Separate Armor Brigade, comprised of 4,000 California, Washington and Minnesota Army National Guard soldiers. REUTERS/Ken James
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!!!
Yeah. Stand firm for illegal immigration and gay marriage. That'll show those spineless Republican pols!
I cannot understand how he thinks he's going to help CA's economy recover if he keeps pushing GANG-GREEN pogroms of slapping a so-called "Conservancy" over the entire Sierra-Nevada mountain range to turn it all into nothing but a playground for the idle rich of the coastal metro-sexual counties of CA!!!
I want to support him, but I can't when he threatens the property rights of every land owner with this humongus GANG-GREEN LAND GRAB!!! This is a further slap at local government revenue and the productivity of every citizen in eastern CA!!!
The Sierran Region... Worth more than a playground for idle rich limosine Liberal EnvironMentalCases!!! We oughta secede from the coastal counties and become the SIERRA REPUBLIC!!!
I may alienate everyone on FR about this, but I can't stand for another totally unnecessary layer of unaccountable GOVERNMENT, preserving what private citizens value far more than the goof-balls pushing this Sierra Flub dream/nitemare!!!
If you don't believe me, read the Assembly Bill AB 2600 pending in the State Assembly right NOW! It has Arnold's blessing and is totally un-American in my view!!!
That reminds me, I need to call those bills to our lobbyists attention.
No one else is paying attention. They're still swooning over Schwarzenegger while he sells out the Sierras to what has replaced Commonism... Extreme, land grabbing EnvironMentalism to preserve suffocate American Free Enterprise with it's inate economic progress!!!
Those poor members are totally out of their gourd to allow this to continue. It's gonna be death by a thousand cuts!!!
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