Posted on 07/14/2004 2:51:47 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Governator is human after all. After stomping across California's political landscape with all the subtlety of one of his Hollywood action heroes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has found himself looking short of invincible in the unruly statehouse he once vowed to bring to heel.
Passage of his $103 billion budget is more than two weeks overdue, despite his vow to produce an on-time spending plan - which would have been only the third time in 10 years. Schwarzenegger's predictions of a new era of cooperation and bipartisanship have deteriorated into flinty talk of a Legislature with "a certain arrogance" that "didn't see it our way."
The budget that bears his imprint, which increases spending and takes on hefty new debt, has been compared to those that contributed to the downfall of his predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis. And newly emboldened Democrats, and even members of his own party, have found common ground to grumble.
The budget "is dangerously out of balance and relies on borrowing that is out of control," said state Sen. Tom McClintock of Northridge, a conservative Republican who was among the candidates who challenged Schwarzenegger in last year's recall election. "The basic budget problems have not been corrected."
Schwarzenegger, who was elected after promising to bring order to the state's balance sheet, "was overly optimistic that a charming personality ... and sheer force of will could get the Legislature to do its job," said Garry South, a Democratic consultant who was one of Davis' closest advisers.
"He's been larger than life until now. This has exposed him as a mere mortal," South said.
There has been speculation for weeks that a deal was within reach, but issues including a scrap over funding for local governments has forestalled a settlement.
Schwarzenegger advisers dispute that the former actor, who has enjoyed lofty poll numbers in the Democratic-leaning state, suffered any damage in his first budget scrum.
"The whole budget process, by definition, is a bunch of people in the weeds," said Don Sipple, a media consultant who has crafted Schwarzenegger TV ads. "He remains in high standing with the people of California and he's up there doing what they elected him do."
Up until the budget stalemate, Schwarzenegger looked virtually unstoppable. He bested a huge field of candidates to win the recall election, despite being shadowed by allegations of womanizing. Once in office, he cajoled Democrats to support $15 billion in new borrowing to refinance a multibillion dollar debt in inherited and to help him close next year's budget gap estimated at $17 billion. Then he pushed through reforms of the state's costly workers' compensation system.
And his popularity with the public made him a figure for rival politicians to envy, or fear.
But the budget process has proved far more complex than he anticipated, forcing him to give ground not only to rival Democrats but even within his own party.
The misstep came when Schwarzenegger misjudged how difficult it would be to get the budget - any budget - approved by two-thirds of the lawmakers in the Capitol.
But his final budget plan released in May came out of the box as a compromise. He backed away from deep spending cuts proposed in January and instead relied on billions in borrowing and a variety of accounting gimmicks.
In an effort to build early momentum, the governor negotiated deals with several interest groups - public schools and local government among them - to accept cuts now in exchange for promises of revenues in the future.
The Legislature's Democratic majority and the state's powerful employee unions forced Schwarzenegger to give up plans to trim pension benefits and impose cuts on health care programs. Even the Republicans staged an uprising to get the governor to give fees he wanted to impose on businesses and rural landowners.
Even with all those compromises, the governor still hasn't gotten a budget and the one he has will probably only increase California's spending imbalance.
"People are really afraid that he's not serious about the budget," said political scientist Raphael Sonenshein from California State University, Fullerton. "You put off these decisions and sooner or later you have to make choices. There's a lot of worry that Arnold may not be able to make those choices."
Schwarzenegger has come up against many of the problems that former governors have faced. For one, California is one of only a handful of states that require a two-thirds majority vote in the Legislature to enact a budget. And the famous Proposition 13, which tightly restricts property tax increases, forces the state to look elsewhere for its tax dollars.
"This is an irresistible force moving up against an immovable object, the Legislature," said South, the former Davis adviser. "Because of the way the members are elected - in safe seats, in closed primaries, with term limits - you really don't have any collective will and have no real penalties to get the budget done on time."
Blame gerrymandered districts 'agreed to by both parties', ineffectual "leadership", voter apathy, a bad economy, sun spots, the bosa nova.. Illegal immigrants receiving benefits, excessive business regulations, a bureaucratic nightmare,,, yada yada yada..
It's true I lost a lot of respect for McClintock when he boarded the LA Times bandwagon in the closing days of the campaign for Arnold to 'come clean'. The charges were maliciously invented. Tom should have known better. I was disgusted.
But time, and Arnold's in-your-face liberalism has got me viewing Tom in more of a positive light, once again.
The people of CA missed a good bet. Arnold was the guy to get-things-done. Not so Tom. That was really the issue that caused conservatives to switch to Swartzenegger. But if he can't do this, when it comes down to it, what then of that recall vote - wasted? Should have been McClintock.
W.A.S.S.
WBF.
Yeah blame the failure to spend even more on evil Republicans and Proposition 13. This state would be in sound fiscal health but for them. <sarcasm
It will be interesting to see if Arnold welds his clout, veto pen, and small contingent of Republicans to shut the California government down without a budget after first appearing to have negotiated a budget in good faith... 13 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Well, I haven't yet seen any sign that he's learned a damned thing from this process, much less suffered enough abuse to get PO'd about it. After all, now that he's led the voters down the primrose path of Prop 58, what makes you think he won't just knuckle under and borrow more money?
More importantly, will the Governor campaign against the Rats in select districts to start the process of cleaning up StinkyMento? Nunez district would be one of the main ones to concentrate on... even if he is re-elected.
Shutting down the government, now that is another thing. Just think of all the pain the illegals and elderly and the children would have to endure. :-o
A Day Without a Budget Illegals .. Coming Soon to a borough near you. ;-)
Just about every politician thinks they can charm their way into a consensus, because they don't have particularly strong principles to begin with to fall back on. Arnold is just figuring out that those who oppose him do so because of ideology - not because Arnold isn't a likable guy.
What happens if they do not pass a budget until next year? Does that mean the state government shuts down?
Its the pain-free way out. Just take out another credit card and charge it!
Good point. We have line item veto in California. Does this apply to the budget as well as regular bills?
Trouble is that if Arnold hadn't gotten in the race, the recall itself would have gone down to defeat.
And McClintok would have faced the same problem of getting a budget in a Democrat controlled Legislature, but without the ability to threaten to campaign against obstructing legislators by a popular and loved governor.
I don't think Arnold has lost stature: I think that the legislature is going to shed more than a few of these socialist obstructionists come November. This whole process has underscored how unbalanced and incompetent this legislature really is. The move is to the right.
I think what you ment to say was: "That was really the issue that caused Republicans to switch to Swartzenegger".
At 13% of the vote McClintock got most of the conservatives in California.
When there is no budget, noone gets paid because there is no money. Employees, vendors.... and then employees and vendors can't pay their bills.....
It sounds good on the face of it, but the reality is massive "unemployment" - except the state workers are expected to keep working, and the vendors are expected to keep supplying goods.
Take electricity, for example. Suppose CA doesn't pay it's electric bill for ANY of it's offices - and there are a LOT of offices. Who's going to pay that bill? Are the electric companies going to keep supplying power? They will for a while, but they certainly can't do it indefinitely.
The small vendors will quickly go out of business. Paper suppliers, janitors, etc. And when they can't pay their bills, it all snowballs.
That's because the government has become the economy in many areas.
This is all caused by the huge marjority of Dems in the legislature. We nearly ended up with the Dems having a supermajority meaning they could pass any budget they wanted. Funny thing, even with Davis in the gov'd office, there was a budget impass. This is all POLITICS and not about any principle. The Dems want to show they can push Arnold around so they attempt to regain some political clout in the wake of the Davis ouster.
The depressing thing is term limits haven't been a lick of help. I saw nearly a dozen Kerry bumper stickers just on the commute this afternoon in San Diego. Oh and one for Kerry & Kucinich and zero for W (excluding self).
I don't know the answer but Mr. Useless Mc-CLINTON is doing us and the Governor *NO* favors. He's a rogue PITA like McCain yet without the Media adulation. He is an enemy within.
Sorry, bub, that 13% constitutes the tin foil hats.
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