Thinking outside the blown-up boxes

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/29/5 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

RECALLING Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2004 State of the State pledge to not just rejigger state government by moving a few boxes around, but to "blow them up," I asked Schwarzenegger campaign guru Mike Murphy at a lunch earlier this month what boxes the governator has blown up in office.

Murphy's answer: "Oh, I don't think we ... That's like a good policy question, because I'm not the policy expert."

Columnist's translation: The boxes don't even have a dent on them.

The administration isn't exactly happy about my question. On the one hand, Sacramento has become host to angry demonstrators who denounce Schwarzenegger as Sacramento's Scrooge, yanking tax dollars out of the mouths of needy children.

Then Team Arnold has to deal with tightwads like me who notice Schwarzenegger hasn't really cut much from state coffers.

If you're not sure what to think about the state budget, this is what you need to know.

-- Since Schwarzenegger was elected, he has increased state spending, but decreased the rate at which state spending grew. California will spend $115.7 billion in the coming fiscal year.

-- Last year, Schwarzenegger cut a deal with the education lobby to borrow $2 billion in funds reserved for schools under Proposition 98. His refusal to pay back the money right away, which affects base-funding requirements, amounts to the loss of $1.8 billion this year.

-- Not in real dollars, however. As Brad Williams of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office noted, "Per pupil funding is growing, albeit at a slower pace than what would have been required by the deal struck last year."

-- In fact, without the Prop. 98 payback money, California per-pupil spending -- including state, local and federal money -- will exceed $10, 000 per student in the next fiscal year.

[SmithL]

Arnold needs to be reminded that he was hired to blow up boxes. If the unions win this round, we won't get another chance.

[kingu]

Sad to say, the only way it would really work would be for him to redline budget items using the line item veto. Unfortunately, you have to have 2/3rds of the legislature approve the budget anyway, so they have already enough votes on record to overcome any veto.

But it has to be done, and hopefully we'll actually support him where it makes sense.