Posted on 01/03/2006 7:08:54 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - An unexpected boost in state revenue has given Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger an election-year bonus: funding for the after-school initiative he championed during his initial foray into California politics.
Proposition 49 will be funded for the first time since voters approved it in 2002. Schwarzenegger is expected to include the funding in the budget he presents to the Legislature next week.
"It's a happy coincidence of his sponsorship of a popular measure and now a favorable budget situation," said Jack Pitney, government professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. "It's one bit of good luck after a line of bad luck and lets him wear the white hat again."
While Proposition 49 was passed with 57 percent of the vote, budget problems have delayed its implementation until now. Thanks to an improving economy that will provide $5.2 billion in unanticipated money to the state, Schwarzenegger will propose spending $428 million to fund the initiative during the 2006-2007 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
The initiative provides grants to elementary and middle schools for after-school opportunities, with low-income schools getting priority.
The issue was a natural stepping stone into politics for Schwarzenegger, who spent years promoting Special Olympics and physical fitness programs for youths.
After helping qualify the measure for the ballot, Schwarzenegger campaigned for its passage in what turned out to be a dress rehearsal for his gubernatorial run during the 2003 recall of former Gov. Gray Davis.
That Proposition 49 has not been funded previously has been something of a sore point for Schwarzenegger. It was crafted so that it would be triggered only during good economic times so it would not take money from existing programs.
Pitney said Schwarzenegger will get a political bounce from being able to put the popular plan into motion.
"I think he might have occasion to stop by an after-school program or two," he said.
Indeed, on Wednesday the governor is scheduled to address students, teachers and parents at a school in Los Angeles. Among his topics is funding for after-school programs.
It's OK. It's for the kids, yaknow.
Hey, it's only money, right?
I mean, they just get in the way of my life, man.
Thanks a lot, all you idiotic liberal "big tent" RINOs! Let's see you worm out of this one.
it's always for chilldren when the gov. pays lawyers and educators... but never for them when you and I spend time with them or refuse to pay taxes for their sakes against this extortion.
Fathers' fault too, they never pay support, only for court fights, just as we don't pay enough terrorists and instead fight them etc...(sarcasm /off)
An odd comment regarding an executive who has only been in office for a little over two years but Schwarzenegger had a political life before his recent election.
Another 1/2 billion dollars pi$$ed away next fiscal year and Prop 49's formula will drive the price through the roof if the state continues to raise taxes. There is no limit. Literally. It is the omnipotent stepchild of Prop 98.
An example of celebrity worship corrupting the common sense of the electorate. A political significance not lost on the Wilson gang.
No kidding. I`ll take the lower earnings with the less taxes and the more time with my family. It`ll never come to pass, though, since if taxes are cut, somebody loses their little taxpayer-funded bureaucratic kingdom. Not to mention that with fewer workers and consumers, corporate profits will plummet and someone will just have to make do with only one summer cottage in Aspen.
What else would you expect from someone born and raised in a socialist state?
He did fool a bunch of so-called 'Pubbies in California, though, didn't he?
It's a damn good thing we have a requirement that only natural-born Americans can become President.
Bounce? As in what bounces up also goes down?
Our daughter's now 30. If we had to do it over, it'd be private, preferably religious school for sure.
"Nearly half of all California kids live with a single working parent or two parents who both work. Over 1 million kids under the age of 15 often come home to an empty house. This situation cannot continue. It creates a danger zone between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., a danger zone for our kids, and a danger zone for our communities. Law enforcement studies show that the after-school hours between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. are the peak hours for kids to get into trouble. This is when kids are most likely to drink, take drugs, smoke, commit crimes or become the victims of crime that sometimes ruins their lives or the lives of others."Michelle Malkin, May 2002:
Hey, Arnold: If we want to see you play "Kindergarten Cop," please, just let us rent the movie.... If you want to fight youth crime, hire more police, take rotten juveniles out of the classroom and put them in separate reform schools, and punish young crooks with more than a slap on the wrist. As for "investing in kids:' shouldn't that be the parents' responsibility? Come on, Arnold, strap on the R-word. It's one of the most powerful tools in the conservative arsenal. Schwarzenegger's ballot initiative is warmed-over Hillaryism in steroid-laced drag....
Much has been said about Schwarzenegger's growing prospects as a potential GOP candidate for California's governorship in 2006. But hear me now, Arnold, and believe me later: The Hillary costume will scare away Republican voters faster than your last box-office bomb. Your fellow California conservative celebrity, Ronald Reagan, said it best: "Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them."
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