[California] Budget attacked as failing to erase deficit

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/13/6 | Lynda Gledhill, Paul Feist

[SmithL]

Legislative analyst says it will create chronic shortfalls -

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget would take the state in the wrong direction because it spends too much of a revenue windfall on expanding programs rather than trying to wipe clean the deficit that California has racked up over the past several years, the state's nonpartisan budget analyst said Thursday.

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill warned that much of the revenue surplus that Schwarzenegger plans to spend this election year is from volatile business tax and capital gains tax revenues, which could quickly disappear if the economy softens.

Schwarzenegger's plan for the 2006-07 fiscal year, which he announced Tuesday, would leave the state with chronic revenue shortfalls of $5 billion to $6 billion in the future, Hill said as she released her preliminary analysis of the budget.

"The plan really puts the state on the wrong path in terms of its long-term goal of achieving fiscal balance," she said. "We're concerned that the unexpected revenues ... are not being used to reduce past borrowing debt. Instead, we're ratcheting up ongoing spending by about $2 billon."

Schwarzenegger's director of finance, Mike Genest, countered by saying the administration had come a long way, eliminating 80 percent of the deficit that existed when the governor took office.

"I think we're actually headed in the right direction," he said at a luncheon at the California Chamber of Commerce. "Of the $2 billion she is talking about, $1.7 billion is going to education. Not only does the governor think that's essential to do, but I think the people pretty clearly spoke about that in November."

Voters in the special election defeated a Schwarzenegger-backed measure that would have dramatically changed Proposition 98, which sets school funding formulas.

[SmithL]

Your tax dollars at work and play.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Arnold Tried, Unions Lied. The Balanced Budget Died.

[SmithL]

BINGO!

[NormsRevenge]

Tom McClintock on KSFO this morning, knocking them out of the park.

[FOG724]

it spends too much of a revenue windfall on expanding programs rather than trying to wipe clean the deficit

Haven't we been down this road once before?

[NormsRevenge]

Smoke and Mirrors - Part Deux

[Carry_Okie]

The real estate revenue windfall looks to be exactly the equivalent of the dot com bubble.

[pterional]

Someday when the money is all spent there will be a lot of long faces waiting at their mailbox for a check that will never come.

[SierraWasp]

He sure was!!!

[SierraWasp]

This is the Governor! Your point was spot on, but if the people caught on to that I would be so screwed and they would look upon you as fantazzzzzzzdick!!!

[68 grunt]

Haven't we been down this road once before?

That's what happens when you only walk around in circles ...

[FOG724]

That's what happens when you only walk around in circles ...

Hey, it's your man who is leading in circles. I voted for change and to move forward.

[jonno]

When Atlas shrugs...

[hosepipe]

[ [California] Budget attacked as failing to erase deficit ]

Bringing democrats to any budgetary table is like expecting Weasles to eat with forks and spoons.. and increasingly republicans too.. but republicans put the napkins on their laps BEFORE the food fight..

[Czar]

"Haven't we been down this road once before?"

Yes, but the good news was that on the last trip down that road there was a Recall Petition waiting.

[Czar]

"Tom McClintock on KSFO this morning, knocking them out of the park."

Looks like Tom has jumped ship.

Better late than never.

[FOG724]

Yes, but the good news was that on the last trip down that road there was a Recall Petition waiting.

Hahaha, oh the irony. In Arnold's movie Total Recall there is a commercial for the recall agency that repeats "recall" over and over.

[hattend]

Schwarzenegger's director of finance, Mike Genest, countered by saying the administration had come a long way, eliminating 80 percent of the deficit that existed when the governor took office.

The spin is making me dizzy.