CA: State of denial - Bold agenda belied by political, fiscal realities

San Diego Union - Tribune ^ | 1/6/07 | Editorial

[NormsRevenge]

State lawmakers return to Sacramento this week with both a strikingly ambitious agenda for 2007 and an unusually confident, chipper attitude about their ability to get things done. We like their ambitiousness and welcome the seeming pullback from the polarization of recent years. Unfortunately, here's the bad news: The bold talk from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on down is nearly impossible to reconcile with political and fiscal realities.

Consider pension reform, the latest addition to 2007's crowded agenda. In appointing a bipartisan commission last week to examine the staggering long-term costs of benefits promised to public employee retirees, the governor expressed confidence that “common sense” would drive the debate. But it was just in August that Assembly Speaker Fabian NUñez blocked a package of bills meant to curb fraud in public employee disability benefits. If NUñez thinks a certain level of fraud is acceptable in benefits, it's hard to fathom him going along with benefit policies that reflect “common sense” – as opposed to blind loyalty to his union masters.

This came two months after Senate President Don Perata helped kill Schwarzenegger's nomination of David Crane, a highly regarded financier, to the California State Teachers Retirement System board because Crane had expressed concern that taxpayers would have to bear the brunt of pension shortfalls. Look where Crane's common sense got him with Perata.

Or consider health care and prison reform proposals. They may face fewer political obstacles than pension reform, but how can they be done in a fiscally responsible way? It's difficult to see the state playing a major role in providing millions of uninsured residents with health coverage without absorbing part of the sure-to-be-huge tab. We already have a price tag for the governor's proposed prison fix: $10.9 billion.

This sharp boost in spending is being contemplated despite the fact the budget is already a terrible mess. Even though lawmakers had a $7.5 billion swell in revenue last year, they still passed a budget for the current fiscal year in which the state was projected to spend $4 billion more than it takes in. Meanwhile, state revenue for November ran far below projections, suggesting the actual deficit in this and coming years will be much worse than projected.

Against this backdrop – and given the public's wise opposition to higher taxes – state leaders have only one way to pay for their new initiatives: still more borrowing. Indeed, Schwarzenegger already talks of using $8.7 billion in bonds that don't need voter approval to build prisons instead of a pay-as-you-go approach.

But going on a new borrowing binge would be the opposite of common sense. Voters just approved the issuance of a staggering $37 billion in infrastructure bonds – and California already has among the worst credit ratings of any state.

It's great to have a bold agenda, but it's appalling to force future generations to foot the bill for our boldness. We hope at some point in 2007 this sobering thought takes hold in Sacramento.

[NormsRevenge]

Against this backdrop – and given the public's wise opposition to higher taxes – state leaders have only one way to pay for their new initiatives: still more borrowing. Indeed, Schwarzenegger already talks of using $8.7 billion in bonds that don't need voter approval to build prisons instead of a pay-as-you-go approach.

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Enjoy the ride.

And not to worry, the politcians will just get elected and appointed to other offices while you're all gonna pay for their "efforts" in the end, whether you like it or not.

[rellimpank]

--the Commiefornia politicos of both stripes plan on Uncle Sugar to be there to bail them out when they go broke--after all, he just turns on the printing press--

[GOP Poet]

The BOLD AGENDA should be to get our spending in order ASAP! Now that would be something--like it would be with any single person in debt to beyond their eyebrows that spends into the stratosphere--life changing in fact. Yet, if it was just a person it would take making major personal change on an hourly, daily level. Their would have to be a major change in action and priorities over time.

So when it comes to this socialist driven state and their criminal unions and the fact that we are supporting half of the Mexicans, unfortunately it ain't going to happen. To have Gov S. confront these yahoos and slap them down enough to get some serious financial stability and common sense going in this state on a LARGE level would not only be a BOLD agenda, but a darn miracle of GOD. I'll keep praying thank you. I've lost hope for Cali. fiscally and morally. Who else is going to do it? Not Gov. S. /rant