[Angelique]

Sounds like Connell broke rank or is Davis gearing up to raise taxes? Was he lying when he said CA had a balanced budget? I smell a RAT a Davisdemrat.

[John Jorsett]

Davis and Connell have a prickly relationship, and she sticks a knife in him from time to time. Which isn't to say that that's what she's doing here. Her office has a duty to apprise the state of its fiscal condition. The Davis budget is smoke and mirrors. It defers the state's contribution to the public employee retirement fund, borrows from various places with the promise to repay over decades, and on and on. Even with all of the chicanery, the only way he got it to balance was by an optimistic forecast for future tax revenues that no one else in state government is buying into. By the time it becomes obvious that there's going to be a shortfall, he hopes to be safely reelected.