The Governator is Back, Baby!

This is the governor I remember from the 2003 campaign:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning ordered state workers to take a third day off without pay each month after Republican lawmakers acting with his support blocked a Democratic proposal to ease the state's deficit and allow the government to keep paying bills.

The Republican governor unveiled billions of dollars in additional proposed cuts to schools and public universities to deal with a deficit that he says is now $26.3 billion, an increase of $2 billion. He also announced an emergency special session of the Legislature that would allow lawmakers to act on them immediately.

Schwarzenegger criticized lawmakers for engaging in "endless hearings" instead of negotiating and said they had rejected his proposals to overhaul state government with so-called reforms in deference to special interests.

"They are debating about cowtails," Schwarzenegger said, in reference to a bill pending in the Legislature. "This is inexcusable."

The Schwarzenegger administration said the newly released cuts would pare state spending by an additional $4.9 billion.


The latest reductions may be necessary after Tuesday night's inaction further exacerbated the state's financial problems by leaving on the table billions of dollars in potential cuts to school programs that had to be made before the new fiscal year began at midnight.

If lawmakers and the governor do not agree on a plan to wipe out the deficit -- or at least part of it -- by the end of today, State Controller John Chiang will begin giving out IOUs in lieu of checks to pay debts owed by the state.

"We have one more day," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said as his house prepared to convene again.

Democrats in the Legislature will also propose additional cuts today. They are targeting redevelopment agencies. Their plan would raid $1.2 billion of agency funds earmarked for affordable housing. As part of the plan, state requirements that redevelopment projects include such housing would be eased.

Aides to the lawmakers and governor said the shortfall, previously projected at $24.3 billion, increased when Republican state senators blocked a last-ditch effort Tuesday night to slice $3.3 billion, mostly from education.

Those proposed cuts, which were approved by the state Assembly last week on a bipartisan vote, were to have affected the fiscal year that ended on Tuesday. The opportunity to make the reductions expired at the stroke of midnight, after the package failed in a series of party-line votes, with one GOP senator abstaining.

Schwarzenegger had promised to veto the bills unless they were accompanied by a complete plan to balance the budget. Steinberg, saying Republican lawmakers had taken their direction from Schwarzenegger in voting it down, accused all of them of "the most irresponsible act I have seen in my 15 years of public service."

Schwarzenegger said he won't sign any legislation unrelated to the budget until a full budget agreement is reached.

Unfortunately, the legislature got used to Schwarzenegger siding with them and allowing tax increases to go through. Now that he's finally playing tough they don't believe he's serious.

Stick with it governor. Make the Democrats cut until they fix the whole problem, not just band-aid solutions that postpone the pain for another few weeks.