A Bit Of Fiscal Responsibility

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign a compromise budget deal after lawmakers ceded to his demands for budget reform, his spokesman said Friday.

   "The governor has an agreement with legislative leaders on the budget," spokesman Aaron McLear said. "They met his demands. They included real budget reform, and they did not take money from people's paychecks."

   California lawmakers were scheduled to vote Friday on the compromise budget deal -- averting a historic veto by Schwarzenegger, who had called lawmakers' previous budget plan fiscally irresponsible.

   The new plan eliminates some of the borrowing gimmicks that lawmakers had included to help close a $15.2 billion hole, but leaves others intact. It also strengthens the state's rainy day fund.

   The state's four legislative leaders met with the governor Thursday and agreed to many of his demands after conceding they were uncertain whether they could muster the two-thirds vote of the state Legislature required to override his veto.

Yep, that's right, they wanted to override a veto because it would allow them to continue to spend freely.  To give you an idea, the California state budget is larger then many countries.

They are up to their eyeballs in debt, and they wanted to make it deeper?

   Schwarzenegger had criticized the earlier plan for failing to meet his demands for a more robust rainy day fund. He said the budget relied on accounting gimmicks -- such as collecting an extra 10 percent of workers' income tax in advance and repaying it later -- that could lead to an even larger deficit next year.

   The four legislative leaders said they had agreed to remove that provision in their latest deal.

   They planned to take up two bills. One would levy larger fines against businesses that underreport their tax liabilities, and another would ensure the state's rainy day fund could only be tapped when revenues fall below projected spending -- the last remaining piece of the budget reforms Schwarzenegger sought.

   The remainder of the budget approved Tuesday will stand, including $7.1 billion in spending cuts that advocates say will trigger deep cuts to health care in the future.

There you go.  SPENDING CUTS.  Sometimes you have to cut the budget in areas that aren't politically popular, but that's just the way the ball bounces.  It's even nice to see Arnold see through the bullshit of collecting more income tax, only to pay it back later.  With administrative overhead, it would actually COST more money then anything.  Stupid idea.  Good job Arnie.

 

Travis

travis@rightwinglunatic.com