Originally Posted by
[b
Quote[/b] ]SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- Amid much fanfare inside the Capitol's historic rotunda, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a $105 billion budget package Saturday that he celebrated for imposing no new taxes while balancing spending with income.
While technically accurate, the Republican governor failed to mention that $7 billion in loans and one-time saving are embedded in the spending plan and are used -- much as former Gov. Gray Davis did last year -- to paper over the state's spending problems one more time.
The budget, negotiated after a difficult 26-day standoff with the Legislature's Democratic majority, does little to resolve the spending imbalance either by raising taxes or cutting spending. Some say this plan may even make the problems bigger in the future because of funding agreements the governor and the Legislature have made with key interest groups, such as schools and local governments.
Some of these problems, administration officials said, will be addressed in the governor's long-awaited California Performance Review plan, which is expected to propose eliminating 12,000 state jobs, hundreds of state boards and commissions while possibly saving $32 billion over the next five years. But he will have to move that interest-attacking plan while also pushing for a budget that fixes many of the problems that remain unsolved.
HOME 
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote