CA Democrats solution: Spend money they don’t have

posted at 2:25 pm on June 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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California faces a $23 billion deficit that could put the state in default by this summer.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has belatedly discovered that Californians don’t want the state to hike taxes yet again, but wants the state to cut its spending, and to his credit, he’s trying to do just that.  California Democrats have a different idea — raiding reserves that don’t exist to keep spending money the state doesn’t have:

With California rapidly running out of money, Senate Democrats cut to the chase Tuesday, saying they will not accept decimating the state’s safety net and unveiling the skeleton of their own budget-balancing proposal.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg pushed for raiding much of the state’s proposed $4.5 billion budget reserve next year to bankroll key health, welfare and college aid programs.

“The purpose of a rainy-day fund is to provide funds for a rainy day,” he said. “It’s thunder and lightning in California right now.”

The only fly in this ointment is that the ointment doesn’t exist.  The reserves are a projected surplus, said projection provided by the same folks that predicted the winter’s tax hike would prevent the current budget crisis.  The budget puts that much aside for next year, but that assumes that revenues will match projections, and California’s in its current mess because it couldn’t predict revenues properly. Even if it existed, though, California uses its reserves to fight wildfires and respond to other routine natural disasters.

Schwarzenegger, who has aligned himself with the Democrats for the last few years, scoffed at the notion that raiding the reserves would help:

The governor said it is “wishful thinking” or “hallucinatory” to believe that the state’s proposed $4.5 billion reserve fund next year is ripe for raiding by lawmakers.

This demonstrates to Californians that their political class lacks the will and fortitude necessary to make tough decisions.  That includes Schwarzenegger, who inexplicably took off the table almost $5 billion in state services to people in the country illegally:

He said the cost of services to illegal immigrants, which has been estimated at $4 billion to $5 billion annually, is a “small percentage” of the deficit California faces.

“Yes, it is something that ought to be dealt with, but the fact of the matter is, I think it’s an easy scapegoat for people to point the finger and say, ‘Our budget is out of whack because of illegal immigrants.’ “

No, it’s out of whack because of California’s legislature and executive, but now they need to start cutting services.  Is 20% a “small percentage”?  Shouldn’t the people who live in California legally get a higher priority than those who live there illegally?  Schwarzenegger offered this weird response:

“You know something, as far as I’m concerned, I’m happy that they can get the services,” he said Friday. “Because I would like to have the services if I’m somewhere in another country … if I have an accident with a motorcycle and I go to an emergency room, I don’t want someone to say, is he here legally?”

Step One: Travel legally.  Step Two: Keep your passport with you at all times.  Step Three: If you decide to live abroad, make sure you comply with the law in the country in which you will live.  It’s really not that difficult, Arnold — and you should know, because you did it yourself.

Californians should take this lesson from the debacle: the political class they have now in Sacramento will never solve the problem, because they’re more interested in pandering to narrow constituencies than in what’s best for California.  They’re drowning in red ink, and the response has been to pour more red ink into the pool.

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