Well, the election is over. Dowd and Schmidt will be off on their merry way to whatever state will be next hoodwinked by those two. But us? We’re stuck with Arnold. This time it’s an Arnold that made some promises that he shouldn’t have, and the budget will be the worse for it.
Arnold made two statements that could have disastrous ramifications for our state in the upcoming year. One: “There really is no plan for the deficit”. You can view one of my Tracking Arnold videos the quote in question here. The disastrous nature of this quote is quite simple here. The man that was re-elected as Governor has no ideas of how to confront the pending defecit. And it’s no small one either, current best guess? 5 billion dollars. Yup, that’s with a “b.”
His other statement? The “I won’t raise taxes” pledge. How is he going to square the defecit and that pledge? Beats the hell out of me.
Once his victory celebration ends, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be in for a nasty post-election hangover — partly of his own making.
A host of daunting, potentially multibillion-dollar problems confront the governor as he begins his second and final term. Prisons are filled dangerously beyond capacity. Public schools are badly in need of reform, the governor has said. More than 6 million Californians lack health insurance. And a $5 billion budget deficit looms next year.
But Schwarzenegger faces those challenges constrained by his central, George H.W. Bush-esque campaign promise: No new taxes. How the governor reconciles his sweeping policy ambitions with that anti-tax stance could prove a defining challenge of his governorship.
“If the state’s economy grows and brings in new revenues, he’ll be able to hold to the no-taxes pledge” and pay for new programs, said Jack Pitney, a political-science professor at Claremont McKenna College. But that’s a big if.
“He may eventually face a situation,” Pitney added, “where the state will have to either raise taxes or make some very unpopular cuts.” (SJ Merc 11/13/06)
The no-taxes pledge will put our entire economy at risk. I know that’s a big statement, but it’s true. Will Arnold give ground and accept some new taxes or fees? Or will he become obstinate and demand cuts, likely from education as he did in 2003. If we do nothing, we will have to pay more interest (both rate and actual dollars), and our economy will begin to spiral out of control.
In the new legislative session, we need to boost up pressure upon Arnold to come up with some resolution to the structural defecits. All he has said so far is No. No vehicle license fee (aka car tax), No new taxes, No, No, No.
At some point, he’ll have to say yes. He cannot obstruct forever, and will eventually have to work with the Legislature to fix the structural deficit. These are hard decisions, and he’s got to pick a side.