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$14 billion deficit could have been avoided

1/11/2008

Daily Pilot
GOP mostly applauds 10% budget cuts
Assemblymen Tran, DeVore say it is best to have across-the-board cutting...
Excerpted from an article by Chris Caesar, Michael Alexander and Joseph Serna

Local lawmakers said they approved of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commitment to cutting state spending, made as he unveiled his budget proposal Thursday at a Sacramento news conference. But opinions differed on his approach.

Schwarzenegger proposed cutting about 10% of the state budget across the board during a Sacramento news conference Thursday, in a move he hopes will make up for the state’s $14.5-billion deficit.

Local politicos — all Republican — said they were impressed with the governor’s speech, hitting home the talking point that plans to reduce the state deficit should not include “winners and losers.”

“We expected the across-the-board 10% cut,” Assemblyman Chuck DeVore said. “The concept is not to pick winners and losers, but to propose an across-the-board reduction in the increase of state spending. Once you start picking winners and losers, you really set off the spending lobby up in Sacramento.”

Another common thread: no new taxes. Both the governor and his legislative allies insisted the new budget should not include a tax increase, and expressed doubt the Democrats would try to pass such a measure. Some also expressed tentative interest in the governor’s perennial proposal to amend the state constitution and tie state spending with projected revenue.

“[Legislative Democrats] better think long and hard if they want to raise taxes, because there won’t be the votes for that in the legislature,” DeVore said. “They certainly need to be circumspect about it, because I can guarantee a backlash in the ballot box from Republicans who have been warning about Sacramento’s spending crisis for some time.”