The message of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s press conference this afternoon to introduce his revised May budget?
I told you so.
Schwarzenegger mentioned that the budget was bad but focused mostly on
his argument that things might have been better if legislators had
adopted his fiscal proposals over his seven years in office.
He
talked about budget reform and a real rainy day fund: "I have proposed
that so many times," he lamented. "I have begged." He claimed a
previous rainy day proposal of his would have created a $12 billion
reserve, which he said could have been spent over four years to prevent
university tuition increases and teacher layoffs.
He noted his
longtime support for pension reforms. And he made a case for the
long-politically-dead suggestions of last year’s tax reform commission.
Schwarzenegger stood in front of a poster showing the volatility of
income and capital gains revenues.
Schwarzenegger made some
good points; others are debatable. How much better would have his
unsuccessful budget proposals – such as Prop 1A in the 2009 special
election, or Prop 76 in 2005 – have made things? It’s hard to
know without being able to travel back in time Terminator style.
But his laments conveyed his utter powerlessness in fiscal matters. Budget-wise, this Cassandra is one very lame duck.