10 things our state voters hate

Published online on Sunday, May. 17, 2009

On Tuesday, California voters are primed to blow up a budget compromise that took Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature months to reach. But the public never believed the politicians had fixed the problem in February, and the polls show voters killing the key propositions that were part of the budget deal.

There are many reasons voters never bought into the propositions on the special election ballot. But the main one was the politicians had lost their credibility on financial issues.

The irony is that Gov. Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg still think people aren't onto them when they make budget statements. Here's a money-saving idea: They should fire their high-priced financial advisers because their credibility gap is bigger than the budget gap.

Now the governor is panicking, offering a doomsday scenario if the voters turn down the budget package on Tuesday. But even if the governor isn't using scare tactics, it doesn't matter. He lost the trust factor a couple of special elections ago.

Here are 10 reasons that Californians don't believe anything Sacramento politicians say about the state budget:

1. They rely on experts who can't get their numbers straight. Revenue forecasts are so far off, you'd think budget analysts drank tequila all night, spun themselves in a circle and then threw numbers up on the wall. The governor screams, "Fantastic" and they print 10,000 copies of a make-believe budget.

2. Key budget lawmakers are so disengaged that they went on overseas junkets instead of attending the governor's emergency budget session in December. Need more proof that getting a balanced budget is a game with lawmakers?

3. Even in good economic times, legislators refused to pass budgets by the constitutional deadline. That willingness to ignore their sworn duty says everything you need to know about their commitment to the rule of law.

4. Even though the state is headed for bankruptcy, legislative leaders thought it was a good idea to give their staff members pay increases -- proposing pay hikes twice in the past six months.

5. Lawmakers are so into ripping off the taxpayers that they call phony legislative sessions just so they can get their per-diem payments on long holiday weekends.

6. Lawmakers can't pass a balanced budget, but they'll pass bills banning wild burros from private property and exempting golf carts from traffic laws in upscale communities.

7. They regularly refuse to do away with needless state agencies such as the Integrated Waste Management Board just so they have a place to put their disgraced colleagues when voters toss them out of office.

8. They created a public pension system that pays 5,000 state and municipal retirees more than $100,000 a year while taxpayers worry whether they'll even have pensions when they retire.

9. They encourage California's two public university systems to raise student fees while giving administrators lavish salaries and perks.

10. They don't understand that you can't spend more money than you take in.

So as Tuesday's election approaches, the politicians have run out of gimmicks. California has never been in such disarray, and this mess has developed on Schwarzenegger's watch.

Even if the ballot measures pass on Tuesday, the state would have a $15.4 billion deficit. But then, that's a "balanced budget" in the world of our Sacramento politicians.