Governor has one shot left

Published online on Sunday, Jun. 07, 2009

Arnold Schwarzenegger's tenure as California governor could have been a landmark time for the Golden State. There were big problems, but they could have been big opportunities to fundamentally change the direction of California government. Schwarzenegger had a chance to be as big in politics as he was in action movies.

But as the governor enters his last 18 months in office, the state's problems have only increased, and he seems helpless to guide California out of its financial problems, let alone set it on a visionary course.

We might as well have kept wimpy old Gray Davis running the state instead of recalling him in 2003. Schwarzenegger turned out to be just as ineffective, although he tried harder than the cautious Davis. But Schwarzenegger bounced from issue to issue, suggesting the kind of attention span that doomed Jerry Brown's governorship.

Schwarzenegger's instincts were right when he took over, and the government reforms he proposed would have helped reverse the state's decline. But he didn't have the political strength to get them enacted, and that was surprising considering how popular he was when he swept into office six years ago.

Early political missteps got compounded by an inability to control legislative members of his own party. Democrats who run the Legislature went limp when tough decisions were called for, and Schwarzenegger often joined them.

The result is that Schwarzenegger is presiding over the demise of California government as we know it. By not dealing with the budget deficit early, the entire structure -- including the state's all-important safety net -- is threatened. Schwarzenegger has even suggested throwing out the entire welfare program to help close the budget gap.

So poor people suffer because Schwarzenegger and the Legislature couldn't slow down spending at a point when it could have been controlled. And they learned nothing. The budget gap keeps increasing while a solution is delayed.

The $15 billion shortfall in February when the governor and Legislature "solved" the problem grew to $22 billion in May. A month later, it's at $24.3 billion. Simple math should tell Schwarzenegger and lawmakers that unless you stop spending more money than you take in, the gap will only get bigger.

Although this budget mess has exploded on Schwarzenegger's watch, the Democratic leadership in the Legislature are just as much to blame. They can't say no to their special interest pals, and that has limited what Schwarzenegger can do.

The governor also didn't get any help from other Democrats in a position to oversee state finances. For example, Controller John Chiang would whine about the state running out of money, and then he'd block Schwarzenegger initiatives to save money. One example was the governor's order to temporarily cut state workers' pay to the federal minimum. Chiang refused, but a court said the controller was wrong.

This case shows how Democrats dance to the tune of public employee unions.

To the governor's credit, he has been willing to take on the unions, but he lacks clout at this stage of his administration.

The best thing that could happen, though, would be for Schwarzenegger to get tough and really mean it. He's made so many budget threats during his tenure that no one believes him.

So let's have a new beginning for the governor. Forget about all the mistakes of the past, and get a budget that doesn't push the problem off to the next governor. Schwarzenegger has one last opportunity to salvage his administration.

He can be persuasive with lawmakers at times, and he needs to show Democratic leaders Karen Bass and Darrell Steinberg that it's also in their interest to get a realistic budget passed.

It would be a terrible waste if the story of Schwarzenegger's governorship is written in the red ink that has dominated his budgets.