Angry Dems: Borrowing, How Dare You?
BUDGET DAY PLUS 17 -- A good example of just how heated the budget impasse is quickly getting can be found today in a dustup over whether legislators are mulling the option of internal borrowing to help erase the $15 billion shortfall.
The borrowing talk has been rampant for weeks in the Capitol, and has been pushed by some Republicans as a better plan than the Democratic call for raising taxes. The most talked-about scenarios involve borrowing money sitting in the accounts of transportation (through 2002's Proposition 42), early childhood development (1998's Proposition 10) and mental health programs (2004's Proposition 63). Some have also suggested exercising the borrowing option from the local government funding measure, 2004's Proposition 1A.
None of this would be easy. The various groups who support such programs will... and already are... howling; some of the money, while technically in the bank, may have already been committed for 2008; and the repayment of said loans only pushes a huge fiscal mess into another year.
The man with the biggest megaphone put the issue out there in today's edition of the Los Angeles Times. Governor Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying it's "not a good idea," though stopping short of refusing to go along with such a plan.
But Democrats, believing that the Times' story implicated them as pitching this plan, fired off angry press releases. "Today’s Los Angeles Times story about state budget negotiations is inaccurate and misleading," said Senate President pro Tem Don Perata in a written statement. Both he and Assembly Democrats emphasized that borrowing isn't a part of their plan -- fair enough, but like Schwarzenegger they, too, stopped short of refusing to vote for such a plan if Republicans hold the line on their no-tax pledge.
If Democrats are willing to consider such a GOP proposal, today's fracas may have set back such talk. But everyone also knows that $15 billion is not an easy gap to close... and in the end, something... spending cuts, taxes, or cuts... will have to give.
