The Waiting is the Hardest Part
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."
That's a pretty good message for occupants of California's statehouse, words attributed to a guy who's getting a lot of attention this week: 16, in current presidential parlance. Abraham Lincoln.
One more, you say? How about this one from the current top guy, 44, spoken a couple of weeks before he took office last month.
"Our problem is not just a deficit of dollars," said President Barack Obama. "It's a deficit of accountability and a deficit of trust."
Both quotes seem worth pondering as just about every observer of California politics and public policy waits for some kind of compromise agreement on the state's massive $40 billion budget shortfall.
The lack of actual news to report on those closed door negotiations has meant that Californians either are subjected to countless navel gazing news stories about what might be going on or what should be going on... or... those same citizens, devoid of any evidence to the contrary, are left to believe their elected leaders are doing nothing.
(It's worth noting that the secret budget talks are taking a lot of flack in the mainstream media of late. Regardless of your opinion, it's also worth noting that similar private "Big Five" gatherings have been employed in just about every single budget negotiation in California for the last 18 years. The process may be open to criticism, but it's certainly nothing new.)
In the meantime, what actual news there is continues to be grim. Aides to Governor Schwarzenegger announced today plans to eliminate 10,000 state jobs by July. Those plans, which involve putting 20,000 state employees on notice and ultimately voting the least senior workers off the island, include formal notification by week's end if no budget deficit deal is struck. The move would reportedly save $750 million in the upcoming budget year.
"The longer we go" without a deal, said guberntorial press secretary Aaron McLear, "the bigger the problem gets and the more drastic the options become."
And just this afternoon, the state's top financial officer released the final cash tallies for January... and you won't be surprised to hear they're not good. Controller John Chiang said that although the month's revenues were actually a little better than Schwarzenegger aides projected they'd be, January '09 produced $2.18 billion less in tax revenues than did January '08. And Chiang said that the state only has about $6 on hand for every $10 worth of bills that are due this month -- the reason he's poised to delay hundreds of millions of dollars in payments.
"With receipts running this short, the Legislature and governor must move with all haste to craft a new budget with sound solutions," said Chiang in a written statement.
Until that happens, we're all waiting. And waiting some more. It's probably not hyperbole to say that this $40 billion proposal will be the most closely scrutinized and most important fiscal plan of action to which these elected officials have ever agreed. With years of gimmicks and sleights of hand in their rearview mirror, everyone -- especially those of us in the press -- will be asking tough questions about how any mix of spending cuts and tax increases really solves the state's problems, and whether the solution eases, or exacerbates, the problems in the years to come.
We'll also wonder how much time there will be for anyone -- reporters or the public -- to examine the "deal" before it's signed into law. The conventional wisdom is that our collective head will spin at how fast things are ratified inside the Capitol, with the theory that interest groups won't have time to ratchet up the political fear in legislators about the consequences on election day of a deal that includes too many concessions of one flavor or another.
Which brings to mind another presidential quip... courtesy of number 32: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
