Alone

Your blogger had to spend yesterday afternoon and evening on some personal business. He woke up this morning to find himself almost alone among politicians and commentators in arguing that Gov. Schwarzenegger's May revise sets the stage for a breakneck push for budget reform. (Whether that reform is a good idea is another story. His proposal's focus on the spending side makes it incomplete).

But commentators have dismissed much of what he's proposed as gimmicks or borrowing. At the Sacramento Bee, Dan Weintraub writes that Schwarzenegger has surrendered in his attempts to balance the budget. His full funding of the Prop 98 education guarantee -- an essential strategic move if he wants to maintain enough popularity to convince voters to adopt any kind of budget reform -- is largely dismissed, and the resulting proposed cuts to health and human services programs are emphasized in responses from legislators (via Sac Bee). Others argue that the budget is not fiscally responsible -- true, but it's politically the right approach if you believe, as the governor appears to believe, that the only way for California to get a handle on its persistent budget problems is major structural reform of the process itself.

Many of the stories suggest Schwarzenegger is punting to voters as though it was evidence of a risk-adverse governor. It's the opposite--a high-risk manuever. If he doesn't deliver bugdet reform, it could be fork-sticking time for his governorship. (Fork sticking as in what you do with sausages when they're done).