Governor: Two Revised Budget Proposals Coming Thursday

Joe Mathews — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:22:00 -0400

Gov. Schwarzenegger said this morning that he's going to release two revised budget proposals on Thursday so that voters understand the consequences of their vote in next Tuesday's special election.

Traditionally, governors release a "May revise" -- a revised version of their January budget -- but Schwarzenegger's announcement, made after a meeting with local officials at a senior center in Culver City, was a bit of a surprise. (Some of his own aides hadn't known this was coming). The governor had previously said he would release a May revise after the election, on May 28. Your blogger was there, along with a surprisingly small number of TV and radio reporters.

Schwarzenegger didn't offer a long explanation, but apparently, he wants to give voters a "Door #1" or "Door #2" approach. One revised proposal would show what Schwarzenegger contends the budget will look like if the special election measures, Props 1A thru 1E, pass next Tuesday. The other would show what he contends the budget will look like if the measures fail. The governor said he wanted to make sure that voters have "a clear understanding" of what their vote will mean.

Schwarzenegger also expressed some frustration that voters seem to be prepared to vote "no" to send a message of frustration about their elected leaders. The trouble, the governor said, is that voters will be the ones hurt most if the measures pass. He raised specifically the possibility of borrowing local government moneys. That prospect drew a pointed rebuke from a city councilman from the east Los Angeles county suburb of Whittier (Richard Nixon's hometown), who said that municipalities shouldn't to make "sub-prime" loans to the state, which he called not a credit-worthy entity.

Update Monday afternoon: a friend of the blog points out correctly that with Prop 1C almost certainly going down to defeat, there may not be that much difference between Door #1 and Door #2. In terms of upfront budget savings, Prop 1C accounts for $5 billion of the approximately $6 billion. in terms of long-term budget help, Prop 1A, however, is a big deal, producing an estimated $16 billion in taxes (albeit two years from now) by extending new temporary taxes from two years to four years.