Schwarzenegger

Josh Gerstein -- the California-based national correspondent for the New York Sun and, for my money, the best reporter alive -- last night mentioned to me a discrepancy between what Gov. Schwarzenegger said Wednesday during a press briefing in Big Sur on the fires there and what the gubernatorial transcript said he said.

One word was different, but oh, what a word! That word is "ballsy."

Schwarzenegger, in response to a question, was describing the mindset of people who remain in their homes and defy evacuation orders.

According to Gerstein and what I hear on the recording distributed by the governor, Schwarzenegger said: "I am going to stay in my house and I am ballsy and all those things."

The transcript says: "I'm going to stay in my house and I'm boss and all those things."

As someone who has transcribed literally hundreds of hours of Arnold Schwarzenegger talking, I have sympathy for the transcription service. His syntax and accent is all his own, and not always easy to understand. But this sounds very clear to me. You be the judge: The video is available here.

The governor of California said an extraordinary thing Monday. July 1 is the beginning of the new fiscal year, so the budget is now officially late. There's a $15.2 billion shortfall. But when the governor was asked about why he wasn't pushing legislators for an on-time budget, Schwarzenegger replied, "Well, first of all, I don't know at what stage they are in at this time."

This ignorance is inexcusable. Yes, legislators pass budgets and governors sign them. Yes, Schwarzenegger has had success in the past leaving negotiations on key matters, including the budget, to lawmakers. Yes, he's been criticized publicly in the past (including my your blogger) for getting too deeply into the details of the budget. But managing the budget is arguably the most important gubernatorial duty. If it's not #1 in importance, it's in the top 3. And Schwarzenegger is the only official in the Capitol elected by all the people. Legislators represent their districts. He's supposed to represent the interests of all of us. If he doesn't know exactly what's going on in the budget process, how can he represent us?

What's more, this governor has campaigned around the state for a rainy-day fund and a lottery borrowing proposal as part of his budget plan. He should be closely monitoring the twists and turns of these talks to advance his budget reform plans. 

Here's my attempt, at Fox and Hounds, to expand on a post from last week. It turns out there is one governor more opposed to tax increases than Arnold.

Surprise, surprise. Democratic supporters of the redistricting initiative backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (a Republican) and former state controller Steve Wesly (a Democrat), are accusing Democratic regulars of trying to intimidate them. The party has come out against the redistricting measure.

Here's my piece from today's Los Angeles Times on the idea of borrowing against future lottery revenues. (Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Assembly both have proposed doing it).

The ballot initiative, sponsored by Gov. Schwarzenegger and others, would take the power to draw state legislative districts -- but not Congressional districts -- away from state legislators and instead give the drafting role to a citizens' commission. Such measures have a perfect record in California--they always lose. But opponents have been a little slow to organize, and perhaps the initiative can escape attack and attention, what with the presidential election and the gay marriage initiative on the same ballot. Don't bet on it, however. 

It's not much, but there are stirrings of life that Gov. Schwarzenegger's political and ballot measure committee, the California Dream Team (which replaces the previous California Recovery Team, since the state has so obviously recovered), is preparing to fight for his budget reform plan. Lists have been emailed, and the team is asking voters to contact their legislators. This is an uphill fight, and while there are problems with Schwarzenegger's proposal, he is the only major actor who is pursuing his major budget reform this year. If he can sell this, Schwarzenegger can fulfill at least part of his promise from the recall to fix the budget and perhaps breathe new life into his governorship.

The current governor and the once (and future?) governor have had a warm relationship, campaigning together for municipal finance protections and against changes in the state's three strikes law. But Monday, during a long Schwarzeneggerian soliloquy at a Riverside event to promote his rainy day fund proposal, the governor took a shot at Brown in response to a question from a Southern California Gas official about the state's infrastructure problems. Here's the direct Arnold quote in the transcript, in full context:

"Well, California for 40 years has not really rebuilt our infrastructure in water, so we have now the stuff that was done under Governor Brown from the '60s. Not Jerry Brown, but Pat Brown, because Jerry Brown did not build infrastructure. They stopped building infrastructure when Reagan came in and so Pat Brown was the last one that built infrastructure. And so, since then our population has gone from 18 million to 38 million but we haven't built any new infrastructure. So, you still have the same water delivery system, we still have the same amount of reservoirs that are now between 50 and 75 percent down. We're running out of water, so there's a major problem."

Former speaker Fabian Nunez, a Democrat, shows up on today's Sacramento Bee editorial page to make the argument for Schwarzenegger's plan to borrow/securitize lottery revenues in order to reduce the deficit and fund a new rainy day fund. the lottery plan would require voter approval. Nunez continues to oppose the spending limitations in the governor's budget reform proposal. 

The former speaker's take may explain the governor's recent behavior. He seems detached from the budget, leaving any talks to legislative players. He has sounded very confident publicly that lawmakers ultimately will have to adopt something like his plan. He speaks as a man who has looked at all the other options, and found none.

Tom Elias is an independent columnist who was the first journalist to write about the possibility of a recall of then-California Gov. Gray Davis. He weighs in with a new column in which he says that for all the interest and excitement the recall and Davis' susccessor Arnold Schwarzenegger have sparked, the state is no  better off than it would have been without the recall.