Cut Rhetoric, Then Budget

The rhetoric hit doomsday levels in Sacramento on Monday as the Legislature convened a special session to consider Gov. Gray Davis’ call for $10.2 billion in budget cuts over the next 18 months. Schools are the last place to cut, screamed a full-page ad paid for by an education coalition that includes teachers unions, the PTA and administrators. Not us, declared city and county governments. Democratic lawmakers demanded that cuts be balanced by tax increases. No new taxes, Republicans vowed.

Nothing will get done in that atmosphere. First, cut the rhetoric. And stop the increasingly ridiculous blame game, which included Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga saying, “Should I turn down an invitation to Hawaii simply because Gray Davis has bankrupted California?” Brulte was one of the lawmakers who went to Maui last week for a conference sponsored by the 26,000-member union of prison guards, who reaped a 37% salary hike last year. Brulte and the rest can prove their independence by digging into the $5.3-billion corrections budget for far more savings than the paltry $13.6 million that Davis seeks.

Yes, Davis helped cause some of the deficit, mostly by agreeing to bills passed by the Legislature to boost education and health spending rather than build reserves. But the big culprit is the precipitous drop in income taxes after the virtual collapse of Internet technology businesses.

The overcharged rhetoric is everywhere. The teachers union leader said the cuts would devastate the schools, but in truth the reduction would amount to only about 2% of total school income, which also includes local property taxes and federal aid.

Cutting school spending in the middle of the year will not be easy and will surely hurt some programs, but most of the harm will be temporary. The Legislature should give school districts as much flexibility as possible in how they spend state aid so they can better cope with cuts.

Davis’ own plan is a starting point for eliminating the deficit, expected to run more than $21 billion over the next year and a half, but he evaded the tough part: any mention of revenues or temporary tax increases, which will be necessary to close such a huge budget hole. He owes better leadership to the state, especially since he won’t be running for governor again. Only a strong governor ready to crack heads can get a reasonable budget out of the polarized Legislature.

Symbolism too will count. A good start would be eliminating the $100,000-plus yearly stipends paid to former legislators and other political favorites to sit on state bodies such as the Integrated Waste Management Board and the Medical Assistance Commission. That would not solve the deficit, but it would help make other cuts easier to swallow.