Democrats: Here Comes the Ole Spending Cap and Robocuts Scheme, Take Three

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

In 2003, in response to the threat of a $14 billion budget deficit (sound familiar?), Governor Schwarzenegger proposed -- but failed to pass -- a strict budget spending cap triggering automatic "robocuts" which even he later admitted would have had the effect of locking in billions of dollars in reductions to essential state services such as public safety.
 
In 2005, the Governor proposed and funded Proposition 76, a statewide initiative that would have once again set a strict spending cap, weakened Proposition 98 and given the Governor unilateral authority to make budget cuts to education, public safety and other services, whenever, wherever, he wanted.  It was overwhelmingly defeated by a 24-point margin.
 
This year, on the eve of the Governor’s State of the State and Budget announcement -- and, again, in the face of a $14-billion budget deficit -- the Governor appears to be eyeing opportunity in crisis and readying yet another run at a controversial spending cap/robocuts scheme.
 
Take a look at the Governor’s Radio Address this weekend, this time delivered by former Governor Pete Wilson. Even though it’s read by a “surrogate,” in the parlance of political communications, it’s clearly written by the Governor’s Office in an attempt to soften the ground for this week’s big announcements. And it appears to castigate past Legislatures for blocking previous attempts to impose a hard spending cap with automatic or unilateral budget reduction authority. In effect, it assigns sole responsibility to the Legislature for our current budget debacle.
 
Last week’s radio address by the Governor’s Budget Director Mike Genest struck a similar note, arguing that we have to “automatically reduce spending when revenues lag” (code for “give the Governor a machete and don’t ask questions”) and specifically blaming “the Legislature and the people” for this year’s budget predicament.
 
This budget crisis is real. It’s going to require frank creativity, shared sacrifice and political courage to meet the challenge. And it can’t be solved by pointing fingers and dusting off old, failed, discredited ideas ... or failed, discredited Governors, for that matter.