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Sacramento Bee

May 16, 2010

Editorial: Slashing the safety net with a machete

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says state budgets are supposed to reflect our collective values. But the vision in the revised budget he proposed on Friday to theoretically close a $19.1 billion budget gap is not the California we know.

The governor proposes to cut aid for the weak, the poor and the unpopular. He proposes to reduce or eliminate help for the developmentally disabled, the mentally ill, children of mothers on the skids, and elderly people who need help to stay in their apartments and not end up in nursing homes.

Schwarzenegger has partners in abandoning the Golden Dream. The proposal is the cumulative effect of many years of bad decisions – by Democrats, who are in the majority in the Legislature; by Republicans, who exert significant control over tax decisions; and by interest groups that exert far too much control over them all.

Here is what these decisions have led to: Serious contemplation about taking a $694-a-month check from a mother and her two children.

But at least, Republicans would be able to say they didn't raise taxes, and Democrats could say they protected public employee pensions that the state cannot afford.

Schwarzenegger's proposals would end California's welfare program, CalWORKs. That would "save" taxpayers $1.1 billion, but cost far more. The Golden State would have no responsibility for providing basic aid to 1.4 million individuals, including about a million children.

And welfare mothers with visions of getting back into the job market would have a harder time. He would cut a $1.2 billion welfare program that provides child care for 142,000 kids.

He would cut $600 million for the mentally ill, leaving them without emergency services and stabilizing medication, and end a $53 million subsidy for methadone for 160,000 drug addicts.

We assume many would end up in jails, which would be far more crowded, given his proposal to cut prison costs by having counties house 15,000 felons who now go to state prison.

Schwarzenegger's new plan trims $445 million by reinstating a forced furlough day per month for state workers. He already proposed they take a 5 percent pay cut and increase pension contributions by 5 percent.

In past years, the governor and Legislature agreed to cut spending on health and social welfare programs, only to find themselves on the losing end of lawsuits brought by interest groups.

The governor's lawyers say that instead of trimming programs, which may or may not be legal under federal law, the state is within its rights to eliminate entire programs.

That is what Schwarzenegger has proposed, while also seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of lower court decisions that limit the state's ability to preserve parts of some programs. That makes sense, but doesn't relieve leaders of the need to take action.

In crisis, there is opportunity. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento is calling for a reorganization of the state's relationship with counties. Schwarzenegger is calling for an overhaul of budget practices and the public employee pension system. Governors and legislators have let opportunities slip away before. We hope this one is different. But the signs are not good.

What is truly sickening is the gleeful reaction of anti-tax groups to the governor's plan not to seek higher levies or close tax loopholes. The fact that they won't even acknowledge the pain caused by a no-tax proposal suggests they welcome what will happen to seniors, the disabled and the poor.

Schwarzenegger, usually optimistic, was somber when he announced his proposal, appropriately so. But the sense of doom apparently did not slow the perpetual campaign.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and several other Democrats were spending the weekend in Pebble Beach for what euphemistically is called the "Speaker's Cup." It's one of the year's fanciest fund-raisers.

The speaker's junket adds to the air of unreality that accompanies Schwarzenegger's budget plan and the refusal, so far, of some lawmakers to face up to California's worst financial crisis.