Cut To The Bone And More To Trim

Via Atrios, turns out California's nasty, ugly, hideous 2009 budget battle will only get worse in 2010.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated Monday that California's budget will fall out of balance by $5 billion to $7 billion this fiscal year, on top of a $7.4 billion gap already projected for 2010-11.

If true, state leaders would confront at least a $12.4 billion to $14.4 billion problem when Schwarzenegger releases his budget in January. California currently has an $84.6 billion general fund budget.

The Republican governor spoke with The Fresno Bee editorial board Monday after signing a bill placing a water bond on the November 2010 ballot.

He emphasized deep spending cuts as a budget solution but did not mention tax increases. Schwarzenegger and legislators agreed to cuts to education and social services, as well as temporary tax hikes, in two budget deals earlier this year.

"We are not out of the woods yet. ... The key thing is, we have to go and still make cuts and still rein in the spending," Schwarzenegger said. "It will be tougher because I think the low-hanging fruits and the medium-hanging fruits are all gone. I think that now we are going to the high-hanging fruits, and very tough decisions still have to be made."

A good $12-14 billion worth of tough decisions. And of course, what's not on the table is tax hikes.

A solid majority, 65%, opposed plans to place sales tax-like levies on services such as legal advice and car repairs. A proposal to flatten the income tax to make the state less dependent on the wealthy was opposed by 48% of voters and supported by just 33%. The nonpartisan panel had endorsed the argument made by many budget experts that income taxes from wealthy residents make state finances too erratic because they rise and fall dramatically as the stock market moves.

Another proposal being pushed by budget reformers, although not the commission, would ease the restrictions on property tax increases put in place three decades ago by Proposition 13. That idea was also unpopular. Just 30% of voters support such changes even if they would affect only commercial property and not residences.

"They keep taxing and taxing and taxing," said one of the poll respondents, William Owen, 49, an attorney from Orange County who is registered as unaffiliated. "They can't even control the money they already have. . . . And all we're paying for are things like more and more illegal immigration."

Nobody likes taxes. Even fewer like paying more taxes. And the notion in California that the only people that benefit from programs that taxes pay for are all illegal immigrants is stupid.

But railing against and voting against one's own self-interest has been the victorious hallmark of the Gingrich/Armey/Dubya era of the last 15 years. We became the nation of "I'm keeping mine, screw you!" It hasn't even occurred to most folks in California that the state does anything other than coddle illegal immigrants and tax people for it.

The $12 billion plus in spending cuts on top of the this year's $15 billion aren't just going to affect "illegals", folks.