By Ralph E. Stone

June 14, 2009

Remember Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign promises during the 2003 recall election? While campaigning, Schwarzenegger hammered Governor Gray Davis over the budget. He promised to rein in state spending and repeatedly criticized Davis and Democratic legislators as “overspending addicts.” He further lambasted Davis for trying to balance California’s budget through the use of tricks and gimmicks.

Yet upon taking office, Schwarzenegger released his budget plan, which hinged upon passage of Proposition 57. Proposition 57 authorized the state to sell $15 billion in long-term bonds to pay off accumulated deficits. Passage of Proposition 57 incurred even more state debt, while deferring any real solution to the distant future. Schwarzenegger then resorted to typical Republican budget gimmickry, by raising various state fees, so he could continue to give lip service to opposing raises in taxes.

His tortured logic went something like this: Raising “fees” will help get us out of our fiscal hole, but raising “taxes” would be unfair to Californians and destructive to our economy. True to his word, one of his first acts as governor was to restore the vehicle license fee to its pre-deficit year levels by saying it was, in reality, a tax on the average Californian. This act, of course, deprived cities of an essential source of revenue.

And each budget season since, we have been “entertained” by some of the same “tricks and gimmicks” Schwarzenegger criticized Davis and the Democratic legislators for. The latest was the recent defeat of Propositions 1A through 1E.

The seemingly unstoppable cyborg of “Terminator” fame has become but a mere mortal Governator.