There'll Be A Morning After

CA's political class - or at least the liberals and moderate Republicans who have been avoiding making the spending cuts the voters obviously want - is putting a brave face on the resounding defeat of their budget propositions. Legislators Jump Back Into Budget Mess

California's next budget battle begins this morning as state officials scramble to close a deficit that instantly swelled to $21.3 billion with Tuesday's overwhelming defeat of a package of fiscal ballot measures.

We'll wake up, dust ourselves off and get back to work," said state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, one of the authors of the ballot measures.

The clock already is ticking. Unless Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature can quickly agree on a way to bridge that budget gap, there's the likelihood of a late summer cash crunch, leaving California unable to pay its bills.

"The longer we wait, the worse the problem becomes and the more limited our choices will be," Schwarzenegger said in a statement conceding defeat Tuesday night.

Speed is everything, agreed state Controller John Chiang.

"We need to get it done right now," he said. "One of the mistakes last year was that in September we knew the budget was out of balance, but we didn't do anything until February. We can't wait that long."

Not to be snotty, but the budget negotiations last winter, and the subsequent down time between then and the Special Election yesterday were a colossal waste of time, inasmuch as the legislature attempted to avoid making spending cuts, and instead tried to pass highly unpopular tax increases and adenoidal budget cuts. And, having placed the fate of the budget in the hands of the voters, they made no real attempt to persuade the voters to approve the propositions. Apart from a few ads by the teachers union, there was little evidence of the tens of millions suposedly spent to pass these monsters. There was very little of the hub-bub that precedes a CA election: no robo-calls from Barbara Boxer, no flyers, no highway signs, nothing. The Governator started phoning it in weeks ago, and left for DC before the election.

Schwarzenegger spent election day in Washington, where he appeared alongside President Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony announcing new, tougher auto emission standards that California has been seeking for years.

The governor met later in the day with the California congressional delegation and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to ask for their support in dealing with proposed budget cuts that could violate federal rules for matching funds.

Schwarzenegger is scheduled to meet this morning with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius before he flies back to California for a 3:30 p.m. budget conference with legislative leaders from both parties.

Yes, the feds will help! We can start calling the bailouts the ABC Bailouts! Auto companies, Banks, and California! Should be very popular in 2010, if not sooner.