This story was reported for the San Diego News Network on May 20, 2010.
It’s been a week since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced his May Revise and Californians have wasted no time in offering their opinions on his proposal to close the $19 billion deficit and the man himself.
In this edition of CBCD, I’ll focus on the swarm of opinions. And, if you haven’t already, you must read the main article surrounding the Governor’s plan.
(Brace yourself, Mister Governor, the last few months of your term in office will be crummy. But hey, at least you can say you’re the best looking Governor there is. And sometimes, well most of the time, looks are all that matter.)
Giving Schwarzenegger an F: Writing for BeyondChron.com, Lisa Schiff focuses on how the Governor has affected California’s public education system. She starts her commentary by noting that the “only good thing” about the May Revise is that it’s Schwarzenegger’s last one.
“The ‘Governator’ has made one final effort to destroy as many social programs as possible including public education where he is cutting the K-12 budget anywhere from just under $900 million to $1.5 billion, depending on who’s counting. And even with higher education, although he technically kept his bizarre pledge to increase funding for this sector, he did so at the cost of increased student fees, which can only reduce the overall effect.”
But, this isn’t the first time Schwarzenegger has made such cuts to education, Schiff writes.
“Throughout the entire span of his time in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger has seemed intent on both raiding public education funding and weakening the security of that funding. This revised budget continues in that same vein, even using some of the same trickery. For instance, the very first paragraph of the introduction to the budget summary claims that the Governor is ‘fully funding the Proposition 98 guarantee.'”
Schiff doesn’t just lash out at the Governor though (p.s. I refuse to use the pronoun “Governator;” that is so 2009), she says most budget problems can be fixed if the California Legislature amends the two-thirds majority vote needed to pass a fiscal-related bill.
The state is worse off: Jerry Roberts of The Santa Barbara Independent thinks Schwarzenegger is leaving California is a worst situation than when he stepped into the Capitol in 2003.
Roberts, pretty much, writes that Schwarzenegger failed at his attempt to lead the country’s most populated state.
“Seven years after he roared into Sacramento, having ousted and humiliated incumbent Governor Gray Davis in an unprecedented recall election, the action-hero politician is limping through the final months of a lame-duck term, surrounded by the wreckage of failed promises and squandered political opportunities to repair the Capitol’s dysfunction.
Handed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to lead California into an era of sweeping reform, the governor instead followed a path of policy blunders and misguided judgments, frittering away his political capital in favor of seeking to sustain his personal popularity. By choosing a seemingly easy way out of the budget tangle at the beginning of his term, he was left at its end with nothing but impossibly hard choices?—?and a popularity rating matching that of the disgraced governor he replaced.”
Roberts goes on to write that Schwarzenegger screwed up when he made three decisions relating to: vehicle license fees, short-term borrowing and “political overreaching.”
Reducing opportunities: Two Californians partner-up in this opinion piece featured in The San Francisco Chronicle.
Judy Patrick and Sandee Smith of the Women’s Foundation of California write that the budget cuts hurt women and families.
“The governor’s revision to the state budget is unconscionable. By completely eliminating CalWORKS, California’s welfare-to-work program, along with all child-care assistance, it unfairly saddles working mothers and families with balancing the budget and thwarts opportunities for low-income women to move themselves and their families out of poverty.
CalWORKS has had a life-changing effect for people like Deborha Valarde. A single mother of two, she is a full-time student at Chabot College, where she is working on her degree in human services. CalWORKS assistance has helped her to get her education, provided critical supports so that she can hold down a job, and put her on the path to self-sufficiency. ‘CalWORKS has enabled me to start to get back on my feet again. If the CalWORKS program ends, a lot of single parents, including myself, will be left with nothing and nowhere to turn.'”
Simply put, the ladies write, “The governor’s budget is unacceptable.”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a positive piece on Schwarzenegger. So, if you happen to stumble upon it…help me be fair and post a link to it on the comments section of this article. Until next week!
Associated Press writer Judy Lin contributed to this report. Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.