This story was reported for San Diego News Network on November 24, 2009.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lieutenant governor appointment is causing a ruckus in the state senate chambers while credit card debt is piling up and prison jobs are being questioned. Just be thankful you’re not a California politician this Thanksgiving as you read this budget round-up.
New Lt. Gov.: Schwarzenegger appointed State Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) as California’s new lieutenant governor.
Schwarzenegger said he chose Maldonado because he has proven to have “the strength and courage… to reach across the partisan divide.”
“Sen. Maldonado shares my commitment to creating a transparent, accountable government that works for the people. He will be a true partner in solving the critical issues facing our state and building a stronger future for California,” Schwarzenegger said.
Maldonado, who has served in the senate since 2004, replaces John Garamendi who was recently elected to Congress. Among his many duties, Maldonado will serve as the senate president.
The second point man in the senate is having doubts though. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said appointing Maldonado will cost Californians money and that the state should wait until after the 2010 primary elections to appoint a lieutenant governor.
“First, confirming Sen. Maldonado will necessitate a special election to fill his Senate seat,” Steinberg said. “According to state elections officials, such an election would cost taxpayers more than $2 million. Rather than using taxpayer money to pay for an avoidable election, it may be wiser to use that $2 million to defray recent fee increases in our higher education system.”
Maldonado was the only Republican lawmaker to vote with Democrats during California’s budget impasse in February.
State debt: By the 2014-15 fiscal year, 10 percent of the state’s general fund will be consumed by debt.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the debt is due to voters authorizing “multibillion-dollar charges on the state’s infrastructure credit card.”
“They approved generational investments in roads, schools and levees, as well as hospitals and stem-cell research. At the time, fiscal experts projected that California at most would have to spend roughly 6 percent of its annual budget on payments.”
Compared to past years, the number is high. “Until this year, the state had not spent more than 5.7 percent of its general fund on debt,” The Bee reports. “The ratio now stands at 6.7 percent.”
Other factors that come into play are the obvious, like California’s declining revenues and the economy.
Prison jobs: State auditors said that California corrections officials overstated how many jobs they saved using more than $1 billion in federal stimulus money, listing thousands of jobs that were never in jeopardy.
In its report to the federal government last month, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported saving 18,229 correctional officer jobs since May by using the stimulus money to pay their salaries as the state struggled with a massive budget deficit.
State Auditor Elaine Howle questioned the total. The department is planning about 5,000 layoffs, less than a third of the jobs it claims to have saved.
The remaining 13,229 jobs appear never to have been in danger, Howle said Monday in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders.
“It appears that Corrections simply reported how many correctional officers’ salaries were paid with Recovery Act funding, regardless of whether these positions were truly at risk of being eliminated without federal funding,” she wrote.
The state auditor’s finding reflects broader concerns about how the federal government is tracking the $787 billion stimulus package and determining how many jobs across the country were saved or created. Corrections Undersecretary Mary Fernandez defended the department’s calculations.
“We followed the federal formula,” she said.
Associated Press writer Don Thompson contributed to this report. Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.