All of a sudden, lawmakers are in a rush. They've had 11 weeks to pass a budget. Now they are preparing to slam one through as soon as this evening.
Why the hurry? They don't want the sunshine. The "get-out-of-town" budget deal they've hatched seems to be so based on shaky presumptions and gimmicks that lawmakers don't want to give the public and the media time to vet it.
Otherwise it would implode. It should.
Precise details are still sketchy, but to reduce the bulk of the $15.2 billion deficit, lawmakers would make about $9 billion in spending cuts. The list won't be public until today.
The rest of the shortfall would be eliminated, at least on paper, by closing tax loopholes, doing a tax amnesty and enacting what leaders call "accelerated revenue collections."
Legislative leaders are slapping themselves on the back for not raiding local government or transportation funds. Such a raid would have spiked next year's deficit, since the borrowing would have to be paid back with interest.
Even so, this deal would leave the state with a big deficit next year. How big? Who knows? And with the deal envisioning a ballot measure to approve borrowing proceeds from a souped-up lottery, the 2009-10 deficit could spike by billions more.
Why would both parties take this slippery route? Republicans want to trumpet they held the line against taxes – a bit of fib, since the deal would close tax loopholes. Democrats want to claim they protected social services and education, even though one or the other could be threatened by borrowing future lottery proceeds.
For his part, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be tempted to veto such a package because it includes a "rainy day fund" reform that may be weaker than he has advocated. But that's not the reason to reject this proposal. California needs a budget solution that eliminates the deficit this year and next. The governor's August proposal, by increasing taxes, would have met this standard. He should stick to his guns.
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