State Sen. Mike Machado laid it on pretty thick today in questioning a representative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the administration's budget proposals on prisons.
"You have given us a very incomplete proposal," Machado, D-Linden, told Department of Finance principal program analyst Jennifer Osborn at a budget subcommittee hearing on prison spending. "It's very hard for us to believe the governor is serious about this proposal."
Machado focused his questioning on Schwarzenegger's proposal to grant early releases to 22,000 inmates at the same time it's trying to expand prison capacity by 53,000 beds.
Osborn, for the most part, was at a loss for words and wound up leaving the hearing in tears.
"It's probably something that needs to be looked at," she said at one point, about the perceived inconsistencies in the governor's proposals.
"No, it has not," she replied later, when asked if consideration of employee staffing had been incorporated into the proposals.
"Yes," she said, when asked whether Schwarzenegger was serious about a plan that the Legislative Analyst's Office said would give 63,000 mid-level offenders carte blanche to steal, get high and deal dope, with almost no consequence.
"My understanding is that this is a serious proposal," Osborn said, when Machado asked whether Schwarzenegger really isn't just "rattling cages" with his budget plan.
Osborn's face reddened and her eyes swelled with tears during the questioning. Machado later apologized if anybody thought he played too tough.
"Jennifer is an outstanding analyst and an absolute professional," Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said of her afterwards. "Like everyone else in the Department of Finance who testifies before the Legislature, we do our level best to explain the governor's budget."
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