May 01, 2008

Finding change in the seat cushions

You can't put too much faith in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's deficit numbers these days, but in an interview with Patt Morrison of KPCC Radio, the governor said he learned this week of "a few billion dollars that came in unexpected."

On the same day Schwarzenegger aides explained the governor's latest deficit figure had ballooned to $20 billion, the governor learned privately that tax receipts might be improving. In the KPCC interview, Schwarzenegger said Department of Finance Director Mike Genest told him Tuesday "we just got some good news the last few hours."

"And I said, 'What is that?' " Schwarzenegger explained. "He says, 'Well, there actually, there is a few billion dollars that came in unexpected.' So, you know, we budget, you deal with numbers, and so it changes all the time."

Schwarzenegger has been throwing out numbers left and right lately, most recently a $20 billion deficit figure that represents the worst-case scenario. He told KPCC his strategy is to "always look for the worst, and then we can always dial back from there."

"So I think it's better to just take the approach and say, let's take the worst of circumstances, and then go and go from there," he said, "rather than always painting a perfect picture, and then the revenues are not there."

Schwarzenegger is expected to decide on a concrete deficit projection May 14, when he issues his revised budget.

Posted by Kevin Yamamura on May 1, 2008 03:39 PM