What Balanced Budget?

More debunking from the reality-based community, this time about Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget for California:

LAO (Legislative Analyst's Office) Bottom Line. Based on our revenue and expenditure projections, we estimate that the adoption of the Governor’s budget plan would result in a $726 million deficit in 2007-08 (compared to the administration’s January 10th estimate of a $2.1 billion reserve). The difference in these numbers is due principally to our lower estimates of revenue in both the current and budget years, but also due to higher expenditure estimates, primarily related to Proposition 98. Adoption of the plan would also leave the state with large operating shortfalls in future years, unless additional corrective actions are taken. Thus, the Legislature will face major challenges in crafting a budget for the coming year. We believe that the primary focus should be on finding additional budget savings and/or revenues to address the near- and longer-term shortfalls. Should these solutions be insufficient to cover the full magnitude of the budget shortfall, however, the state can also achieve some near-term savings by reducing the amount of supplemental repayments on deficit-financing bonds relative to the $1.6 billion proposed in the budget.

We're also not getting in the tax revenue in California that way we were a year or two ago. The 2008-09 deficit under this plan would balloon to $3.4 billion. And yes, deficits matter. They matter in service cuts, they matter in forcing the constant borrowing that shifts the burden to future generations, they matter for the state's credit rating, they matter for all sorts of reasons. And remember, this is BEFORE factoring in Arnold's health care proposal, which relies on $3 billion in federal funding that the Congress simply will not give.

Juls has more, including a look at the warped priorities of this Governor:

Arnold is attempting to balance the budget on the backs of UC and CSU students. There is no reason to have increases that high, when expenses are not increasing at the same rate. The expenditure growth rate provides another strong argument for a fair contract between the California Faculty Association and the state. After watching years of huge tuition increases and massive executive's pay hikes, it is past time to bring CSU faculty's compensation into line with similar institutions in other states.

Shorter Arnold: I believe that children aren't our future.

Here's the whole report. These Democrats who said "Schwarzenegger's one of us" during the campaign ought to read it.