What They're Saying About...The Dems' 'Smoke and Mirrors' Budget

Los Angeles Times: “A number of the Republicans' proposals for pension limits, regulatory reform and spending restraints would have helped the state's long-term fiscal situation and improved the business climate in California.” (Editorial, California’s Grand Budget Bargain that wasn’t, 6/29/2011)

Sacramento Bee: “Gov. Jerry Brown said for months that he could broker a bipartisan budget deal. By agreeing to a majority-vote budget, passed by Democrats in the Legislature on Tuesday, he conceded he could not…” (David Siders, Dems go it Alone, Approve Budget, 6/29/2011)

• Sacramento Bee: “…the budget's shaky assumptions mean it could fall apart in months. The biggest and wobbliest assumption is that even though about $10 billion a year in temporary sales, income and car tax increases are expiring, the state will garner about $4 billion in previously unanticipated revenues because of an improving economy. Brown's bean counters didn't conduct a full revenue modeling exercise, as they do for proposed budgets earlier in the year, but rather did a horseback extrapolation from the somewhat higher than anticipated revenue of the last few months….Even if the shaky assumptions do become reality, however, the state still has a hefty structural deficit – and what Brown calls "a wall of debt" from past budgets – that could plague his second governorship for years to come.” (Dan Walters, Dan Walters: California’s New Budget Relies on Shaky Assumptions, 6/29/2011)

HealthyCal.org: “…while the budget might be balanced on paper, many of the solutions used to get there will last only one year, so a new shortfall of at least $6 billion is expected to pop up a year from now. If the economy is weaker than expected or state costs grow faster than projected, that shortfall will grow…” (Daniel Weintraub, New Budget, Same Old Problem, 6/28/2011)

The Orange County Register: “In a sense, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative Democrats conceded defeat this week. They agreed on a state budget that had no Republican support and, consequently, no legislatively imposed extension of temporary taxes…. This is a major taxpayer victory, courtesy of the GOP, whose members this time unanimously stood firm.” (Editorial, Budget Balanced with Dubious Fees, Hope, 6/28/2011)

Mercury News: “An agreement on a better budget was apparently close over the weekend. It was derailed, at least in part, by a failure to get pension reforms strong enough to win some Republican votes. And name-calling couldn't have helped. Did the governor's spokesman really have to call Republicans ‘moronic’?"(Editorial, Voters need to know Final Budget Offers from both Sides, 6/29/2011)

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