California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger scored a huge political victory yesterday as the California legislature voted in favor of his new budget bill.
The bill is the result of compromise by Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans, who had pushed for tougher economic measures, after Democrats who control both houses blocked their attempts last week.
One large downfall is the $15 billion bond deal. However, there are some bright spots. My favorite provision is the one that stipulates California cannot outspend revenues in any given year.
The package has many provisions, including a mandate that spending cannot exceed revenues in any year, and long-term borrowing to pay operating expenses would not be allowed, except for the 15-billion-dollar bond.
Some Republicans are calling for actual cuts–they are right to do so–but in a state government that is overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats, this bill is just about the only thing that had a chance of passing, and was almost held up by state Democrats until finally breaking through yesterday. Certainly, some control on spending is better than none at all. [mirror]