Willie Brown I was up in Sacramento last week, and they are in total panic mode.
Everyone I talked with appeared resigned to the likelihood that the ballot measures aimed at extending taxes, cutting programs and borrowing billions against the lottery in Tuesday’s special election are going down. It is just as clear that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to do exactly what he says and lay off thousands of state workers and teachers, and release tens of thousands of prisoners early. State programs will be cut like never before, and state assistance to local government will vanish. The seeds of this disaster were sown years ago, both by Schwarzenegger and by the Legislature, but neither side wants to face that fact. The Legislature put together a leaky budget boat by building unrealistic annual spending into law.
Then Schwarzenegger kicked a hole in it with his reduction of the vehicle license tax.