The Shameful Abyss

Off on a trade mission in Hong Kong on Monday, Gov. George Deukmejian boasted of his balanced budgets for California. But the 1988-89 budget that he signed into law on July 8 is not balanced. It is not even complete. Legislative leaders of both parties begin negotiations this week in an effort to finish the work that was left undone. Their effort is critical and will require considerable skill and political courage. In the end the key is for both Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature to present a united front to the governor. They must persuade him that California is pricing itself out of the competitiveness contest by being so miserly and by allowing state services to decline at such an alarming rate.

Only by the most convoluted accounting is the new budget in balance. That is, it proposes that the state spend no more money than it will take in during the fiscal year. But there is no balance between the state’s most basic needs and what is provided by the budget.

While the governor was extolling the virtues of California to Hong Kong businessmen, it was disclosed that nine of the nation’s 10 busiest freeway interchanges now are in California. The state loses $2 billion annually because of traffic delays and damage caused by deteriorating roadways, the report said.

As the governor gave his California pep talk, a new report showed more than 5 million Californians having no access to any sort of health finance assistance, whether private insurance or Medi-Cal or Medicare coverage. Health care suffered the biggest and bluntest cuts when the governor vetoed $472 million from the new state budget.

And as Deukmejian touted the riches of the California economy, Los Angeles County officials said that the mentally ill are being forced to wait for as long as 12 days before receiving treatment in a psychiatric ward. The latest cuts in state assistance may force the county to close seven outpatient mental-health clinics by Sept. 1 and to curtail services at others.

These are just a few examples that have made the news in the past several days. Not long ago California was the leader in virtually any category of public service, from the most efficient freeways to the best education system, the best state parks and in compassion for the poor. Today California languishes far down in the list of states in almost every department, and at the bottom of some, like 50th in per-capita spending for highways and average school-class size. These are not signs of excellence and building for the future. Outsiders will not invest in California just because taxes have declined. The quality of life and services are critical factors.

The Legislature has before it a Senate-passed revenue bill that would allow for restoration of the most grievous of budget cuts executed by both the Legislature and the governor: a $560-million measure that would not raise taxes but would accelerate the collection of some taxes. A major cause of this year’s budget emergency was the unexpected under-collection of taxes, providing a windfall for many taxpayers.

The speedup of some tax collections is a minimal, reasonable response to this state fiscal emergency. It will not reverse the degradation of services that Californians have suffered in recent years. But it may at least keep the state from plunging further into the shameful abyss of mediocrity.