Hayes: Good Pick for Budget Hot Seat

It didn’t take long for Gov.-elect Pete Wilson to get some bad news that has cooled the afterglow of his election victory. A state finance commission announced this week that a looming budget deficit is approaching $4.3 billion. Very soon Wilson will have to start making some tough decisions to deal with the shortfall.

But he’s already made one good choice that should help the budgetary process work smoothly, if not painlessly. Wilson’s first major appointment was naming state Treasurer Thomas W. Hayes to be his director of finance, one of the key posts in the new Administration. Hayes was defeated in the Nov. 6 election by Democrat Kathleen Brown, but he’s not just another career politician who needs a job after a losing campaign. In fact, the campaign for treasurer was his first attempt at elective public office, and he went at it uneasily.

Hayes is a career state official who served in the auditor general’s office for a decade before he was appointed treasurer by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1988, to replace the late Jesse Unruh. Like many a career bureaucrat, Hayes is somewhat colorless but also extremely capable and knowledgeable in his field of expertise. Although this newspaper chose to endorse Brown in the treasurer’s race, it did so with a bow of admiration for the yeoman job Hayes had done in serving the state of California. As the top financial adviser to Wilson, no doubt Hayes will continue to use his calm, thoughtful approach to government financing to help get us all through what looks to be some rough times ahead.