Support the Governor, Pass a Budget

On Saturday the constitutional deadline for a balanced state budget passed and hardly anyone blinked an eye. Things are so bad in Sacramento these days that it’s only news when something gets done on time.

Right now all the elements for a political battle royal exist. The governor is mad at the 31 Assembly Republicans for not helping him get his unpopular but transcendently necessary budget passed; and the Democrats, having made many public political concessions in the interest of closing a $14-billion budget deficit, are irritated with the governor for not having lined up enough votes on his side of the aisle.

More and more the quarrel is looking like last summer’s dreary legislative meltdown that brought Sacramento virtually to its knees--and made it an object of national scorn. But avoiding a summer repeat is still possible: for the significant difference this year over last is the change in governors. Exit the unyielding George Deukmejian and enter the more flexible, worldly Pete Wilson. Even the Democrats admit they are happy with the difference.

After all, here’s Wilson, a Republican, proposing more than $7 billion in new taxes. That’s remarkable: Though one welcomes new taxes even less than smog alerts, some are, under the current economic circumstances, unavoidable--although we disagree with some of the particulars. In embracing the unlovable, Wilson had to put down his partisan GOP hat and don a governor’s sensible business suit. But many Assembly Republicans say they cannot bring themselves to do what their leader has done. They argue that the state budget needs structural reform--and it does. And, though opposed to new taxes at any time, they argue that new taxes are a particularly bad thing in a continuing recession--and who can argue with that? And they maintain that Californians are tired of politicians without principles--so they are clinging desperately to theirs.

That all sounds good enough, but there is one problem. California cannot be governed without a budget and right now it doesn’t have one. Moreover, every day it goes without one, new taxes go uncollected and the state borrows money. So while sticking to their principles, Assembly Republicans are also compounding the crisis. And by climbing up onto moral ground so high that no one else can possibly reach it, they threaten the viability of the very governmental process they claim to defend.

Assembly Republicans should also realize that in Wilson they have not just an ideological mouthpiece such as Ronald Reagan or a political enigma such as Deukmejian but a responsible, pragmatic politician who can advance the interests of both his party and the state. They should do likewise. Assembly Republicans should support their governor and help California get through this brutally difficult period.