Capitol’s Game of Chicken

The state budget impasse has elected officials acting like stumblebum prize fighters, standing at opposite sides of the ring and throwing wild haymakers, none of them connecting.

The state has gone more than a month without a budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and the Democratic and Republican leaders of the state Assembly are posturing hard, and no one cares. Missing altogether is the state Senate. Senators passed their version of a $99-billion budget near the end of June and went on vacation.

Davis’ Republican election foe, Bill Simon Jr., has insistently used the budget as a campaign cudgel, even though he well knows that there is no way to write a good budget under the deficit conditions the state faces. The state treasury was left bare by vanishing high-tech capital gains and stock options, among other things.

If it seems there’s no urgency to get the budget passed, it’s because the state controller is paying most major bills. The little guys, the vendors who supply the Capitol with staples and paper clips, aren’t getting paid, but otherwise there is scant public consequence. That may be about to change.

A state court of appeal has ruled that the controller cannot make major expenditures in the absence of a budget. If that is upheld by the Supreme Court, state government will halt except for emergency services. Perhaps that would be a good thing. There ought to be consequences when the Legislature and governor fail to do the most basic job they have.

Judges shouldn’t have to run the state, even when it faces a budget shortfall of $24 billion, a gap larger than the entire budgets of 44 states. But progress is stalled until Assembly Republicans give up blocking the budget bill, withholding the few votes needed to reach a two-thirds vote of approval.

GOP leaders demand that the deficit be overcome by cuts alone, although they won’t produce specifics that add up to enough to close the gap. They know such cuts would devastate state programs, from health care to parks.

The Democratic budget contains about $4 billion in increased taxes and fees. Cuts in state programs account for about $7 billion. The rest is covered by loans, deferred spending and other gimmickry. It is an ugly budget. The state would be more responsible if it increased taxes more than the $4 billion, at least until the economy rebounds. But nothing could make it painless.

The Republicans think they are hurting Davis’ chance for reelection by holding the budget hostage. But voters don’t care about the ins and outs of a wild and fruitless political punching contest. All they know is that their state legislators refuse to deal with a tough situation.