Davis Takes Heat From All Sides

Gov. Gray Davis had his share of critics before January. But since proposing a state budget built on $8.3 billion in tax increases and $20 billion in program cuts, the governor hasn’t found many friends at the Capitol.

Fellow Democrats, political opponents, would-be successors, social activists, lobbyists and potential victims of program cuts -- all have condemned the Davis budget.

With good cause, Davis concedes.

“You could find a whole range of cuts in any part of the budget and find fault with them, and I would agree with you,” Davis said. “But when you look at the totality of what we had to do -- somewhere, someplace, something had to give, and there were no good choices.”

In an interview with The Times last week, Davis discussed his budget decisions, the difficulty of meeting his constitutional requirement to present a balanced budget this year. It’s not surprising that lawmakers of both parties would find fault with the budget, he said.

“Democrats don’t come to Sacramento to cut programs and Republicans don’t come to raise taxes,” he said.

Democrats have singled out for criticism the deep cuts in social programs Davis has proposed, while largely protecting the Department of Corrections.

Davis recently vetoed a bill that would have saved $70 million by granting work credits to more prisoners, allowing their release up to 27 days early. The governor’s opponents have suggested that Davis was repaying a political debt to the powerful prison guards union, a major donor to the Davis reelection campaign. Davis, however, said his decisions were driven by deep-seated beliefs.

“The first responsibility of all of us in government is protecting public safety,” he said. “We have to protect individuals from crime and terror. We’re in a brand-new world since 9/11 and I wanted to make sure that local law enforcement and the Highway Patrol had the resources necessary to discharge those responsibilities.”