By Unveiling Budget Cuts, Governor Arms His Foes

By introducing proposals to cut nearly $2 billion from the current state budget at the same time he is trying to convince the Legislature to approve a complicated long-term budget plan, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to have handed Democrats and their allies a potent weapon, both his supporters and opponents said Wednesday.

Schwarzenegger’s allies say the decision late last month to propose specific budget cuts was responsible and necessary with the state facing a $14-billion budget gap. But the governor’s aides also concede that the cuts created a handy stick that Democrats, unions and disability rights advocates have used to attack Schwarzenegger.

The potency of the attack could be seen all week, and it appears to have weakened Schwarzenegger’s hand in the negotiations over a long-range solution to the state’s financial crisis.

Protesters who screamed about his budget cuts have dogged Schwarzenegger from a Bakersfield rally last week to the Capitol Christmas tree ceremony Tuesday, where about 50 disabled and union protesters chanted “Shame on you” as the governor helped a disabled toddler light the tree.

By Wednesday morning, dozens of college and high school students were on the Capitol lawn criticizing Schwarzenegger for wanting to cut education funding.

They joined more than 4,000 advocates for the disabled and union members -- protesting cuts to health care and services for the developmentally disabled -- who surrounded the Capitol as the governor tried to cobble together a deal inside.

The public pressure has forced the governor to move closer to Democratic proposals, his allies and opponents agree. The protests also made it harder for Democrats to support Schwarzenegger’s plans, which center on a $15-billion bond issue to cover the current year’s deficit and a cap on state spending in future years.

“When you’re trying to focus on one complicated measure, to introduce another complicated measure just sends people out in different directions and distracts from trying to reach commitment,” said Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), a moderate who has been working closely with Schwarzenegger on a compromise budget plan.

“The timing of those cuts -- it added another layer of debate, and it did in fact complicate the discussions,” he said.

A Democratic political consultant, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the matter more bluntly: “There’s an opening here to get a little sheen off the governor,” the consultant said earlier this week. “It’s a public relations move. You get a little glimmer off him, and maybe he has a shorter honeymoon.”

The governor himself helped his critics by changing the subject from his long-term recovery plan to his short-run budget cuts at inopportune times.

On Tuesday, even as he was meeting with legislators to win support for his deficit bond issue and spending limit, Schwarzenegger in a nationally televised interview raised the possibility that he would suspend Proposition 98 -- the provision of the state Constitution that guarantees funding for public schools.

Schwarzenegger’s aides say the question of whether to release the midyear budget cuts during the push for the governor’s recovery plan was a subject of internal debate. At least one political consultant in the governor’s camp predicted that the cuts would be used by Democrats as a weapon against the recovery plan, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions.

Schwarzenegger, after taking office, tried to delay detailing his cuts, saying he wanted to hear the Legislature’s ideas first. But he came under considerable criticism from Democrats and the media for that stance, and made public the $1.9 billion in midyear cuts in the second week after he was sworn in.

A senior aide to Schwarzenegger defended the decision Wednesday, saying the governor needed to show where money could be found in the budget to replace the revenue lost when Schwarzenegger rolled back the state’s car tax.

Strategically, however, the governor’s decision to release his proposed cuts has put him and his allies on the defensive.

After a Schwarzenegger rally last week in the Bakersfield district of state Sen. Dean Florez, for example, the Democratic legislator declared his support for the governor’s plan.

He was immediately confronted with questions from local television reporters about how he could support the governor’s cuts in health care, disabled services and education. Florez spent 15 frustrating minutes trying to explain that the budget cuts and the long-term spending cap are “two different things.”

Ken Khachigian, a longtime Republican strategist, said the governor might have a problem in the short term by proposing specific cuts before reaching an overall deal with legislative Democrats. In the long run, however, Schwarzenegger is better off leveling with voters about budget cuts rather than hiding them, he said.

“Right now, you could argue it would have been better politics” to avoid detailing the cuts, said Khachigian. “The better politics in the long run is to get it out there and get it behind you.”

Some liberal Democrats concede that severe cuts are necessary, even as they criticize Schwarzenegger’s proposals.

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) illustrates this dichotomy. In an interview this week, she asked whether the governor’s budget cuts were proper.

“Is it worth it to have a serious capping of health and human services so new registrants can’t get services?” she asked. “Is it a good idea to reduce the pitiful amount of money that we pay home health-care workers? Is this leadership?”

At the same time, Goldberg said that the state would have to make “massive cuts to health, education, libraries, CHP, prisons. To say that you could protect education is probably not likely.”

She said she would be willing to go along with the governor on some budget-cutting measures, provided there were guarantees of restored funding when the state’s budget picture improves.

“Everyone,” she said, “knows we’re in deep doo-doo.”

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Times staff writers Carl Ingram and Evan Halper contributed to this report.