An Inch-by-Inch Victory

Governing well is tough, gritty work. It requires tedious attention to detail and a measure of trust in the people across the table. It means determination to stick with a job until it’s done and willingness to take political risk. Those were all elements of last week’s breakthrough agreement between Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and majority Democrats in the Legislature. It has been a long time since leaders in Sacramento took the chances that Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) did.

The deal came together after Schwarzenegger became personally involved, spending as many as a dozen hours in face-to-face meetings with the speaker. “What he did was, he governed,” Wesson said Friday.

As Schwarzenegger promised, Californians will vote March 2 on a $15-billion debt-financing bond and a constitutional amendment to limit future state spending to incoming revenue. The spending limit is not as rigid as Schwarzenegger and conservative Republicans in the Legislature wanted. Neither side was pleased to finance debt with a huge bond, though at least it is likely to be paid off with reserve funds in less than its 15-year limit. But a win is a win, especially one that passes the Assembly 80 to 0 and the Senate 35 to 5.

The day was not won with sweeping speeches to condemn the wasteful spenders in Sacramento. Nor by shrill partisan outbursts on the Assembly or Senate floor, feeding the political bitterness that helped get the state into its fiscal mess. The victory came inch by inch and hour by hour across a conference table.

Wesson, unwilling to accept a fruitless deadlock in the Legislature, kept telling the governor they could find an agreement that would meet his campaign pledges and that lawmakers could live with. Wesson was the Energizer Bunny.

Schwarzenegger did something just as rare, negotiating in good faith with the opposition. What they accomplished set a standard for future compromise. Republicans grumbled that they were left out, but once Schwarzenegger approved the deal, they went along.

It’s impossible to talk about patience without mentioning the earlier, months-long efforts of Assemblymen Keith Richman (R-Northridge) and Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg) to forge a bipartisan coalition for a compromise budget program. At best, they managed to enlist a dozen other Assembly members. In a term-limited Legislature, few see any political gain in arcane long-term reforms or cooperation. However, when Democrats needed an alternative plan after defeating the governor’s, they were fortunate to have the Richman-Canciamilla ideas.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, a Democrat, quit being an obstacle when he agreed to extend his Dec. 5 deadline for getting a plan on the March ballot.

The week’s action barely begins to get California out of the fiscal swamp. There’s still a potential $10-billion-to-$14-billion hole in next year’s budget, which the governor is supposed to assemble by Jan. 10. But last week lays a solid foundation for tougher negotiations to come. At least now we know it can be done.