Schwarzenegger’s Big Week

This is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s big week. By Tuesday, he’ll put forth his vision for the state. By Friday, he will reveal the details of how he intends to deal with the state’s nearly unabated fiscal crisis. Legislators will have a better idea of whether they face the chummy Schwarzenegger who invites the pols downstairs for a cigar on his Capitol patio or the action hero attacking wasteful spenders in the Legislature. What transpires is likely to set the tone for a very difficult 2004 legislative session.

Schwarzenegger enters the year as a popular figure in Sacramento and the state as a whole. He has proved he can work with Democratic as well as Republican leaders, but to keep up the bipartisanship required to get a two-thirds vote on most money issues he’ll have to walk a tightrope. It was easy to castigate Democrats for all of the state’s fiscal ills during the recall campaign to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. Now that Davis is gone and Schwarzenegger is part of the system, the blame game is less productive.

The Legislature convenes Monday for an organizational session. The governor goes before a joint session at 5 p.m. Tuesday to deliver his first State of the State address. Governors traditionally use this forum to outline general goals. Schwarzenegger’s aides have been working on fundamental reforms in state programs, designed to save billions of dollars. The governor may choose to disclose the outlines of some of these Tuesday.

The real meat of his program will come Friday, when he sends his 2004-05 budget to the Legislature. This is the moment of truth. Did he really identify enough billions of dollars in cuts to close the state’s entire shortfall of up to $14 billion? Can he make cuts that deep without bringing state government to the brink of failure?

Schwarzenegger may have sent a signal with his decision last week to raise state park and other fees. If it can be called anything except a tax, raise it.

The inclination of Democratic leaders will no doubt be to condemn the Schwarzenegger budget as impossible to implement without devastating essential programs. They should react carefully here because there is no question that significant cuts are necessary to get the state budget back in balance. If the governor’s office proposes basic reforms -- most likely restricting health and welfare services, revising school finances and overhauling the prison and parole systems -- outright rejection is not a reasonable response. Schwarzenegger has a mandate to bring state spending in line, and any rational proposal deserves full consideration.

The incoming Democratic and Republican leaders in the Assembly are off to a good start by pledging to work cooperatively. Both sides owe the state a more reasoned approach to spending and taxation. Legislative Republicans have vowed no new taxes, ever. But Schwarzenegger could show them the way to a temporary revenue solution, just as previous GOP governors have done. Then everyone can enjoy cigars on the patio.