A Political Bandwagon That Rolls Over Cities

During lunch at The Times on Friday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom uncorked such a righteous rant about what he sees as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s painful effect on California cities that Opinion decided to share a few words. Here’s a lightly edited taste:

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The governor’s policies -- and the direction the state is going -- are perilous. The tough choices are being delayed, being punted. Decisions are being based more on polling than on good public policy. The governor came in to clean up the state -- to get rid of waste and knock the special interests out.

The first thing he did was exactly what he said he was going to do: refund the vehicle license fee -- further exacerbating the state’s financial imbalance. Then, rather than be honest with the taxpayers that tough choices needed to be made, he continued the old policy of borrow and spend.

But the borrowing and spending didn’t stop there. He decided to take and spend cities’ and counties’ money to the tune of $2.6 billion, exacerbating our local budget deficits and requiring municipalities to increase fees. You would go to a rec center and cities wouldn’t charge, now you’re being charged. We increased parking meter charges.

What’s happened is the middle class and working class are getting squeezed because of these policies, but the governor is able to maintain his no-tax policy. That’s good politics, [but] it’s costing municipalities enormously, and it’s hurting people in serious ways.

For all of his charisma and for all of his remarkable ability to sell California’s performance -- to generate the headlines based upon a vision -- the reality is that [the governor’s vision] has fallen short. Consistently. The frustration is form versus substance -- what you read versus where the reality lies.... San Francisco is a city that had to consolidate fire departments, eliminate 1,200 positions, get historic labor concessions. Child care is more expensive now. After-school programs are more expensive now. School lunches are more expensive. Across the board, people who need government the most have been most burdened.