State budget deficit soars

With gas and food prices on the rise and home values continuing to drop, more bad news from Sacramento: Governor Schwarzenegger is now warning that the coming year's deficit is now estimated at $20 billion, up from the $10, $14, and $16 billion numbers he floated as the economy deteriorated.

Cities used to be first in line to take a hit from bad news at the State Capitol. Twice in the past twenty years, Governors and Legislators have teamed up to grab local revenues to solve State budget deficits. We are still paying the price of those "take aways." But cities banded together to force the State to put a protection measure in front of voters, which easily passed. It isn't iron-clad, but it at least protects local property and sales tax revenue from being permanently diverted (the State can still "borrow" money from cities -- but has to pay it back.)

While our city services face cuts from local revenue declining, at least we won't have to further slash police, fire, parks and other local services to balance the State's budget.

But we will all feel the pain.

More felons will be leaving State prison and returning to local communities. More poor people will fall into the holes in the "safety net." State beaches and roads will continue to lack adequate funding. The County and the School District will face major problems balancing their budgets.

It does little good to point fingers. Both parties have pandered to voters and avoided making tough choices. But the magnitude of the problem is causing some electeds in Sacramento to reconsider the stale "don't cut spending" mantra of the Democrats and "don't raise taxes" fixation of the Republicans.

"The larger that number gets, the more unrealistic it is to think you can cut your way out of it," said Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee. "And it's unrealistic to think you can tax your way out of it, either. It forces you to think of changing things we've been doing for years."

These are tough times. They are likely to get tougher. The press will highlight strident voices who will protest cuts and equally vitriolic voices protesting taxes and fees. We can spend the summer in grinding political gridlock and posturing.

Or we can set to work to rebalance our expectations and remember what veteran Sacramento columnist Dan Walters wrote earlier this week: “We should accept the reality that there's no free lunch and if we want something from government, we must pay for it.”