Whitman Criticizes Schwarzenegger for Budget Delay
FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) _ Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman on Wednesday laid blame for California's budget impasse squarely on the shoulders of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders.
She also said lawmakers should not be paid or allowed to travel at taxpayer expense whenever the budget is late.
California remains without a spending plan even as it begins the third month of its fiscal year. The lack of a state budget already is beginning to have an effect, including forcing the state to defer payments to schools and counties, leaving some community health clinics struggling to pay their bills and meaning community college students can't get CalGrants.
Whitman said Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican, should have been holding daily meetings with all four legislative leaders starting last December to close the state's $19 billion deficit.
"What we are suffering from is a tremendous lack of leadership in Sacramento," she said during a campaign stop at a high-tech firm in the Sacramento suburb of Folsom. "The 'Big Five' would have been in the governor's office, under my leadership, every day. I would have chained them to the desk to get this done."
The "Big 5" is a reference to private meetings between the governor and the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Assembly and Senate.
Lawmakers failed to make headway on the budget Tuesday, the last day of their regular session, even though they debated competing Democratic and Republican proposals. Both failed, in part because the parties remain far apart on how to solve the deficit.
"It's about leadership, it's about focus, it's about starting early," Whitman said in response to a reporter's question about the lack of a budget. "It's about framing the tough choices that we're going to have to make."
Whitman, the billionaire former eBay chief executive, acknowledged the Legislature is an independent branch of government that does not have to follow the governor's direction. Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, for example, has said he opposes the private, "Big 5" negotiations.
Whitman advocated an incentive for pressing lawmakers to get a budget passed on time: She would favor a law that prohibits lawmakers from receiving their salaries, expenses or reimbursement for trips home until the state has a budget.
At his own budget-related news conference later, Schwarzenegger declined to respond to Whitman's statement about a lack of leadership, saying he will not comment about statements from political candidates. In the past, he has blamed lawmakers for failing to act on the budget proposals he submitted in January and May.
Schwarzenegger, who is termed out of office in January, agreed with Whitman's statement about holding lawmakers accountable for inaction. He said lawmakers would never agree to pass such a law themselves, however, so it likely would have to be done through a ballot initiative.
"Just take the money off the table completely because then you have consequences," he said. "As long as you have no consequences, you will never have a budget in time."
