Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 20, 2009

By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone

Did Gov. Arnold “Governator” Schwarzenegger really believe that Californian voters would embrace his solution to the state’s deficit, that of raising taxes during an economic crisis and recession?

California’s unemployment numbers are just about the highest in the country. For March 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, California was at 11.2% unemployment (nation’s third-worst, behind Michigan and Oregon). The cost of living there is also one of the highest. Have you gone to Disneyland lately? Whoa, boy… talk about a hefty financial commitment for a struggling family.

So, expecting voters to say, “Yes sirree, we aren’t taxed enough, Governator, so we will happily vote to give you more of our limited dollars to make up for your reckless overspending and expansion of state government,” is like wanting to believe in Santa Claus after your big brother tells you St. Nick is make-believe. Now you know he isn’t real, but that little-kid voice in your head hopes against hope that you’ll be proven wrong on Christmas Day.

Sorry, Arnie. The voters have spoken. However, Prop 1F, the limits to government pay increases, DID pass. Pay attention to what Californians statewide are telling you. There is no Santa Claus.

California Special Election Propositions, 2009

From LA Times:

California Voters Kill Budget Measures
Only salary curbs survive in a rout of Schwarzenegger’s slate of reforms
By Eric Bailey | May 20, 2009

The “big five” elected leaders — Schwarzenegger and the legislative chieftains from both houses — are slated to begin closed-door meetings today upon the governor’s return from Washington, where he spent election day after casting a last-minute absentee ballot.

[...]

Schwarzenegger helped behind the scenes to garner big contributions for the measure’s proponents, who raised about $30 million and outspent foes by nearly 10 to 1. Among the big contributors were businesses hoping to avoid tax increases if state finances slumped further: oil companies, tobacco and alcoholic beverage firms, sports teams and Hollywood studios.

Despite a big advantage in cash and manpower, the campaign failed to gain traction from the start. Polls throughout the race showed all the ballot measures — except Proposition 1F — losing badly, as voters expressed equal parts confusion over the package and disdain for the Sacramento politicians who crafted it.

Californians seemed upset partly by Sacramento’s call for more money at a time when employment was sagging, retirement accounts were plunging and the average resident was struggling. Others expressed irritation at being called back to the polls just months after a presidential election.

The short campaign also created confusing bedfellows in support and opposition to the ballot measures.

Schwarzenegger joined with liberal Democrats and the California Teachers Assn., the group that helped defeat a 2005 ballot package championed by the governor. Foes of Proposition 1A, meanwhile, included several unions, which didn’t like the effect spending limits could have on the state workers they represent, and anti-tax groups that hated its extension of tax increases.

From ALLAHPUNDIT at Hot Air:

…fully 72 percent of Californians treating this as a chance to send a message to Sacramento that they’re tired of higher spending and higher taxes. In fairness to the Times, though, Mark Steyn has long lamented this same tendency among European and, increasingly, American voters: They love their government goodies even though they manifestly can’t afford them, with the total paralysis here over social security reform the grimmest example. Californians don’t really have to make a hard choice between cutting spending and raising taxes since The One will surely force you and I to bail them out, but per that gruesome Heritage graph illustrating his own deficits over the next decade, the national reckoning’s coming.

And given the likelihood that universal health care will pass sometime soon, creating a dependency among the public even more profound than social security, it’s not hard to guess how that choice will go when the time comes to make it…

Here’s my two-cents of advice, Mr. Governator: cut all taxpayer-funded services to illegal aliens. There are more than 3 million in the state of California, most of whom have sneaked in by illegally crossing America’s southern border. I’m sure cutting out these services for non-citizens would make a big difference in narrowing the deficit gap and would help you repair your relationship with Californians (the ones who can legally vote). And I’d do that BEFORE launching your boogey-man scare tactics of laying off needed police, teachers, and firemen. I’d also reduce your state government budget by 10 – 20 percent, not the paltry 1 – 2 percent you’ve proposed.

You also might want to start pushing for permission to again drill for oil along California’s coast. That alone could bring CA back into the black. Fight the eco-nuts and save your state’s economy. And seriously, the public employee unions have too much power and are ruining California. Slash state employee salaries across the board and reduce the size of the state bureaucracy. Decimate the unions’ power and money-grab agenda.

There is no Santa Claus. But, Arnold, you can reduce the state’s red ink without unduly punishing and terrifying your citizens and by making those tough choices your movie characters have made.

ReasonTV: Hasta La Vista, Gov. Schwarzenegger!

Additional reading:
LA Times: Schwarzenegger says he got voters’ message ‘loud and clear’ and Gov. proposes selling L.A. Coliseum, other properties to raise cash and California elected officials’ pay will be cut 18%
Blue Crab Boulevard: What The National Media Is Not Telling You
Michelle Malkin: The Taxinator loves his open-borders welfare state and The Arnie-Barry lovefest and The paper of labor and What the Sacramento Bee really thinks of voters and California to tax-and-spenders: No, no, no, no, and hell no and California: The poster child for dysfunction and Live from the Cali tax revolt and What George Will missed: The decrepit state of the California GOP
James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM! and 10,000 workers in Mexifornia to be laid off.
Hot Air: CA Democrats solution: Spend money they don’t have and Crazy Arnie: Everything must go! Update: Reason says, “Hasta la vista, baby” and California tax revolt: Voters crush Schwarzenegger’s budget proposals at the polls
Iowahawk, Big Hollywood: Fans Flock to Mourn California, 1849-2009
GayPatriot: The Fall of the Governator: Will he be back?
Ed Driscoll, Pajamas Media: Airbrush Alert
Around The Sphere: They Don’t Have The Do-Re-Mi
California Chronicle: Garamendi Says the Coast of California is Now Up for Sale to Big Oil
Maggie M. Thornton, Right Pundits: California Voter Revolt: Schwarzenegger Budget Propositions Defeated
The Gaea News: Schwarzenegger says California should examine other nations’ experiences in taxing marijuana
La Shawn Barber’s Corner: SacBee Rants Against Voters, Then Lies About Rant
Washington Times: Schwarzenegger knocks Calif. voters
Reason Magazine, Hit & Run: Gov. Arnold: San Quentin, I’ll Sell Every Inch of You!
Bill Whalen, Wall Street Journal: What If Arnold Had Seized the Moment?
Jonathan Lloyd, NBC Los Angeles: Schwarzenegger: High Time for Marijuana Debate
Olsen Ebright, NBC Los Angeles: Six-Figure Salaries No More for Calif. Officials
GayPatriot: Blaming California Voters When They Should be Confronting Public Employee Unions
American Thinker: It really isn’t that complicated
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Unemployment Hodge-Podge: Government Struggling to Help Families Applying for Aid for First Time
Bob’s Bites: Go Ahead, Laugh at California. You Are Next

Categories: Conservatism, Economy, Entertainment, Celebrities, Health, Illegal Immigration, Social and Political Climate, US Borders
Tags: American health care, Arnold Schwarzenegger, budget, budget cuts, California, California propositions, California Special Election, California's unemployment, Disneyland, economic depression, economic free-fall, economy, families, financial crisis, governor, illegal aliens, Illegal Immigration, layoffs, Mexican, Mexico, Michigan, Oregon, overspending, propositions, recession, special vote, taxation, taxes, taxpayers, unemployment, Union