Tom Fudge : On Friday, California lawmakers took one step toward balancing the state budget. The $1 billion in midyear budget cuts they made is truly a baby step, because there's still a long way to go. In total, lawmakers are trying to close a $14 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months.
Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed a way to go. He suggests a 10 percent, across the board, spending reduction. Many people don't believe the governor is serious about that. It is, they say, little more than a negotiating ploy. But if our state budget problem is going to be solve in any other way, revenues will have to be raised.
Raising taxes is one way that former Republican governor Pete Wilson solved his budget crisis more than ten years ago. Yet Schwarzenegger has promised not to raise taxes, and his GOP counterparts in the Legislature seem determined to prevent it. So what's a Golden State to do?
Guest
- Dan Walters , political columnist for the Sacramento Bee .
