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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (7110)	9/8/2003 4:06:27 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

This guy knows more about California Politics than all the LA and National reporters put together. California Insider Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub September 07, 2003 Cruz ignorant on roots of budget gap Everything was set up perfectly for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante Sunday. About 2,000 cheering, sign-waving supporters filled a hall in the Fresno Convention Center to wish their ?favorite son? well in his run for governor. Friendly legislators from the Capitol came down to rev up the crowd, with each focusing all their love on Bustamante, not even mentioning Gov. Gray Davis or the attempt to defeat the recall election aiming to remove him. Cameras were poised to film a campaign commercial as Cruz arrived to the strains of John Cougar Mellencamp?s ?Small Town.? Coatless, beaming, Bustamante had the look of a governor, of a leader ready to tackle California?s persistent budget crisis with the authority of a man schooled in the ways of the Capitol. Then he spoke. With just a few words tucked in the middle of his speech, Bustamante demonstrated that despite the image, despite the build-up, despite the resume, his knowledge of state government and its problems is woefully thin. Sounding no more informed than a cranky letter writer to the local paper, Bustamante badly mischaracterized the roots of California?s budget crisis, falsely claiming that the electricity purchases the state made on behalf of the utilities in 2001 erased the budget surplus and forced the state to cut vital programs. While that's a widely held perception among the general public, it is completely untrue, and any second-year staffer in the Legislature could tell you so. ?We had a $10 billion surplus and they stole it from us,? Bustamante said in his speech. ?And now?education funding has been cut and our car tax has been tripled.? In fact, the energy purchases made by the state in the winter and spring of 2001 were reimbursed by a bond sold on Wall Street, which will be repaid over time by a surcharge on electricity rates. That was always the plan, and everyone in the Capitol knew it. The electricity purchases had no effect on the state?s budget situation, which deteriorated when tax revenues declined and state spending did not, creating several years of deficits. This was no side issue. It?s not some obscure fact that the lieutenant governor might not be expected to know. It is the fundamental issue at the heart of the recall campaign ? what happened to the surplus? ? and Bustamante?s misstatement of it was no mere slip of the tongue. After the speech, when reporters pressed him to explain himself, Bustamante repeated his assertion that the money for electricity drained the general fund. His comments suggest that despite five years in the Assembly and five years as lieutenant governor, Bustamante does not understand the basics of the state?s financial picture. ?In order to be able to get the resources that we needed to be with our budget, we had to pay substantial amounts of money out of our coffers, in order to be able to pay those electric bills,? Bustamante told reporters. ?We had to pay for that. That money came out of the taxpayers. ?They gouged us,? he said of the energy companies. ?They took our money. No matter what you say or how you couch it, those folks took our money. As a result, that?s put us in the deficit situation we are in today.? It will be interesting to see how many papers report Bustamante?s ignorance Monday morning. The political press corps has a way of avoiding such things, of averting its eyes so as to not give up the secret that many of the people in high places in Sacramento really have very little understanding of the subjects about which they are talking, and making decisions. But Bustamante is no longer filling time in a do-nothing job. He?s a leading candidate for the second most powerful executive position in government in this country. Perhaps it?s time to hold him accountable. sacbee.com