To: energyplay who wrote (202919 ) 5/18/2009 10:35:23 PM From: Bank Holding Company Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 306849 Schwarzenegger Puts Legacy on the Line With Budget Vote By JIM CARLTON and STU WOO SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- With 20 months left in office, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to leave behind a state that's governable. "I came in here to fix what is broken in California," he said in an interview. But his best shot at building that legacy now looks like a longshot. On Tuesday, Californians vote on a slate of ballot measures meant to address the battered finances of the nation's most-populous state. The Republican governor has spent much of the past two months crisscrossing the state to pitch the ballot's lead proposition, which he says will help pull the Golden State from the brink of insolvency and help it weather the kind of busts that have dogged it for decades. Associated Press Gov. Schwarzenegger discusses the revised state budget proposal in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday. Californians are projected to reject the measure: 57% of voters opposed it, according to poll results released late Monday by the nonpartisan Survey USA. For Mr. Schwarzenegger, a defeat would mark a repeat of the hard lesson learned by many of his predecessors: California is essentially ungovernable, especially during an economic crisis. Mr. Schwarzenegger acknowledges the poll results but remained optimistic. "I never give up," the former bodybuilder and actor told reporters Monday. In the past 12 months, California's tanking economy caused the state's budget deficit to balloon to $42 billion. A deeply polarized legislature spent 15 weeks squabbling over fiscal solutions as the budget hole deepened. The latest estimates suggest that by mid-2010, California will sink at least $15 billion further into the red.online.wsj.com