Who's To Blame for the State Budget Mess?

Answer: The Democrats. And the Republicans.

At last that's my reading of the exchange between Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-L.A.) and State Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) that appeared in Sunday's Daily News.

Nunez begins by bemoaning all the good programs that are going unfunded because of the stalemate in Sacramento (while working in a snarky, pro-abortion quip):

Last week, I visited the Birthing Project in Sacramento, a health clinic a few blocks away from the state Capitol. The Birthing Project staff works very hard on behalf of its clients to increase healthy pregnancies and successful births - something you'd think typically anti-choice Republican politicians would rhapsodize about.

Instead, the Birthing Project and health clinics like it throughout California - which treat newborns and seniors and everyone in between - are in danger of closing their doors or eliminating services because a handful of Republican state senators are refusing to provide one additional vote to pass the state budget.

With Senate Republicans holding out on the budget, state payments to keep clinics like the Birthing Project open stopped weeks ago.

But Nunez fails to mention that it's the Democrats who are keeping these programs from getting their money. As Runner explains:

Because there are some vital services that depend on passage of the budget, the Senate Republicans asked Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, while in session on Aug. 1, to take immediate action to provide contingency funding to ensure uninterrupted delivery of essential services, including child care and Medi-Cal payments. AB 207 would have authorized $10 billion to pay for government services from July 1 to Aug. 20. Unfortunately, the request to hear Assembly Bill 207 (Villines) was denied. The bill would have guaranteed that the state's bills for these vital services were paid while budget negotiations continue - but it never got a chance.

Which is to say, the Democrats are using these programs (and the people they serve) as human shields in the budget fight. Plus, as Runner notes, the budget that the Dems and Gov. Schwarzenegger want passed is not truly blanced:

The current budget proposal carries a $700 million deficit with a projected $5 billion deficit next June.....

Senate Republicans truly believe taxpayers support a balanced budget - assuming they're presented with the facts. We think taxpayers understand that legislators have a fiduciary responsibility to balance the budget, which means we only spend what we have in the bank. We believe that most Californians understand that borrowing money now will only create insurmountable problems for the future.

Of course, Nunez rightly points out that the Republicans' concern for a balanced budget seems to be new-found. The GOP was happy to pass an unbalanced budget last year -- on the eve of election season:

Some of the Senate Republican holdouts did vote for last year's budget, which is interesting, given that the reserve last year was only $2.1 billion, compared to the $3.4 billion reserve in this budget. Last year's budget had a "structural deficit" (the amount expenditures for a year exceed revenues collected in that year) of $6.9 billion compared to $699 million in this budget. Last year's budget increased spending 9.2 percent, while revenues were projected to grow only 1.7 percent. This budget does the opposite, limiting expenditure growth to 1.3 percent while revenues are projected to grow 6 percent.

Nunez has a good point here: Republican fiscal prudence seems to be more about Republican self-interest. But as much as he and Runner both like to point the finger at the other party, their own parties share no small part of the blame.

A pox on both their houses, I say. How about you?