Things were
”
fantastic
”
back in February, when the self-styled
”
collectinator
”
spent a day or so of lobbying the Bush administration and
California’s huge congressional delegation for more spending on
California.
Things were “fantastic” back in February, when the self-styled “collectinator” spent a day or so of lobbying the Bush administration and California’s huge congressional delegation for more spending on California.
As always, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put a positive spin on his excursion into what some call the Mysterious East. But as it often has been with him, reality is not quite the same as rhetoric.
For it’s certain that California will be shortchanged again when Congress finally acts on President Bush’s proposed 2005-2006 budget. That will be the 20th year in a row this has been a “donor” state, putting far more cash into federal coffers than it gets back in federal spending. This means California taxpayers will once again subsidize states like Mississippi and New Mexico, both big recipient states.
If Bush’s budget plan passes as proposed, California will get back about 77 cents for each dollar it pays in. Putting this in hard-currency terms, Californians will pay about $240 billion in federal taxes, more than $50 billion above what the feds will spend here for everything from roads to military bases, the Border Patrol and Medi-Cal and environmental grants.
That “donation” amounts to about six times the currently projected state budget deficit. In short, if California’s congressional delegation, including six powerful Republican committee chairmen, could come up with just a few billion more in federal grants, this state could avoid all the cuts in programs that are now proposed.
But it’s highly unlikely figures like Bill Thomas of Bakerfield, head of Ways and Means, or David Dreier of San Dimas, chairman of the House Rules Committee, will do anything of the kind. They are far more beholden to the Republican leaders who gave them their prestigious posts than to California as a whole.
That’s partly because very few voters in Thomas’ district care whether Los Angeles County might have to close a hospital or two for lack of federal dollars. Nor do voters in Dreier’s district give much of a hoot whether the farm subsidies important to parts of the Thomas district are cancelled or reduced.
In short, each California representative looks out for his or her own district and maybe cares a little for one or two that are nearby, but almost none is concerned with the state as a whole.
Schwarzenegger’s effort in meeting with the entire 53-person California House delegation was to change some of that thinking. Only time will tell if it worked, but similar efforts never have.
And the governor’s own attempts to extract more grant money from Bush have also failed. Yes, he makes the occasional appearance with a federal cabinet officer presenting a grant check to a school or a city, but the overall performance is not much better than that of predecessor Gray Davis, ripped by Schwarzenegger as wimpy at pursuing federal dollars for the state.
In fact, the current Bush budget proposal is worse for California than his last few. The President offered nothing – zero – toward the state’s $760 million yearly bill for jailing illegal immigrants convicted of crimes. He seeks to cut grants for community oriented police services (COPS) from this year’s $499 million to $22 million. And he wants to chop the federal contribution to Medi-Cal by $550 million at a time when costs are going up.
There is no doubt Republicans from the White House to Congress and the party’s officers are delighted Schwarzenegger is one of their cohorts. But whether he can use his vaunted popularity in his party to get anything more for his state is another question.
It’s true the federal budget process has barely begun. But unless Schwarzenegger can demonstrate soon that he’s capable of galvanizing his party mates to provide a fair share for the state he leads, he may have to give up using the “collectinator” title that’s so dear to his heart.
