[BATN] Editorial: Arnold's perfect prisons, freeways and levees scheme Date: 01 Mar 2006 13:38:24 -0800 Published Thursday, February 16, 2006, in the San Francisco Examiner Editorial The governor's quiet revolution When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger took office two years ago, California was reeling. A series of poorly managed crises and a growing sense of powerlessness among the public -- fueled by the perception that lobbyists and special interest groups controlled the corridors of power in Sacramento -- caused voters to oust the previous governor in a historic recall election. The state was sagging under the weight of $22 billion in accumulated debt and a deficit that was expected to reach $16.5 billion by this year. With California's infrastructure crumbling and its budget awash in red ink, the task of turning the state around appeared monumental. Since then, the overheated partisan politics of the state Capitol have obscured meaningful changes in the state's direction. Though much has been made of the governor's battles with public employee unions and other groups, less attention has been paid to a significant turnaround in the state's finances. The effective operating deficit that was expected to reach $16.5 billion instead is under $5 billion -- a 72 percent decrease -- with a goal to eliminate it entirely in the next two years. The swift reversal of the state's fiscal fortunes has allowed the governor to propose a sweeping plan to modernize the state's infrastructure -- a plan that would have been unthinkable when Schwarzenegger took office. The $222 billion Strategic Growth Plan -- to be financed by a combination of bond measures, new funding and existing sources -- is the first serious attempt in California since the 1960s to prepare the state for a future in which population is expected to grow from its current 36 million to 46 million by 2025. The governor has shown fortitude in attacking the state's structural problems to allow for sustained economic growth. He fought to reform California's costly and inefficient workers' compensation system, and those efforts resulted in insurance premiums paid by employers plummeting by nearly 40 percent after skyrocketing under the previous administration. The debate over his Strategic Growth Plan is heating up this week in Sacramento, and it will require a similar, firm resolve by the governor to bring it to fruition in its complete form. If fully implemented, the Strategic Growth Plan would reclaim the vision of California as a national leader and position the state at the forefront of the global economy. The plan covers four key points: 1. Transportation -- When Gov. Pat Brown presided over California's freeway construction initiative in the 1960s, it heralded a boom period for the state that saw its economy grow to the sixth largest in the world. In 1960, however, only 9 million vehicles were registered in California. Thirty million were registered in 2005, and that number is projected to grow 35 percent over 10 years. Roads now are crumbling and highways are inadequate to the needs of state residents. The problem goes beyond the inconvenience of traffic jams -- predicted congestion levels threaten to cripple the state's economy, resulting in billions of dollars in lost productivity and hampering transportation of crucial goods to the marketplace. The governor proposes decreasing travel time significantly even with the expected explosion in population. 2. Education -- The state's education system, once the envy of the nation, now is marked by old facilities, overpopulated schools and inadequate materials. At the college and university level, a demographic tsunami is rolling forward, threatening to overwhelm the state's higher education system unless more schools are built. The governor's plan would build 9,700 new K-12 classrooms and modernize nearly 40,000 classrooms in its first phase alone, upgrading facilities for more than 1.25 million students. At the higher education level, the plan would build or renovate 29 buildings in the University of California system, 15 buildings in the California State University system, and 58 community college buildings. These initiatives would accommodate our growing population, create state-of-the-art learning facilities and position the state to once again become an education leader. 3. Water -- The history of California is the history of water, the delivery of which has allowed for the growth of every important state industry in the last 75 years. In addition to the needs of agriculture, the high-tech industries of Silicon Valley and elsewhere will have ever-growing need of clean water for the manufacture of goods. The governor's plan ensures the state's important business enterprises have what they need to thrive, and by investing in levee repair and flood control it ensures that California will not fall victim to the tragedies that have befallen the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. 4. Public safety -- Local jails and state prisons throughout California are suffering from overcrowding, contributing to safety concerns for both inmates and guards. Investing in a modernization of our public safety system is imperative to help manage inmate populations at all levels of state government. Included in the governor's plan is funding for the improvement of courthouses and for critical public safety projects such as emergency response facilities and a replacement of the state's current DNA lab. These changes will put California at the forefront of technological innovations and contribute to a safer state for residents. The governor's Strategic Growth Plan is visionary, sound and prudent -- the debt service arising from the new capital projects will not take effect until the current structural deficit is paid down and will never rise above 6 percent of General Fund revenues, considered a responsible level of investment. In addition, the governor proposes a 6 percent constitutional cap on debt service to safeguard future generations of state residents from falling victim to unsound fiscal policies. Schwarzenegger has faced some stumbles in his first two years in office. His decision to spend some of the state's recent economic windfall rather than set it aside to pay down the debt is out of keeping with what has largely been an on-target philosophy centered on the state making hard decisions and keeping its budget balanced. State residents are forced to do that at their kitchen tables while faced with a stack of bills, and there is no reason state government should not be expected to do the same. Overall, however, Schwarzenegger has performed the impressive task of drastically reducing the state's deficit while identifying a prudent fiscal course to rebuild the state's infrastructure with an eye toward encouraging continued economic growth -- all without raising taxes. With the Strategic Growth Plan, the governor has created a visionary proposal that will strengthen Californias economic position in a competitive, global 21st century. Email article texts/URLs for posting to . Manage your subscription by sending a blank email message to: BATN-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to subscribe, BATN-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com to unsubscribe, BATN-digest@yahoogroups.com to switch email to digest mode, BATN-normal@yahoogroups.com to switch email to normal mode, BATN-nomail@yahoogroups.com to switch email delivery off. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN for web access & archives.