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opinion:
our view
Quit stalling;
sign the budget
For the sake of all
the state employees both here at Cal State Long Beach and throughout
California, there is enough energy left in Gray Davis' mansion
to light the little bulb over his head, which finally got him
to sign the overdue state budget.
All that seems
to remain is the final haggling over the pet projects and
funding extravagances thrown in at the last minute to get
all of the members of the legislature to merely get the budget
through that crowded legislative body.
This makes one
wonder what those legislators are doing the rest of them time
if they have to extort money from the state at budget time
to fund projects back in the home district.
Davis will have
to use his shrewd political acumen and eliminate the needless
pork from the budget and save the worthy elements. Either
that, or use his usual method; a dartboard.
Most likely, he
will act like a politician and save projects in districts
where he needs to pick up votes for his re-election campaign.
Hopefully, the
little devil and angel political advisers he has sitting on
his shoulder have talked him out of his fanciful dreams of
campaigning for the vice presidency in 2004. A Gore/Davis
ticket would virtually guarantee Bush the younger votes of
all Americans still awake on Election Day.
He should be thankful
that everyone bought the "blame the energy companies
for gouging California" excuse for the power crisis,
instead of the "blame California's politicians for adopting
a near-sighted and greed-driven deregulation policy"
excuse.
We can be doubly
thankful that restitution should be coming from the energy
barons in the form of fines, instead of having another savings
and loan-style taxpayer-shafting bailout.
National aspirations
aside, Davis still has to steer California's political future,
and without a budget, we are all stuck in dry dock. He has
to wield his mighty line-item power and craft a document that
angers the least number of people.
State employees
are usually the types that cannot afford to miss a paycheck.
Thanks to our expedient politicians, they have already missed
one.
With a resolution
this week, California can return to normal, and Davis can
go back to sitting in his office in Sacramento, procrastinating
until the next political crisis blows out of proportion because
of his inactivity.
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