SACRAMENTO — He came to office as the antidote to former Gov. Gray Davis. But Arnold Schwarzenegger is making many of the traditional Capitol compromises, saddling the state with future budget shortfalls, appeasing special interests and inviting comparisons with the man he ousted.
Nearing completion of his first state budget, Schwarzenegger is settling into a pattern. He plunges into issues one at a time. After defining the terms of victory, he stages lavish events celebrating another promise kept or deal struck. But in case after case, analysts see opportunities lost to political caution.
"He's coasting. He's doing well. He's a smart guy, but I don't think he's solving any real problems in this state yet," said John Allswang, a professor emeritus at Cal State L.A. who is an expert on California politics and the initiative process. "The indebtedness of the state and the danger of the budget are huge."
The state's nonpartisan legislative analyst's office released a report in May that said the state was facing heftier shortfalls, in part because the governor, bowing to political pressures, abandoned promised cuts and proposed savings in the budget he put forward in January.
"The long-term fiscal outlook worsened as a result of the governor's proposals," Elizabeth Hill, the state legislative analyst, said Tuesday.
If the yardstick is Schwarzenegger's popularity, the approach is working. Polls show his approval rating near 65%.
But the public remains restive about California's future. One statewide poll in late May showed that by a margin of 51% to 37%, voters believed the state was on the wrong track.
The state budget emerging from the Legislature in the next few days offers one of the clearest examples of how the governor has avoided hard choices and drawn back from confrontations that might be necessary to push through lasting reform.
Schwarzenegger's $103-billion budget relies on billions in borrowing. It is precariously balanced through accounting maneuvers and one-time-only income -- the same wobbly foundation that made the Davis budgets so reviled.
Because the budget fails to reconcile the chronic gap between what the state spends and what it takes in, California is expected to face multibillion-dollar shortfalls down the road.
