Student Governor Needs to Buckle Down and Work

Sacramento — It's time again to grade the governor. Wednesday will mark one year in office for Arnold Schwarzenegger -- one full year of learning on the job. How's he progressing?

There is only one fair way to go about this: Split the grade in two.

* One grade for politics. Give him a solid A.

* A second grade for policy. He gets a generous C.

A tougher grader would have given the guy a D in policy -- or categorize it as substance, all that serious stuff a governor is supposed to do to solve state problems.

The one problem that overrides all others -- the destructive budget deficit that Schwarzenegger promised to fix -- still perplexes the governor because he refuses to look at it realistically.

If there is a "girlie man" in Sacramento, it's Schwarzenegger for not having the courage to raise taxes or significantly cut spending -- or, more wisely, negotiate a combination of both.

Instead, he has borrowed billions, much of it from the next generation, and fallen into his predecessor's pattern of punting: using gimmicks and cooking numbers to fictitiously "balance" the state books.

In fact, that rolling deficit is about the same now as when Schwarzenegger was sworn into office. He and the Legislature have just shoved it into the future, borrowing to pay current expenses.

Last fall, the state was projected to end this fiscal year

$8 billion in debt. In May, respected legislative analyst Elizabeth G. Hill forecast a $6-billion hole for the next year and $8 billion for the following year. Next week, she's expected to report that the situation has worsened.

Schwarzenegger has acknowledged that spending is growing faster than revenue.

And let's be honest: This independent-study student has been goofing off a bit.

You wouldn't call all of it truancy, because he has had some legitimate excuses. But the governor -- who admits being unable to focus on more than one objective at a time -- has traveled extensively to Maui, Sun Valley, Las Vegas, Ohio, Israel, Jordan, Austria, Germany and now Japan.

He should be cracking the budget books more in Sacramento.

A "trade mission" to Japan might be fine in fat times, but it seems frivolous as the state wallows in debt -- even if special interests did kick in to help pay for the junket. (If it's really worthwhile, the state ought to pay for the whole thing, rather than hitting up the business lobby.)