SACRAMENTO — There has been a lot of screaming that Sacramento fails to live within its means, and the howlers are correct. But on Nov. 4, the voters will have their hands on the state checkbook.
It's called ballot box budgeting -- when many Californians who normally cry about red ink become hypocrites, voting for nice-sounding proposals that further bloat the overspending.
On election day, voters will have an opportunity to jack up annual state spending by at least $1.5 billion, based on numbers produced by the nonpartisan legislative analyst for the official voter information guide.
The electorate can dig the state $16.8 billion deeper into bond debt -- $33 billion counting both principal and interest.
Let's put that $1.5-billion spending boost into perspective: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could find only half that amount to veto from the deficit-vulnerable $145-billion budget he signed last week. He labored to staunch $727 million in bleeding from the total budget, including $510 million from the $103-billion general fund.
Among the victims were low-income elderly renters and homeowners who lost their financial aid. Also, money was stripped from a program the governor had championed to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for the impoverished. So these weren't easy cuts.
More slashing seems certain next year.
Even if all the revenue assumptions and a lottery-borrowing scheme work out as penciled -- which no one expects -- the gimmicky spending plan already projects a $2.7-billion operating deficit for the next fiscal year, according to the state Finance Department.
And this sets the stage for the November statewide ballot and six propositions that would pile on yet more spending.
Some of these proposals may have merit, but no one is suggesting a new tax to pay for them:
* Proposition 1A is by far the costliest measure. It's a $9.95-billion bond issue to help build an electric bullet train to zip passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in roughly 2 1/2 hours.
The line actually would start in Anaheim and head north up the San Joaquin Valley, veering west near Merced and climbing over the Pacheco Pass to the Bay Area. Legs to San Diego and Sacramento ultimately would be built, but only in a later phase, sponsors claim unconvincingly.
The nearly $10 billion in state money would not come close to paying for the $45-billion system. Federal, local and private money also would be needed. And none of it is committed.
