SACRAMENTO — The Legislature and the governor may have reached the point where the most responsible thing they can do is to be irresponsible.
Acting responsibly may be beyond their grasp. They may be incapable of passing a state budget that honestly balances the books, one that includes a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.
Now 66 days into the fiscal year without passing a spending plan -- a record -- it's perhaps time for the Legislature to produce another irresponsible budget that relies on borrowing and accounting gimmicks, one that digs the state deeper into its hole.
Yes, I'm serious.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently told me he'd veto such a "get out of town" budget. "I am very adamant about not creating more debt." That was commendable. But for many, the situation is becoming more dire by the day.
Hundreds of small business vendors who sell to the state aren't being paid. Many are struggling to keep their doors open. Same with nursing homes, community clinics, care centers for the disabled. . . . Also being stiffed are community colleges and some K-12 school programs.
In an economy short on cash, the state has held back $4.3 billion so far during the budget gridlock. And it's only going to get worse. If there's no budget in September, an additional $7.6 billion will be withheld, most of it from private enterprise.
Republicans are pushing for an emergency appropriation to pay Sacramento's victims. But, by law, the governor must request it. And he refuses, believing that would take the heat off the Legislature to compromise.
"The legislators are arguing and fighting, and I say to them, 'Get out of your ideological corners,' " Schwarzenegger told reporters Wednesday at a photo-op with local officials in Placerville, a Sierra foothill town represented by two GOP lawmakers he obviously was trying to pressure.
One later responded caustically in a prepared statement. "It is disappointing to see him travel from city to city to criticize members of the Legislature," said Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks). "It is long past time to stay in the state Capitol, roll up our sleeves and do the nitty-gritty work of negotiating a budget."
Time also is of the essence if Sacramento is to avoid tossing bundles of money down a Wall Street rat hole.
