SACRAMENTO — Describing California's monumental budget deficit as "a rock upon our chest," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke from tradition in his State of the State address Thursday with a blunt vow not to advance any policy agenda this year before resolving the state's fiscal crisis.
As lawmakers sat before him in the Assembly chamber, Schwarzenegger said they had put their partisan beliefs above the interests of Californians, and he asked them to forgo their own salaries if they fail to pass the next budget by the deadline in June.
The speech is an annual rite in which governors normally lay out a list of their accomplishments from the preceding year and their grand aspirations for the new one. Schwarzenegger, giving the sixth and next to last address of his tenure, said he had such a set of proposals sitting on his desk, where for now they will stay.
His expression was serious, and his remarks were short, lasting less than 10 minutes.
"Addressing this emergency is the first and most important and greatest thing that we must do for the people of California," Schwarzenegger said. "The $42-billion deficit is a rock upon our chest, that we cannot breathe until we get it off. It doesn't make any sense for me to . . . stand in front of you and talk about education or infrastructure, or water, or healthcare reform and all those things when we have this huge budget deficit."
Referring to the hope for change that he said the nation has conveyed in electing Democrat Barack Obama as president, the Republican governor said, "Californians, of course, desire change here in their own state as well. Yet they have doubts if that is possible."
Lawmakers reacted with silence to Schwarzenegger's plan for them to give up their salaries, though a few chuckled when he then called it "a brilliant idea." After the speech, they gave him polite applause and he left quickly through a side door, eschewing the glad-handing that typically follows.
Legislative leaders from both parties agreed with Schwarzenegger's message of coming together.
"This is not a time for finger-pointing, for arguing who is to blame," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). "We want to reassure Californians that we are going to solve this problem."
Assembly Republican Leader Michael Villines of Clovis said the historic nature of the situation left no room to focus on anything else. "Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, whatever you are -- it doesn't matter," he said.
