Proposition 58 Budget Balancing Requirement

During the tax revolt of the late 1970s, California voters overwhelmingly approved a spending cap meant to make state government live within its means. As the multibillion-dollar debt weighing down the state's budget indicates, the spending cap is no longer working. On the March 2 ballot, voters are being asked to try again, this time with a different approach.

There was one reason Marie Young voted to support Propositions 57 and 58, and his name is Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I love that man," she said Wednesday after finishing lunch in a Villa Park restaurant the day after the two measures were approved by voters statewide. "I have a ton of faith in him." Villa Park, with 69% of its voters registered with the GOP, is the most Republican city in Orange County, the party's California heartland.

The television campaign to pass state bond and budget measures on the March 2 ballot has begun and the advertising blitz will gain intensity in the days ahead. The first commercials promoting passage of Proposition 55, a $12.3-billion bond measure to build and repair schools and colleges, hit the airwaves this week. Ads began running Thursday for Proposition 56, an initiative to lower the two-thirds vote requirement for legislative approval of tax increases and the state budget.

California is a backwater in the presidential primaries. And the Republican Senate race seems a runaway. So the hottest items on Tuesday's statewide ballot are three proposition questions. I say three because two ballot propositions -- 57 and 58 -- are really one question: Do we trust Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his budget borrowing-and-balancing scheme? Or tell him to look at other options? Another question is whether to make it easier for the Legislature to pass budgets and tax increases.

Moody's bond rating agency warned Tuesday of serious consequences if voters reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15-billion borrowing proposal on the March 2 ballot. If the bond measure is rejected, a report issued by the firm says, the state could "tumble into a liquidity crisis" soon after. "The state's cash position is highly stressed," says the Moody's Ratings Update, noting that California needs the money from the bond to pay off $14 billion in short-term loans coming due in June.

At a Fresno town hall discussion of the $15-billion state deficit-reduction bond that will appear on the March ballot, Controller Steve Westly announced that he and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stood together in supporting "the budget accountability initiative." Whoops. The controller didn't mean to say that. The Budget Accountability Act is a different ballot measure that would make it easier for lawmakers to raise taxes.

California is a backwater in the presidential primaries. And the Republican Senate race seems a runaway. So the hottest items on Tuesday's statewide ballot are three proposition questions. I say three because two ballot propositions -- 57 and 58 -- are really one question: Do we trust Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his budget borrowing-and-balancing scheme? Or tell him to look at other options? Another question is whether to make it easier for the Legislature to pass budgets and tax increases.

For the first time since his gubernatorial campaign last fall, Arnold Schwarzenegger formally launched a weekend bus tour of the state and, in the process, demonstrated how much the governor has changed his tune -- literally -- since he took office 103 days ago.

California voters will decide Tuesday whether to ratify the borrow-now, pay-later approach to managing the state's fiscal crisis taken by two governors and most lawmakers. Unwilling to balance the state budget by raising taxes or slashing spending, former Gov. Gray Davis and most legislators agreed last summer to borrow $12.6 billion to help close a substantial budget deficit. But after a Sacramento court ruled that one element of that borrowing plan was unconstitutional, Gov.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) urged voters to support Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's two ballot propositions Thursday, even as a new poll showed the package continuing to fall short of majority support. California could find itself in default of its debt obligations if the first of the two ballot measures, Proposition 57, fails to pass, Feinstein said.

California's Republican governor focused increasingly on winning the votes of Democrats as his campaign for twin initiatives on Tuesday's ballot drew toward a close Sunday. Meantime, two of the four major candidates for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate stumped hard for support -- former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin in Orange County and former Secretary of State Bill Jones in Sacramento.

California voters will decide Tuesday whether to ratify the borrow-now, pay-later approach to managing the state's fiscal crisis taken by two governors and most lawmakers. Unwilling to balance the state budget by raising taxes or slashing spending, former Gov. Gray Davis and most legislators agreed last summer to borrow $12.6 billion to help close a substantial budget deficit. But after a Sacramento court ruled that one element of that borrowing plan was unconstitutional, Gov.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, riding through the center of the state Saturday in a red motor coach with his photograph on the side, urged voters to "be my power lifters" and support his plan for eliminating budget deficits in Tuesday's election. While the topics of the one-day "road to recovery" bus tour from the San Fernando Valley north to Fresno were propositions 57 and 58, the governor also spoke out for Proposition 55, a statewide bond issue for school construction.

For the first time since his gubernatorial campaign last fall, Arnold Schwarzenegger formally launched a weekend bus tour of the state and, in the process, demonstrated how much the governor has changed his tune -- literally -- since he took office 103 days ago.

Appearing on the campaign trail for the first time since last fall's recall campaign, California First Lady Maria Shriver said Thursday that passage of her husband's ballot measures, Propositions 57 and 58, would protect environmental causes and other issues dear to women from budget cuts. Shriver's carefully orchestrated appearance inside the Presidio, a former Army installation that is now a park, was part of a targeted effort by Gov.

It's Friday afternoon at one of Northern California's most popular conservative talk-radio stations and state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) is firing away on his favorite subject: the state's free-spending ways. McClintock is explaining to host Mark Williams of NewsTalk 1530 why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to borrow billions of dollars to address a state budget crisis is a ticking time bomb for California.

Many in the audience were not old enough to vote, but that did not inhibit Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who made a vigorous case Thursday for passage of his $15-billion bond and balanced-budget ballot measures before a group of about 2,000 high school students.

As he received endorsements from a swath of law enforcement groups Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that police and firefighters around the state would lose their jobs if the two ballot measures he backs, Propositions 57 and 58, were not passed by voters on March 2. Proposition 57 is a $15-billion bond to cover the current year's budget deficit. Proposition 58 is a balanced budget amendment to the state Constitution. The measures are linked so that if either fails, both fail. "If Prop.

During the tax revolt of the late 1970s, California voters overwhelmingly approved a spending cap meant to make state government live within its means. As the multibillion-dollar debt weighing down the state's budget indicates, the spending cap is no longer working. On the March 2 ballot, voters are being asked to try again, this time with a different approach.

Californians for a Balanced Budget have released two new television advertisements. Both ads feature U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who recently endorsed Propositions 57 and 58. Proposition 57 is a $15-billion deficit bond. Proposition 58 is a balanced-budget amendment to the state Constitution. The first spot, a 30-second ad, began airing Monday night only in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 15-second spot begins airing statewide on Wednesday.