Opening Volley in Yearlong Fight for Control of Spending

[realFedUp]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-analysis11jan11...

Opening Volley in Yearlong Fight for Control of Spending
By Dan Morain
Times Staff Writer

January 11, 2005

SACRAMENTO — Whether the budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent to the Legislature on Monday will solve the state's perennial deficit problem remains to be seen. But that's not the point.

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He is also calling for changes in one of the most untouchable of programs — the formulaic way public schools are funded. It's one that Democrats and their allies, the powerful California Teachers Assn., are sure to defend fiercely.

He wants to temper the increase for public schools, while also raising tuition for public university students. And he is calling for borrowing as much as $6 billion — despite a vow last year that the state would never again spend more than it took in.

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In fashioning his budget, Schwarzenegger is invoking ideas offered more than a decade ago by one of his mentors, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. Like Wilson, Schwarzenegger is targeting health and welfare spending, proposing to cut welfare grants by 6.5%. In another page from the Wilson years, the governor is targeting state pensions.