Governor's spin downplays pain of last budget cuts

One thing is clear about Gov. Schwarzenegger's remaining time in office: He does not intend to be a lame duck and has an ambitious agenda for the 13-plus months left in office.

Clearly delighted with the recent water deal, he now plans to address several other items on the state's long list of seemingly intractable issues.

It's encouraging to hear about some of the places he's looking for savings, with prisons apparently a high priority. While corrections took a hit in the current budget, prison costs have still doubled in the past decade, and now far exceed University of California spending. That's not a blueprint for long-term prosperity.

Yet in his recent budget comments, the governor has grown enamored of a certain phrase that is unfortunate. He contends that next year's negotiations will be particularly tough because "the low-hanging fruit and the medium-hanging fruits are all gone. I think that we are now going to the high-hanging fruits," and those will involve very painful choices.

There's no doubt the state faces a brutal task in closing a deficit that could hit $7 billion in the current fiscal year, with $7.4 billion more in red ink projected in the next. What bothers us is the governor seems to be downplaying how brutal the cuts made in the last budget were.

A very partial list includes the sharp increases in UC tuition and California State University fees, and most employees of both systems getting hit with

10 percent pay cuts. About half of the state parks are cutting their hours or days. SSI payments to the aged, blind and disabled were cut 6 percent. Domestic violence shelter funding has been reduced. And, of course, state workers must take three unpaid days off a month.

Some of these cuts were unavoidable, given state finances. But the governor diminishes the sacrifices of many Californians by calling the cuts low- or even medium-hanging fruit. They're a threat to the orchard's long-term survival. No matter how the governor spins the budget, it doesn't change that reality.