Back at ya


Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gives legislators a budget-cutting assignment.

We gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger the benefit of the doubt last week. Perhaps we needn’t have worried.

Just a week after scoring a legislative “victory” that looked more like a win for entrenched legislators and their special-interest benefactors than for Schwarzenegger and beleaguered taxpayers, the political novice invoked executive powers to direct nearly $3 billion to local governments. The payout is intended to make up for revenue that was “lost” when he repealed former Gov. Gray Davis’ illegal car tax hike.

With several cities and counties threatening to sue, Schwarzenegger had asked the Legislature to approve a deal to make up the shortfall. It sounds reasonable but the Democratic leadership couldn’t be bothered.

“Since the legislative leadership refuses to act, I will act without them,” Schwarzenegger explained.

Now he’s talking.

The unilateral move came just a few days after he and legislators reached an agreement to put a $15 billion bond measure on the March ballot, along with a companion balanced-budget measure. The deal passed largely without the support of Republicans, who complained there were no real spending controls.

Schwarzenegger disagreed but some observers thought he looked a bit like a doormat in the process — not that we were one of them. Having said that, it is heartening to see him stand firm in the face of the legislative intransigence we’ve now come to expect.

He’s not out of danger, of course. California is still in a precarious fiscal position and, with plenty of budget cuts on the horizon, he’ll be painted as the heartless Republican who tried to turn off California’s profligate spending spigot.

In the dark days to come, Schwarzenegger must remember that he has few friends in Sacramento but, based on his electoral landslide, plenty of allies in the rest of the Golden State.

It’s also important to keep in mind that, in the run-up to the historic recall election, the only entity with consistently lower approval ratings than Davis was the Legislature itself. We’ve said before and will say again that Schwarzenegger would do us all a favor if he’d take a broom to the Capitol.

In the meantime, a little wrangling with the Legislature will be highly educational for voters, in much the same way the recall process was. We’re still betting on Schwarzenegger.