Calblog

The Budget and the Recall

In a comment to this post, Kevin Drum asked a reasonable question:

I dunno, they started the recall about seven weeks after the election, didn't they? Exactly what happened in seven weeks?

Is it really true that Davis hid the size of the deficit? I'm really asking. It's just that I thought it's been pretty common knowledge for a long time.

My recollection was that, yes, it had happened soon after the election and that it appeared that Davis had hidden the size of the deficit. However, I hate to make a factual statement like that based on my memory, since, like many people, I usually remember my conclusion and not the underlying details. I also wanted to link to a live story, not a pay-to-look archive piece.

I have finally found something that summarizes the situation that I remember and was on the web at the time of Davis' announcement.

While the announcement by the Governor confirmed what many legislators and advocates have widely predicted, policy makers and advocates were stunned by the growing massive shortfall. The shortfall of nearly $35 billion means that his January 10 2004 budget proposal must now fill a gap that is nearly $14 billion larger then what was officially projected in November. At that time in November, the Legislative Analyst Office projected a budget shortfall of over $21 billion. The Governor, at the time did not confirm those numbers, but later, on December 6, when he called released his proposal to cut $10 billion in spending in the current 2003 budget, said the deficit was billions of dollars worse than any current projection.

So the increase from $21-36 billion (a 67% increase) was announced by Davis just 4 weeks after the election and there was no explanation that I know of about why he suddenly discovered this right after being elected.

I do think this is an important point to debate for those who want to know why we should recall him when he won the election fair and square. Feel free to present contradictory information.

UPDATE: From the comments, it seems I was unclear. My point wasn't that there was no reason to recall him in December. My point was that there was no reason for Davis to suddenly discover the new numbers in December. The information was presumably available to him before the election a month earlier. In fact, I am pretty sure the recall was announced right after the announcement of the new amount.

Posted by Justene Adamec at June 29, 2003 11:35 PM | TrackBack