Top Republican lawmakers on Tuesday called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a “fiscal crisis” to deal with California’s looming budget problem, but administration officials said such a move would be premature.

Sen. Bob Dutton, a Republican from Rancho Cucamonga who refused to vote for the current budget because it spent too much, said the governor should use a special authority voters assigned him during the last budget crisis to tackle a budget deficit forecast to be nearly $10 billion.

Under Proposition 58 passed in 2004, the governor could declare a fiscal emergency if he determines revenue is “substantially below” what was anticipated in the budget and summon the Legislature into special session.

“If we don’t do something now … to deal with this crisis, we could find ourselves right back where we were five years ago,” Dutton said following a Senate budget committee hearing in the Capitol on Tuesday.

The Sacramento Bee

I think Arnold has actually been worse than Gray Davis.