PLEASANT HILL — California must swiftly enact budget reforms or suffer a neverending fiscal roller coaster ride, a relaxed but insistent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told East Bay business and elected leaders Wednesday. “I can’t reform the budget by myself,” he said. “I need the Legislature. And if the people could be behind me and put pressure on the legislators, let them know that it is extremely important not to just think about the budget for the coming year but think about how to never let this happen again.”It was the third in a series of town hall-style budget meetings, one of the governor’s trademark strategies to influence public opinion.

He is pushing his plan to cap state spending at the annual rate of revenue growth and create a reserve to cushion bad fiscal times. The reforms would eliminate the boom-and-bust budget cycles that terrorize California’s schools and public services, Schwarzenegger said.

Contra Costa Times

It’s nice to see Arnold back on our side again. This is a good plan. A spending cap would keep the General Assembly from spending beyond their means, a serious problem in California, and keep their fiscal house in order.

Of course, nothing is ever that simple. Enter the status quo:

But it was not his call for a rainy day fund that prompted about 40 protesters to gather outside Pleasant Hill City Hall, waving posters and chanting, “Save Our Schools!”

To close the remaining $8 billion estimated budget gap, the governor has proposed 10 percent across-the-board cuts next year in state-funded programs, including education.

“I have three children in the Pleasant Hill schools, and I’m very concerned,” said protester and Pleasant Hill Education Commissioner Mary Gray. “The schools have already been cut to the bone.”

I have a really hard time believing that.

Democrats oppose a cuts-only option. They say it is time to raise taxes, such as the restoration of the vehicle license fee the governor axed when he was elected in 2005.

Naturally, because what better way to solve the problem than to tax more people straight out of California.

The proposed cuts suggest that Schwarzenegger is out of touch with average Californians, Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, said following the event.

“By virtue of his celebrity, he lives in a bubble,” DeSaulnier said. “It’s not his fault, but he doesn’t understand how his proposals would hit people’s lives. To cap budget growth and say it won’t impact the lives of Californians is disingenuous. We still have needs. Our education system is failing our kids. Our health care system has problems.”

DeSaulnier is just giving me way too much fodder with this one. Schwarzenegger is the one out of touch? [Sarcasm]Yes, I’m sure if today we went and commissioned a poll all over the state the people of California would overwhelmingly ask for the car tax to be reimplemented adding to their already heavy tax burden which is one of the worst in the country. [/Sarcasm]

I imagine the education system is failing the kids. That’s what happens when you have a government monopoly. I imagine health care system is having problems as well. That’s what happens when you are forced to treat thousands of illegal aliens who don’t pay for the services they are receiving. And this guy has the nerve to say that it’s Schwarzenegger who is living in a bubble?

The bottom line, though, is that the voters are at fault for all of this. The Governator ran on a reform platform after Davis was ousted and in his first year he stayed true to it, but the people of California voted down all of his necessary reforms at the ballot box and continued to reelect the status quo politicians that are standing in his way.

For his part, Schwarzenegger downplayed the idea that he views his draft budget as the final word.

He also conceded that he proposed 10 percent across-the-board cuts chiefly as a starting point for budget talks.

“In the end, (my budget) is only a proposal,” he said. “I say, ‘Here are my ideas. Now, you come and present your ideas.’”

He insisted that he is willing to listen to suggestions regardless of party affiliation and repeated what he has been saying for weeks: Everything is on the table, even new taxes or the elimination of tax loopholes.

No, he has to be stronger than that. I say stand with the 10% cut and don’t budge. Go all over the state and make it very clear to people that this has to happen and those that stand in the way aren’t interested in fixing the problem. In fact, go to their home districts and mention those legislators by name.

California has created its own mess and you couldn’t pay me to live there. That state is absent of any common sense and is one big black hole of waste and despair. Just keep it on your side of the continent, folks.  Don’t bring it over here.