Governor’s budget reform

Re “Gov. has power to cut spending if he’ll use it,” column, Jan. 21

I was surprised that George Skelton oversimplified the governor’s power to control state spending.

As Skelton correctly notes, 87% of state spending is controlled by separate legislation. The governor can veto parts of the budget but has no power to rewrite the laws to reduce spending.

The governor could have vetoed the entire budget, but that would be like a chess player trying to win a game by tipping over the chess board.

Since elected, the governor has tried twice to change these rules without success. He is now trying for a third time to change the budget rules so they favor long-term stability and balanced budgets.

His budget reform would put revenues from peak growth years into a rainy-day fund for use only in slower growth years and restore the governor’s power to cut spending when a deficit looms.

Skelton seems to confuse the line-item veto with the ability to get Sacramento under control. The governor will continue to exercise the line-item veto, but he has goals larger than merely whittling away at Sacramento’s chronic budget problems. He wants to wipe them out for good.

Michael C. Genest

Director of Finance

Sacramento