I find it beyond strange that the fight over the next budget fix is coming down to a battle over a rainy day reserve. The reserve in question does not even exist, and probably never will. The state is billions in the red. The "reserve" really was just Schwarzenegger's way of saying here are the cuts needed to balance the budget using my revenue projections, and here are the cuts needed using the LAO's projection, which says we will have about $3 billion less to spend. The Democrats are raising hell about that extra $3 billion. But in doing so, are they saying that the rest of the governor's budget is not offensive to them? In other words, they can resolve a $21 billion shortfall without raising taxes, but not a $24 billion shortfall? That's hard to believe. In any case, it seems as if the governor has pulled a fast one on them if they are willing to declare victory after killing a reserve that never really existed.
