Though he sometimes complained vehemently about California’s auto-pilot spending requirements, Arnold Schwarzenegger occasionally dabbled in it himself.
In 2002, the year before he was elected, he sponsored an unfunded expansion of California’s child care program that costs the state $500 million a year.
After he was elected, he backed the $3 billion bond to fund a California stem cell research program that continues to take some $200 million more out of the budget.
But last week Schwarzenegger went completely over to the dark side, proposing a constitutional amendment that would require the state to spend at least ten percent of its general fund on its four-year universities.
“Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities,” he said, “is no way to proceed into the future.” His amendment would guarantee “that never again do we spend a greater percentage of our money on prisons than on higher education.”
“Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities,” he said, “is no way to proceed into the future.” His amendment would guarantee “that never again do we spend a greater percentage of our money on prisons than on higher education.”
(In fact, if “higher education” includes the huge community college system, California does spend more on higher education than corrections. But the point is still valid. The
