http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-reversal11nov11,1,1739688.story?coll=la-home-headlinesMassive Loan for State Weighed
Aides for Gov.-elect Schwarzenegger float the idea of borrowing $20 billion to balance the budget as key players reverse fiscal stances.
By Evan Halper and Jeffrey L. Rabin
Times Staff Writers
November 11, 2003
SACRAMENTO — As Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to take office, his aides are testing the waters for a possible budget solution that would include having the state go into debt to pay off a substantial portion of the coming year's deficit.
Officials with the new administration say they are still developing their budget plan, and its final elements remain unsettled.
But aides to Schwarzenegger have approached financial institutions to discuss how the state could go about securing a loan large enough to cover the entire deficit, according to sources on both sides of the discussions. That bond could be as large as $20 billion, perhaps more. The sources spoke on condition that they not be identified.
The queries, according to one source who has been involved in the discussions, focus on what kind of guarantees would have to be built into a budget to reassure bond buyers that the debt would be repaid.
Such a loan would be based on the assumption that the economy is already beginning to revive, which would cause future tax revenues to rise. If the state can get past this year's deficit, according to that line of thinking, future budgets could be kept in balance by a mandatory cap on state spending.
Schwarzenegger seems likely to put both the borrowing and the spending cap before state voters in March. Doing so would require gaining legislative approval by Dec. 5.
continued-
(Republicans do seem to like to borrow money
on the backs of our children...)
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