The following is an excerpt from http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_7952647?source=rss&nclick_check=1
Budget crisis crimps Schwarzenegger's grand plans
In Schwarzenegger's budget problem, echo of Gray Davis era
By Mike ZaplerMercury News Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 01/12/2008 01:37:25 AM PST
SACRAMENTO - Arnold Schwarzenegger rode a wave of voter anger into the governor's office four years ago, fueled by frustration with his predecessor's handling of a massive budget deficit.
Now, with the state facing a $14.5 billion shortfall, the same issue that Schwarzenegger seized to win the recall election threatens to tarnish his legacy and consume his final two years in office.
Gone for the foreseeable future are the governor's ambitions to overhaul public schools; instead he is proposing cuts that education officials say would devastate schools. To salvage his dreams for universal health care, Schwarzenegger will have to persuade voters to embrace a sprawling multibillion-dollar plan at the same time they're being inundated by headlines about the state's money woes.
And his plan to close the deficit by slashing spending across the board, releasing 22,000 prison inmates early and closing 48 state parks could arouse the same ire that landed Democrat Gray Davis in so much trouble.
No one is talking about another recall, but the governor's popularity certainly will be tested in the coming months. Fairly or not, how he handles the test may determine his place in history.
"In the good times, you get more credit than you deserve," Davis said in an interview Friday, "and in the bad times, you get more blame than you probably deserve."
The former governor denied feeling any satisfaction by the turnabout.
I would like to know where the 22,000 released inmates are gonna live...in the closed parks? What about us hobos that now have to deal with more criminals. What about the lack of benches? You mean I am gonna have to sleep on the ground?
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