As ye sow so shall ye reap

The Oakland Tribune reports that transportation spending will be cut by $530 million under Repubilcan Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed $1.9 billion budget cuts. The Los Angeles Times reports that these cuts total some $800 million over the next two years.

Most of the media coverage of Schwarzenegger's budget plan focuses on cuts to health and human services and education. These two areas seem to be absorbing much of the fiscal problems raised by the $4-billion car tax cut that the governor signed into law Nov. 17.

Bear with me as I over-simplify this for my own benefit:

1) The car tax applies only to people who own cars.
2) The vast majority of non-drivers and non-car owners fall into three categories--the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.
3) Health and human services, education, and transportation will take the brunt of the cuts to make up for the revenues lost by the repeal of former Gov. Davis' trippling of the car tax.
4) The vast majority of people who benefit from health and human services spending fall into three groups: the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.

I know it is over-simplified, but that is the long and short of it. Draw your own conclusions from that.

-Two transit-related items in Gov Schwarzenegger's plan:

1) The plan would save $385 million by cutting transportation and other in-home services that the state provides to the elderly, blind and disabled to help keep them out of nursing homes.
2) The plan would save $630 million by repealing a new law to allow a family to get food stamps even if it owns a car valued at more than $4,650.

The second is particularly interesting. It seems that the car tax can be repealed, but it will come at the expense of the working poor. A car worth $5000 isn't exactly the nicest vehicle on the road. My beat-up Corolla is worth slightly more than that, and had I lost a job like so many hundred thousands of Americans over the past few years, I'd be saddled with this automobile. If I'm receiving food stamps to help feed my family I probably need the car to commute to my low paying job because I need the health insurance for my family since I can't count on reliable help from the state (Arnie is also cutting Medi-Cal). And now I find that if I keep my car, I lose my food stamps. But if get rid of it I have to find another way to get to my low paying job in one of the most car-addicted cities in the world. But that's OK, I'm sure that the $800 million in budget cuts to transportation won't affect mass transit in the state.

Well, you guys elected him...