"You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but only for a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by the same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding - we are going to begin to act, beginning today."

First Inaugural Address by Ronald Reagan
Washington D.C. - January 20th 1981

As the state budget becomes 50 days past due, it is no surprise that pressure is building in some quarters to adopt a budget that doesn't meet our long-term needs and continues to rely on "quick fix" schemes that actually deepen our structural deficit. Any Californian can describe to you the folly of paying off one credit card with another--yet surprisingly that is exactly what some of my colleagues are beginning to talk about.

State government excels at short-term borrowing. We know how to "borrow" from our own special funds. We know how to "borrow" from dedicated funds for local government. We know how to "borrow" from dedicated transportation funds. The fact we can do it does not make it right or responsible. In fact, it is the height of irresponsibility.

There is no better time than now to commit to fiscal discipline. As President Reagan called us to do in 1981, our party naturally unites around conservative fiscal practices because it's the right thing to do and because it's why the voters sent us here. It is our Republican party that has had a historical disdain for huge debt and government borrowing - and it is those principles that we must recommit to if we are to secure genuine structural budget reform.

The first thing any credit counselor tells a family in serious debt it needs to do is to "cut up the credit cards." The state of California needs to heed the same advice. Moreover, we also need to adopt budget reforms that prevent us from getting into this type of problem again--like budget and spending reforms that require that we restrict spending and maintain reserves sufficient to weather the next economic downturn.

As the former mayor of Yucca Valley, our city council and staff worked each year as a team to balance the city budget and maintain reserves so we maintained service levels and didn't have wild fluctuations in local taxes and fees as the economy changed. I want the same thing for our state, and I want to end our senseless and destructive dependency on using the funds of local governments to pay for the obligations of the state of California (whether we take them outright or "borrow" them).

It is time for real budget reform in order to end the "band-aid and baling wire" solutions of the past. We must implement the common-sense practices of money management and check balancing that every sensible Californian practices on a daily basis. We should cut up our credit cards and finance our day-to-day expenses on a cash basis with state (not local) funds--just like a well managed local government, family or business.

It is time to fix this system once and for all. Now is the time and this is the place.