Word: deukmejian
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...differences between the outgoing and incoming Governors go beyond style. While both took office during recessions, the current one is far worse than that of early 1975. Brown inherited a $500 million budget surplus from Reagan. Deukmejian faces a $1.5 billion deficit left by Brown. The deficit was caused mainly by the recession and by the state aid Brown gave to maintain city and county services after the celebrated Proposition 13 of 1978 had curtailed property tax revenues...
...hard-working Deukmejian, who spent 16 years in the state legislature and four as state attorney general, promptly tackled the deficit by clamping a lid on all hiring of new state employees, banning out-of-state travel by state officials and ordering a 2% cut in operating funds that will mostly affect the state university system and state colleges. This will save only some $70 million, however, and Deukmejian almost certainly will have to raise taxes to balance the budget, as required by the state constitution. That will be politically awkward, since he campaigned on a pledge to fight...
...budget proposals to be announced this week were expected to avoid any tax hike and to close the deficit partly by borrowing $700 million from next year's budget-a delaying tactic that the Democratic-controlled legislature seems likely to reject. If there are to be new taxes, Deukmejian seems determined to force the Democrats to propose them...
Other campaign promises also will be difficult for Deukmejian to keep. He emphasized new efforts to combat crime, which will cost money. A champion of law-and-order, Deukmejian, as a member of the state legislature, helped restore the death penalty, although his bill to permit execution for armed robbery did not pass. He complained that Brown had appointed too many "liberal" judges who failed to "protect the rights of victims as well as protecting the rights of the accused." But in his last hours in office, Brown appointed 52 judges, a record number for a single day, prompting Deukmejian...
...Deukmejian has also vowed to repeal some measures designed to protect consumers and the environment, contending that they retard business growth. But the legislature will oppose such plans. Another big problem for Deukmejian: five of the six elected officials in his administration are Democrats...