Train Wreck 1: The Governator

Topic: Finance

The state's nonpartisan legislative analyst warned lawmakers Monday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approved and proposed public works bonds -- now totaling $86 billion -- would push California past Wall Street's recommended debt level.

Up to three decades of annual payments on the loans, peaking at $10.4 billion a year in 2017-18, "comes at the expense of dollars that could be allocated to some other program area," Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said in a report.

Legislators from both parties and stakeholder groups have voiced fears the voter-approved $42.7 billion in public works bonds -- coupled with another $43.3 in infrastructure bonds the governor is seeking in future years -- will overextend California's fragile finances.

Advocacy groups for the poor also have protested hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts in Schwarzenegger's proposed 2007-08 budget that would affect low-income Californians.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/16524344.htm