Schwarzenegger Picks Florida Budget Chief as California Auditor

[Judi Lynn]

Schwarzenegger Picks Florida Budget Chief as California Auditor
By Jennifer Coleman Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 9, 2003


SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov.-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's choice to head the audit of California's $99 billion budget is known as a fiscal conservative not afraid to cut spending, say those who have worked with her.

Donna Arduin, the budget director for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush since 1999, will lead the team of auditors combing through California's budget for waste and duplication - as Schwarzenegger promised during his campaign.

"Donna has served as a fiscal and budget expert for some of the largest states in the country," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "Her experience, expertise and keen mind make her the right person for this critical job." (snip)

(snip) Arduin has worked for three Republican governors, serving as deputy budget director for New York Gov. George Pataki and as chief deputy budget director for former Michigan Gov. John Engler. She was known in those states a fiscal conservative who likes finding ways to cut taxes and spending. (snip/...)

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031009/APN/310091177

[Democat]

1. How are the economies in those states doing now?

Does she just cut and run on to destroy the next place on the list?

[Grins]

12. Those states....

Well,… she did cut and run.
Florida has a $1B deficit. (Repub Governor on his second term.)
New York has a $10B deficit. (Repub Governor on his second term.)
And Michigan has a $2.4B deficit. (Dem Gov. following a 2-term Repub.)

Good work Donna! (And good luck California!)

What’s amusing about this is that ‘Dubya’s great state of Texas actually outspent NEW YORK STATE – and is now second to California in terms of the size of state deficits. Thank you, 11 years of republican leadership.

“Great leader” says that he is not responsible for the economic mess of the United States because – “It’s Clinton’s recession!”
Oh, I get it. He inherited it!

OK. Let’s just give him that one for argument. If that’s true, then “Great Leader” and his successor are responsible for Texas being the second worst debtor state in the nation. (Sound like a pattern?)
Jeb is certainly responsible for Florida’s deficit.
And Pataki is responsible for New York’s.
But the Governor of Michigan is not, because she, like “Great Leader”, inherited republican Governor Engler’s deficit.

Here’s the Top-10. How many had republicans running the show prior to the 2000 “selection?” Sixty percent of them. If you take Jesse V. out of the mix because he was an independent, then the party of “Fiscal Responsibility” had 2/3rd’s of them.

Here’s the Top-10 as of last January:

1. California, $35 billion
2. Texas, $12 billion
3. New York, $10 billion
4. Minnesota, $4.6 billion
5. Wisconsin, $2.6 billion
6. Michigan, $2.4 billion
7. Illinois, $2.25 billion
8. Washington, $2 billion
9. Connecticut, $2 billion
10.Maryland, $1.8 billion

<http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2003/01/06/daily9.html>

Here’s another one that should make you choke. How can a financial publication run a story like this when the premise is so blatantly biased?
<http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110004108>

[teryang]

2. Florida is wrecked

I wonder is she saved money after having to replace the 300,000,000.00 J.E.B. stole from the State Pension Fund to buy worthless Enron stock?

I also wonder if she was involved in covering up the illegal Florida budget deficits by milking 125 million in illegal funds from HHS and emptying state off budget accounts of their surplus funds.

[Rose Siding]

4. See how FL will save $ in DCF

As though they have had no problems at all....downsize! Privatize! Add a middle man and lose the middle class!

snip>
The Florida Department of Children & Families, for more than a generation one of the state's most chronically troubled state agencies, is planning a dramatic re-centralization designed to cut nearly 500 jobs and save $20 million.
snip>
If Regier's overall plan succeeds, the DCF will have transferred all, or almost all, of the state's foster care and adoption programs into private management within the next year. The shift to private management was a keystone of Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to reform the DCF, which was once the largest social-service agency in the United States.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/6967058.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Florida IS a wreck.

They have cut back on services so that nothing works anymore. But people don't want to believe the obvious -- that Jeb Bush's plans suck. He is, afterall, charismatic. Or so they tell me.

[cosmicdot]

3. what else has Arduin done aside work for 3 Repuke Governors?

what's her background? just how "independent" is she?

Mr. Ahhhnold ... if you want to let the sunshine in ... you don't choose the auditor alone ... let the people participate in it ...


is she 'on loan' from Jeb? good thing the Bushes aren't involved - yeah, right

simple google of Arduin brings up many links ... in FL, seems she goose-steps for Jeb

~snip~
The claim came in response to Democratic accusations that the likely $400 million to $800 million shortfall this autumn was caused in part by the $1.6 billion in "recurring" tax cuts that (Jeb)Bush and the Republican-controlled legislature have approved since 1999. Bush budget chief Donna Arduin wrote in an Aug. 2 letter: "$1.6 billion in tax cuts have yielded an average 4.1 percent annual increase in state tax revenues." Bush has repeatedly credited the tax cuts for increasing state revenue and used the 4.1 percent figure in an Aug. 5 letter to the editor of The St. Petersburg Times.

But an analysis by The Palm Beach Post of a spreadsheet from the Bush budget office shows that the 4.1 percent figure does not include other factors -- such as an increasing population -- that contributed to Florida's economic growth. It calculates that all of the increase has been caused by the tax cuts. "There's no way you can make any sort of analysis using just one data point," said Florida Atlantic University economics professor Sharon Lassar, an economist who, like Bush and Arduin, subscribes to the "supply side" theory that lowering tax rates actually increases total tax revenues.

Just looking at total tax receipts, however, is of little value, said Lassar, who reviewed the spreadsheet provided by Bush's office. "It doesn't support either side."

Arduin did not return numerous calls for this article, and Bush did not return a query via e-mail. Both have vigorously defended the tax cuts, approximately half of which have benefited the wealthiest 5 percent of Floridians through reductions in the "intangibles" tax on stocks and bonds. Another 25 percent benefited property owners, while the remainder went toward various special-interest tax breaks
~snip~
http://members.tripod.com/~reno4governor/index-52.html

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush's budget director flipped on her laptop and began a power-point display, not with fuzzy graphs or charts but with a firm declaration.

Florida is in good shape, flashed the message on overhead TV screens.

Budget director Donna Arduin ticked off factors supporting her claim: Stable bond ratings, lots of new jobs, more tax money and the "fiscal discipline" to avoid tax increases. States with higher taxes are in worse shape, she said.

The members of the Senate Appropriations Committee were not impressed.

~snip~
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/16/Columns/Red_ink_blues.shtml

[cosmicdot]

9. Donna Arduin's "independence"

from opensecrets.org

Contributor ARDUIN, DONNA MS
Occupation TALLAHASSEE,FL
Date 4/11/2000
Amount $1,000
Recipient Bush, George W


ARDUIN, DONNA
FORT LAUDERDALE,FL 33312
STATE OF FLORIDA/BUDGET DIRECTOR
9/26/2002
$500
Republican Pty of Fla Fed Campaign Acct

ARDUIN, DONNA
TALLAHASSEE,FL 32308
1/12/2001
$300
Republican Pty of Fla Fed Campaign Acct

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I KNOW where this is going. It almost sounds like the punch line to a joke. Okay, you Recall people, start filing the papers. It won't be long now.

[realFedUp]

6. Isn't this the job and under the aegis of CA's state controller?

Steve Westly?

Arnold adding more costs to the state budget?

I bet if anyone knows how to fudge the books,
someone who worked under Jeb would know...

[realFedUp]

11. Arnold's pretending there is no one else in Sacramento doing these jobs

well, Pete Wilson on steroids can pretend all he wants.
We'll just pretend he's really governor...

[seasat]

8. Great.

She can help Arnie raid trust funds just like Jebbie did here in Florida. :eyes: The only good news about this is maybe she'll stay in California. Jebbie couldn't find anyone worse to replace her. His crew is pretty much the bottom of the barrel.

[leesa]

10. The one who works for Jeb's Crimes R Us syndicate?

Joyful...looting government monies is her specialty.

[KeepItReal]

13. UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, USC, et al. teeming with Economists...

...And this idiot gets someone from FLORIDA to be the Auditor of California?

[LiberalFighter]

14. And if the voters of California had known this before the election?

Would he still had been elected?