Gov. Pete Wilson got most of what he wanted from the Legislature during their 63-day standoff over the budget, but the political cost to one of the Republican Party's brightest stars may have been high.
"The public is not distinguishing between the winners and losers," veteran California pollster Mervin Field said. "The way the public looks at it is, the system failed, and all the actors - the governor, the Assembly speaker, the Senate president pro tem, the Legislature - all failed."The stalemate helped erode Wilson's approval rating with voters to 20 percent, the lowest of any California governor in the 46-year history of Field's poll. The statewide survey was conducted midway through the crisis.
Public opinion of the Legislature was even lower, with only 9 percent giving it good ratings. But that wasn't expected to do much to improve Wilson's chances for winning re-election in 1994 or making a 1996 presidential bid.
During the two months that Wilson and the Democrat-controlled Legislature couldn't agree on a budget, California was forced to issue IOUs to employees and taxpayers for the first time since the Depression. As the impasse dragged on, banks stopped cashing the IOUs, and health services were thrown into turmoil.
"Right now, I consider them the biggest bunch of babies in the world," Kate Reid, a state audit clerk, said hours before a budget was finally signed early Wednesday. "My 2-year-old acts better than they do. She's willing to compromise on some things."
The $57.6 billion budget imposes no new taxes but cuts deeply into schools, welfare and aid to cities and counties. Officials warned it could mean widespread layoffs, shorter library hours, fewer hospital beds and higher local taxes.
A moderate Republican with a bland speaking style and a strong reputation for consensus-building, the 59-year-old Wilson had bright political prospects when he was sworn in as California's 36th governor last year.
Shortly after Wilson's inauguration, Washington Post columnist David Broder described him as "the most interesting politician outside the White House today." As the governor of the nation's largest state, Wilson was immediately placed high on most lists of potentail 1996 presidental candidates.
A former mayor of San Diego and U.S. senator, Wilson publicly described the governor's office as "a career capper," but political confidants actively encouraged speculation about his presidential prospects.
The honeymoon was short.
The national recession and rapidly increasing school, prison and welfare populations combined to create a $14 billion deficit in his first state budget, and an additional $11 billion deficit this year. Earthquakes, drought, fires, floods and riots added to the fiscal and political strain.
Wilson resolved the first budget crisis with a combination of $7 billion in tax increases and $7 billion in cuts and one-time accounting fixes, working with the Legislature's Democrats to impose the taxes over GOP objections.