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Monday, Jul. 06, 2009

Schwarzenegger wants cameras rolling during budget negotiations

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Would California budget negotiations be more fruitful as a reality television show?

In a Capitol notorious for secret deals hashed out by powerful leaders, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he would enjoy televising or webcasting some of the talks on the state’s fiscal crisis. His counterparts in the Legislature say they are willing to give it a try.

So far, their approaches have led to a deficit that has swollen to $26.3 billion and a cash supply so low that the government is issuing IOUs instead of paying all its bills.

Schwarzenegger has been touting a need for transparency in the face of evidence that Californians do not trust their government. He even says he would like his office to be a "glass house" so visitors can see inside.

"Everyone will be performing more, but I think eventually they will get used to it that there is cameras around," he said in a recent interview.

Even if budget talks were filmed a la "The Osbournes" or "Jon & Kate Plus 8," it’s unlikely Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders would slap each other silly, cheat on their spouses, trash office furniture or engage in other behavior worthy of a decent reality show. Nor is it clear whether anyone could be voted out of a meeting.

But cameras might have made clear, for instance, what made Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Democrat from Los Angeles, bolt out of a recent negotiating session in the governor’s office.

"He broke it. He should fix it," she sputtered, struggling to contain her exasperation. Other legislative leaders offered no insight when they emerged.

The governor has some experience with reality television, at least cinematically. In "The Running Man," a 1987 movie based on a novel by Stephen King, Schwarzenegger played a game-show contestant who must escape hunters trying to kill him.

In New York, former Gov. George Pataki held budget negotiations for reporters in his office in 2005, attempting to break a 20-year streak of late spending plans.

"He was able to effectively use them to put pressure on the leaders because they would have to articulate in public why they were opposed to what Pataki wanted to do," said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group in Albany. "When you’re talking in secret, you could say whatever you want or you could say nothing."

The Assembly’s Republican leader, Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo, joked that even if he had to go on camera, he would be communicating beyond its reach: "I’ll just be using my BlackBerry like mad."

The governor, who Twitters and has his own YouTube page, says he’d like to be onstage whenever he’s at the Capitol.

"I would like to actually have my office be in a glass house," he said, "so that the people that walk outside or that walk in the hallway literally can look in my office ... and see me working and see everyone working. It’s the people’s money, and they should be able to look in."

Asked why the governor doesn’t just open his office to the public, a spokesman said the statement was "a metaphor in his support for transparency."