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California, in desperate move, asks for federal loan guarantees
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Published: May 28, 2009
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
If AIG was too big to fail, how about the world's eighth-largest economy?
In a move with only one modern-day precedent, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators are pressing the Obama administration and members of Congress for federal loan guarantees to help the state out of a desperate, multibillion-dollar jam.
California is not asking for cash, like the tens of billions given to AIG, General Motors or Morgan Stanley. Instead, the state with the worst credit rating in the nation is asking that Washington act as a sort of co-signer on the state's borrowing, to be backed up with money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
California leaders say that would make it easier and cheaper for the state to borrow money on the bond market, reducing the interest rate by as much as half and saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Obama administration has responded cautiously to the idea, and members of Congress from other states worry that it would put the federal government in the business of backing municipal bonds -- a job traditionally held by investment banks.
They also worry that the U.S. government could overextend itself and risk its triple-A credit rating if California and other states or cities in distress start coming to Washington with hat in hand.
But California leaders warn that without assistance from Washington, the nation's most populous state could fall deeper into a financial abyss and resort to even bigger spending cuts and layoffs, becoming a drag on the economic recovery of the nation as a whole.
"There's simply no better stimulus than guaranteeing state and local bonds, particularly those that are being used to get through the crisis and avoid layoffs," said U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, one of 15 Democrats in California's House delegation who signed a letter earlier this month asking for the federal loan guarantee.
Plus, supporters of the idea note that Washington stands to make a profit from loan fees as it did after bailing out New York in 1975, a move that brought the city back from the brink of ruin.
Because of a steep drop in tax revenue, Schwarzenegger and legislators are struggling with a projected deficit of $24 billion, or more than a quarter of the general fund.
"We are not asking for a bailout," said state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat. "We're asking for the federal government to step in where commercial banks can't this year because of the crisis within the financial industry."
So far, no other state has asked for such aid. Such states as Arizona and Nevada have proportionately larger deficits than California but do not face the same cash-flow crunch. Michigan is in distress too, but stands to benefit from the Obama administration's rescue of the auto industry.
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