Matt Ortega

George Skelton ripped Republican candidate Meg Whitman's claim that California's government spending increased 80 percent over the last decade.

Well, no, I did not know that. So I did some checking.

“They’re completely wrong when they say that,” replied state Finance Director Mike Genest, a conservative former budget consultant for Senate Republicans.

It doesn’t take much digging to learn that general fund spending “in the last 10 years” has risen just 27 percent, according to finance department data. Adjusted for inflation and population growth, spending actually has decreased by 16.6 percent.

The piece also debunked her claim that Sacramento only knows how to tax-and-spend.

Let’s move on to another bit of baloney in the Whitman ad that is running all over the state.

“These days,” the candidate intones, “Sacramento does the same old thing over and over. Their only solution is to raise taxes and spend more money.”

In fact, over the current and last fiscal years, projected spending — the amount that would have been paid out without changes in laws — has been whacked by $31 billion. So their “only solution” is not to tax and spend.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature did raise taxes by $12.5 billion in February. But contrary to Whitman’s ad — and a widely held myth — it was the first major state tax increase since the candidate’s campaign chairman, Pete Wilson, raised taxes as governor in 1991. The Wilson tax hike was temporary, as is the current one. [emphasis added]

Whitman's hypocrisy and dishonesty in this campaign is telling and the midterm election just reached the "one year out" mark today.