by Annie Scott
September 16, 2009

Here’s what’s going on in a land far away but not so far apart from the Mitten …

It’s a tough time to be a governor. Trying to find new ways to cut overstretched spending and come up with solutions to epic challenges is inspiring some rather creative state leadership throughout the country.

How creative? A few recent examples come to mind, which range from well intentioned to extremely tacky.

Whether it’s a good idea or not, offering to lease space in your recently emptied prisons to house another troubled state’s inmates gets points for creativity. The same could be said for fighting to position your state as the new leader in advanced battery production.

Moving down the policy scale, there’s the more subtle choice to abandon one’s office well before the term is up in order to protect the state from a lame-duck governor (and her ongoing ethics probes). Or trying to boost “revenue” by selling a high-profile Senate seat to the highest bidder. Then there’s teaching your state the importance of practicing what you preach by abruptly ending a distinguished career prosecuting corruption by getting caught in a prostitution ring. Just as classless is the move of distracting a state from its woes by visiting an Argentinean mistress while leaving behind a swiss-cheese alibi and no one in charge. Now that’s creativity.

My current favorite, though, is hyping a grand-scale garage sale to pawn off all of the Golden State’s superfluous stuff. The Governator himself talked up The Great California Garage Sale (destined to become a bold-faced term in future social studies textbooks) as a clever partial fix to the state’s mammoth budget crisis and a way to make good on his “promise to eliminate waste in state government.”

Calling it a “win-win for the state and shoppers,” Gov. Schwarzenegger called on all state agencies to rout through storage closets, round up any and all surplus and seized property and get it to the state’s 180,000-square-foot warehouse in Sacramento. The event was to be the largest such sale since, well, the one Ahnold called in 2004 after being elected.

When I first heard about it from a coworker, I assumed it was a bad political joke. After all, apart from the fact that the money they hoped to raise would amount to only a drop in the state’s enormous collection bucket, the governor’s overdone enthusiasm in online and other promotions seemed something more akin to a Saturday Night Live sketch or YouTube sensation than a solution to the serious $26-billion budget crisis.

Then I heard the NPR story. This was real.

It’s never a bad idea to clear out junk that’s taking up valuable space. But if you’re trying to make a serious effort to score political points and raise significant cash, you should at least try to get the promotion right. Meaning, make it abundantly clear that it’s not a joke.

The Great Sale took place on August 28 and 29. On the big opening day, a leather-jacket-clad Schwarzenegger himself greeted bargain shoppers inside the gigantic warehouse. More than 6,000 items went up for sale, including office supplies, furniture, equipment, bicycles, BlackBerries, extra inmate uniforms, police motorcycles, computers, kayaks and more than 600 vehicles from the state fleet (mostly Chevy Cavaliers with at least 100,000 miles on them).

The governor made an extra strong push to encourage shoppers to bid on the vehicles, to help the state meet his own mandate for a 15-percent reduction to the 40,000-strong fleet. Finally, a role that suits Schwarzenegger perfectly: used car salesman.

I guess one state’s trash could be considered someone else’s treasure, but some of these items were pushing it. Case in point: not one but two sets of souvenir bobblehead dolls of 2003 Sacramento Kings, reportedly confiscated by the California Highway Patrol. And seven extra dental chairs from the state’s overcrowded prisons. But the big winner of the bizarro award may have been the vintage fortune-telling scales (yes, you read that right) the DMV had been hoarding for some mysterious reason.

But back to the vehicles, which held the greatest money-raising potential. Yet again, Ahnold sought to leverage the power of his celebrity by autographing some of the cars and motorcycles. Suggested as a “value-add” by his Twitter followers, that signature came attached to a substantial cost. Unfortunately for the state, some would-be buyers actually argued with officials to avoid paying the extra $800 on top of the original $2,200 price tag for a signed motorcycle. One dismissed the autograph as graffiti. Ouch.

The event generated an impressive amount of publicity…but much of it was critical. One popular target was the photo gallery previewing sale merchandise. As Eric Gazin, president of celebrity auction house Auction Cause, told the Los Angeles Times, “A 12-year-old could have taken better pictures of jewelry and cars.” He also dismissed the poor quality of the ads promoting the sale as so bad “they are leaving a lot of money on the table.”

Others complained about where the proceeds were directed — into California’s general fund. Some thought the money should go to furloughed state workers or other service providers whose funding has been decimated by budget cuts.

All told, the great sale raised $1.6 million — $1.2 million from the auctioned vehicles. Far better than proceeds from your average yard sale, but still a pittance relative to the $10.5 billion the state still needs to raise. The road ahead remains frighteningly long and tough to read (especially without the fortune-telling scales).

Personally, I am all for creativity in leadership — within reason. Yes, every little bit of revenue helps. But when your state is still facing an epic budget shortfall after cutting billions from vital services, it’s not the best idea to hype an after-the-fact garage sale as a promised end to state waste. One hopes a governor would have cut the inanimate junk well before cutting the programs, salaries and human services.

Who knows, maybe Schwarzenegger’s creative streak will lead next to the Great California Lemonade Stand or the Mighty Golden State Car Wash and our budget troubles will be yesterday’s news. But I’m holding out hope that there will be more ideas forthcoming, like the governor’s newly signed executive order to boost California’s Renewable Energy Portfolio standard to 33 percent by 2020 – the most aggressive in the nation.

While its short-term economic impact will undoubtedly be debated and it likely won’t help the current budget woes, I am much more encouraged by this type of bold creativity.

That’s one signature that is actually worth a lot.

Annie Scott lives and works in San Diego and sends dispatches back to her beloved Michigan.