Both the KQED Capitol Notes blog and Daniel Weintraub on his blog at the Sacramento Bee make a hugely important point. While Governor Schwarzenegger is assiduously stumping for the four 1B-1E bond measures, including at a stop at the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland today, he has said virtually nothing about the state budget during the course of the race.

In fact, KQED’s John Myers notes, the governor has avoided answering questions about the budget. During the October 7 debate, the governor said, when asked a question about the budget, “This is not my style to talk about hypotheticals. Myers notes that Phil Angelides has offered some specifics about what he would do to balance the budget, including eliminating state government inefficiencies, but according to Myers, it’s unclear whether his numbers add up.

Myers, Weintraub, and other writers note that no matter what else happens, the state will almost certainly face at the minimum, a $4 billion budget shortfall in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. What Schwarzenegger and Angelides would do to address that shortfall is a question that is going almost completely undiscussed in the race. That’s an untouched question that will ultimately affect all Californians.

Some information resources:

• Yesterday’s edition of KQED’s “The California Report” has a John Myers news report about the budget from the gubernatorial race. The report (which lasts 8 minutes) can be downloaded in mp3 format here (scroll down to October 23).

• The state Legislative Analyst’s Office has a report on the 2006-07 budget that briefly discusses the impact of the budget shortfall projected out to the fiscal years 2007-08 and 2008-09.