Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his long-awaited budget proposal on Friday, and while Turlock’s Republican legislators gave it a thumbs-up, not everybody - including us - is happy about it.

We think it smacks of the old saying, “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” or in our case, “robbing the cities to pay the state.”

Within hours of his inauguration, Schwarzenegger’s first move - to repeal his predecessor’s vehicle license fee increase - dealt a huge $2 million blow to Turlock’s city government. But with Friday’s budget, there’s more bad news: $1.3 billion in property taxes will be shifted from the coffers of local governments to help combat the state’s mounting shortfall.

When the body-builder-turned-movie-star ran for the state’s highest office, we were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he had no special interest groups breathing down his neck, and a lucrative career to return to if his gubernatorial plans didn’t pan out.

We were glad to hear that part of his election platform was “no new taxes.” Now, however, it seems he’s merely shifting the need for revenue away from the state level, and making it the burden of cities and counties.

There’s no denying that the money has got to come from somewhere. After all, it’s not going to just materialize out of thin air - or be donated after a multi-million-dollar lottery windfall. But we’d prefer to see reductions in spending by the state and cuts in non-essential services rather than taking money away from communities such as Turlock.

But there’s more. With this budget proposal, it’s not just cities that are going to lose out on much-needed funds for public safety, including fire and police protection.

Students in the California State University system are facing fee increases of anywhere from 10 percent for undergraduates, to 40 percent for graduate students. This means there will be students who would have benefited from a CSU education who will have to forgo those years of additional learning.

We agree with the CSU chancellor when he said, “Not investing in higher education will have a devastating impact on the state’s economic future.”

We realize that the state didn’t get itself into this financial pickle overnight; after all, it took five years to get us to this point.

In order to get his budget approved, Schwarzenegger needs two-thirds majorities in both chambers of the Democratic-controlled Legislature. However, even if it does pass muster, it will mean little if voters do not approve the $15 billion bond issue, which early polls indicate may not pass.

In a nutshell, our financial situation has gone from bad to worse. While we’re glad to see that Schwarzenegger seems to have stepped into his new role quite efficiently, albeit with somewhat of a Hollywood flourish, we feel he has an almost impossible task ahead of him - magically pulling billions of dollars out of thin air to get our state back on the right track without taking away much-needed funding from public safety and higher education.