“The plan is the process.”

Sound familiar? Conservative pundits have twisted Brown’s quote about the state budget from a June interview on CNBC into a contention that he lacks specific plans for everything from taxes to business to state government as a whole.

Most of those claims are exaggerated, but the roots of the quote say a lot about Brown’s plan for wrestling with the perennially late state budget.

At the core of Brown’s budget plans are two simple precepts: start early, and be open. Brown has promised that if he is elected, he will begin meeting with legislators even before his inauguration. He recently called for unspecified “key decisions” to be voted on as early as June.

In an interview with Univision in August, Brown proposed breaking budget priorities into five or 10 categories and said he “won’t let legislators do other bills” until those key areas are reconciled. Whitman has floated a similar idea, though neither candidate has specified how that would be accomplished, beyond exercising veto power.

Brown has also consistently talked about meeting with lawmakers in both small and large groups in budget discussions – a departure from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (and other governors over the past couple decades), who tends to work most visibly with Assembly and Senate leadership during budget negotiations.

Brown’s calls for budget transparency have at times taken a paternal tone. He has promised to level honestly with taxpayers, lawmakers and interest groups about the condition of the state’s finances and several times has proposed letting voters decide for themselves, via referenda, what state spending priorities should be.

When he has been pressed on proposed cuts, Brown has offered few specifics, typically saying he would begin by cutting perks from the governor’s office and press the Legislature to do the same. Specifically, his budget plan also calls for "immediate cuts, especially in the areas of press and communications, lawyers and other staff who are duplicative with agency personnel." Pension reform, prison health care and Medi-Cal are other areas he has identified as ripe for cost-cutting.

In his official budget plan, Brown said he will veto new spending programs that do not come with adequate revenue sources and would propose a constitutional amendment to require new ballot initiatives to raise revenue to cover their costs. He advocates zero-based budgeting -- effectively starting each agency's budget from scratch each year -- until the state's finances stabilize.

Like Whitman, Brown supports enacting laws that would strip legislators of their pay and per diem allowances if they miss budget deadlines. He also said he would prioritize the creation of a rainy day fund.

Unlike Whitman, he opposes cutting the state’s capital gains tax. He also told the San Jose Mercury News in July that he, like many Democrats, favors Proposition 25, which would allow the budget to be passed by simple majority vote (taking away Republican leverage in the process). He has repeatedly said he will not allow tax increases unless voters approve them.

Brown has made frugality a cornerstone of his campaign message throughout. He often cites choices during his two terms in office from 1975 to 1983, such as renting an apartment rather than living in the governor’s mansion, as evidence of his spendthrift credentials.

Meg Whitman’s plan for balancing the state’s budget relies heavily on cuts: cuts in the state workforce; cuts to state worker pensions; cuts in various boards, commissions and other government programs; and cuts to welfare programs.

Perhaps her most controversial proposal has been a plan to cut the state workforce back to 2004-2005 levels by eliminating upwards of 40,000 government positions through attrition and targeted layoffs. She has estimated that a flexible hiring freeze would save more than $3 billion a year.

Whitman’s plan calls for raising the retirement age from 55 to 65, extending the pension vesting period, requiring higher pension contributions (something Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already begun negotiating) and shifting employees into plans resembling 401(k) retirement accounts rather than the guaranteed pensions they currently enjoy.

Whitman would also create a statewide grand jury to root out waste and fraud in state government. The idea is similar to a plan once proposed by Schwarzenegger, though his most ambitious plans largely fizzled. Whitman's plan also suggests establishing what she calls a Sunset Commission to review regulations and suggest eliminating or consolidating redundant government agencies.

The fourth pillar of Whitman’s cutting plan, welfare reform, calls for enacting a two-year limit on welfare benefits; requiring able recipients to work, perform community service or earn a GED; and upgrading computer systems for collecting child support. She wrote about the issue at length in a January editorial in the Orange County Register.

Combined, she has estimated that those four reforms could save the state $15 billion each year – enough to make up for more than three-fourths of the current budget deficit. The rest of the deficit, she has said, would be offset through increased revenues from business growth, spurred by targeted tax cuts such as eliminating or reducing taxes on things like capital gains and manufacturing equipment.

Like Brown, Whitman has consistently talked about starting the budget process earlier and has proposed vetoing bills that are not focused on core state problems. She opposes Proposition 25, which would eliminate the two-thirds vote required to pass a budget, but has voiced support for a two-year budget cycle rather than the one-year cycle in place now. She also supports a cap that would tie state spending to a number of economic factors, such as gross domestic product.