Calling for “a year of political courage,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked for nothing in his State of the State address Thursday except a solution to California’s deepening budget woes.

“I will not give the traditional State of the State address today, because the reality is that our state is incapacitated until we resolve the budget crisis,” the governor said in a 13-minute speech that was interrupted by applause only once, when he referred to the courage of California firefighters. “The $42 billion deficit is a rock upon our chest, and we cannot breathe until we get it off.”

In his sixth, and next-to-last, annual kickoff speech, Schwarzenegger told other constitutional officers, legislators and onlookers in the Assembly chambers that if the Legislature cannot pass a budget for the coming fiscal year by the constitutionally mandated deadline of June 15 — something they’ve managed to do just four times in the past 20 years — their salaries and expense payments should be suspended.

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