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"If Bernie Madoff had committed his crime in California under the proposed statute, his … scam which has destroyed countless lives and fortunes, would have been a misdemeanor," wrote LA District Attorney Steve Cooley in a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger obtained by the LA Times today. In trying to fix the $24 billion state budget deficit, Schwarzenegger proposed changing state sentencing guidelines so that some felonies would be prosecuted as misdemeanors. The theory behind that idea is saving $1 billion over three years since 23,000 criminals would be ousted from state prisons and into local ones and re-entry programs.