[So much for the CA socialism<g>]--(CA) "Governor presents $111.7 billion budget"
Posted on Mon, Jan. 10, 2005
By Kate Folmar and Ann E. Marimow
Knight Ridder Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - To patch up an $8.1 billion shortfall without hiking taxes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed a spending plan that relies on borrowing and attempts to slow down ``cruise-control'' spending by cutting into cherished social safety nets.
Even as state tax revenues increase modestly, the $111.7 billion spending plan, if approved, would ricochet across the state, affecting countless Californians.
Welfare-to-work participants would have their grants reduced and their cost-of-living increases dropped. Congestion-weary commuters would have to wait longer for better roads, as the state snatches transportation dollars. Teachers, students and parents will be denied about half the new money they're expecting for classrooms, even as recent reports find California education woefully under-funded compared to other states. In a retread of a rejected proposal last year, in-home workers who care for the aged, blind and disabled would see their wages slashed to the minimum wage.
In an affront to public employee unions -- Democratic stalwarts that the governor derides as ``special interests''-- state workers would have to contribute significantly more to their own pensions; lose two holidays; and potentially be subject to five days of unpaid furlough.
Before Democratic lawmakers had a chance to assault the spending plan as a betrayal of commuters stuck in traffic, poor families and state employees, Schwarzenegger said he wants to shake things up with his second annual budget.
``People in Sacramento have been working and living in a comfortable way,'' said an uncharacteristically stern Schwarzenegger lectured a conference room full of journalists that had, just moments before, been treated to a light jazz version of ``My Favorite Things.'' ``That time is over. We've got to sit down and be fiscally responsible. That's why the people sent me here. Of course it rattles the cage. Of course people will be angry. But, you know, that's just the way it is.
``We cannot continue on, you know, doing all those kinds of things and promising the workers those pensions and promising everything to people,'' he continued. ``The state can only keep the promises of the money we have.''
At least, that's the plan for the future. Depending on who's doing the tallies, the current budget hinges on between $3 billion and $6 billion of borrowing to make ends meet. Most prominently, the state will tap $1.7 left over from the bond money that voters approved in March.
To remedy the state's persistent mismatch between revenue and income, Schwarzenegger is pursuing a parallel plan to the budget. While lawmakers pore over spending plan details, they'll also be asked to send voters what Schwarzenegger touts as sweeping budget ``reforms.'' The reforms would give the state controller the authority to cut state programs across the board when the budget is late or when expenses outstrip income.
Democrats, who control the Legislature, objected to many of the cuts, including those to education and to programs for the elderly. They prefer to seek more federal money and closing tax loopholes to raise more income.
This budget says, ``If you are young or old in California, you are in jeopardy,'' said Democratic Sen. Jackie Speier of Hillsborough.
Unveiling a proposed spending plan is just the first act in the state's annual budget drama. Between now and summer, lawmakers will hold hearings on the plan, and it will be rewritten in May to reflect the most current economic data. Then the hard work begins -- closed-door changes designed to eke out the necessary two-thirds budget approval.
Hypothetically, a new spending plan should be in place before the new budget year begins July 1. But that deadline is routinely blown.
Support from both parties is essential to pass a budget, so Schwarzenegger will have to balance their competing desires to strike a compromise. Convinced that higher taxes will only hurt the economy, Republicans staunchly refuse to raise them. Likewise, Democrats, who dominate the Legislature, balk at slicing into public and higher education and health programs for the poor and aged.
mercurynews.com |
