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California Budget Deal Struck

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It looks like California ‘leaders’ have reached a tentative deal to settle the 2009-10 budget.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders reached a tentative budget compromise Monday to plug a $26.3 billion deficit by making hefty cuts in education, health and welfare services, and taking billions of dollars from county governments.

The plan also includes handing over some nonviolent illegal- immigrant prison inmates to federal officials for deportation, allowing an off-shore oil drilling project near Santa Barbara and closing some state parks.

Some more details from San Jose Mercury News
SPENDING CUTS

— $6 billion from K-12 schools and community colleges over a two-year span.

— Nearly $3 billion from the University of California and California State University systems.

— $1.3 billion from Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for the poor. Also includes a proposal to bill the federal government for more money.

— Saves $1.3 billion by retaining three unpaid furlough days per month for state workers.

— Includes $1.2 billion in unallocated cuts to the state Department of Corrections. Does not include Schwarzenegger’s proposal to release some inmates early.

— Cuts $528 million from CalWORKS, the state’s welfare-to-work program, partly by increasing sanctions for families that fail to meet work requirements. Schwarzenegger had proposed eliminating the program entirely.

— Cuts $124 million from Healthy Families, a program that provides health insurance for 930,000 low-income children.

— Cuts $226 million from the state’s in-home supportive services program for the frail and disabled. Also includes Schwarzenegger’s plans to require fingerprinting of caregivers and recipients, and would require caregivers to undergo background checks.

— Cuts about $8 million from state parks, allowing the majority of state parks, beaches and attractions to stay open. Some parks are likely to close, however, based on popularity and use.

OTHER MEASURES

— Borrows about $2 billion from local governments’ property tax revenue, money that would have to be repaid with interest in three years. As a concession to angry local officials, the deal would prioritize repayment of the so-called Proposition 1A money after schools and bond holders are paid.

— Takes $1 billion in redevelopment money from local governments.

— Takes $1 billion in transportation funding from local governments.

— Speeds up collection of 2010 personal income and corporate taxes to bring in revenue earlier than anticipated.

— Sells off part of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, which the administration values at $1 billion. The fund is a quasi-governmental agency that is the state’s largest writer of workers’ compensation insurance

— Allows limited expansion of oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast, bringing in $100 million in the current fiscal year.

— Eliminates the Integrated Waste Management Board and the Board of Geologists and Geophysicists, which Schwarzenegger had targeted as wasteful and unnecessary.

— Gives school districts the option of cutting the school year by five days.

— Defers state employee paychecks by one day for a paper savings of $1.2 billion, which has been criticized by some as a gimmick. Instead of being issued on June 30, 2010, the paychecks would be issued on July 1, the start of the 2010-11 fiscal year.

— Gives the governor authority to pursue the sale of about 10 state-owned buildings as a potential revenue source in future years, including the Orange County Fairgrounds, the Public Utilities Commission Building in San Francisco and the Ronald Reagan State Office Building in Los Angeles.

— Rejects Schwarzenegger’s proposal for a surcharge on homeowner insurance policies to boost funding for emergency services. The surcharge would have averaged about $48 a year per homeowner.

I’m glad they solved things so we aren’t stuck with a weeks long budget crisis but it also seems they’ve just used a bunch of smoke and mirrors to put it off for another year.



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4 Responses to “California Budget Deal Struck”

  1. Dr J says:

    California legislators are limited to three two-year terms.

    Coincidentally, the legislature seems happy to punt a great many economic problems down the road a year or two or, at the outside, six.

    I have no idea why this might be.

  2. [...] completely broke state of California has one thing to celebrate: it seems that their legislators and Governor Schwarzenegger have reached a tentative deal to close the state’s ridiculous $26.3 billion budget gap. Unfortunately, fixing the gap means [...]

  3. redbus says:

    This is GREAT news for colleges and universities in California, who were very nervous about enrollment numbers for the fall. So many returning students are dependent upon funding from state government.

  4. Patrick E says:

    I certainly think they basically passed the buck here.

    For one thing, the shifting the June 2010 payroll to July means the 2010-2011 budget year would have 13 months to pay for. Of course they could simply keep pushing month 13 into the next month but that means they can't ever use this trick again.

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