I only have a few minutes today to look at the Governor's May budget revision, and here's what I see. Current-year revenues are up $2.8 billion over forecasts, and $6.6 billion over two years. Governor Brown, true to his turnscrew austerity vision of aHooverite unstimulus for all Californians, increases allocations to no one except K-12 and the community colleges "pursuant to Proposition 98," and, unbelievably, prisons, with a drop for mental health (page 4).
The Regents' strategy of saying that state funding is never coming back has paid off big-time: UC and CSU get exactly zero - not even a $10 million or $50 million booby prize for not fighting the $500 million cuts. The crappy squeezing of health services is intact (page 3), as is the closing of 70 state parks to save a whopping $11 million this year. There is no wavering of Gov Brown's vision in which government's one and only priority is reducing the deficit.
If I have misread something here, or you can explain why it's a lot better for health and education and public infrastructure to have Jerry Brown rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor's mansion, please write.
Michael Here: Just a quick note to reiterate Chris' comment on spending. The May Revision assumes that the Governor will still get almost all of his tax extensions (although the income tax is shortened). In other words, it is still possible that he will end up with an "all-cuts" budget with even more fierce slashing of the budget for education, health, etc.
See helpful background on the state deficit at the UCLA Faculty Association blog.
UC's New Approach to Labor Relations - Part 4
6 hours ago
7 comments:
utterly confused by the billions being found here and there- don't want to double count:
Unexpected state revenue leaps to $6.6 billion
The governor's budget says the revenue surge, which erases a substantial chunk of what had been a $15-billion deficit, is not enough to put the state in the black.
Lawmakers are required by law to divert a substantial portion of any revenue spike to schools, unless they suspend the state funding formula, which Brown is not proposing.
The governor’s plan calls for use of the remaining extra revenue to scale back his proposed tax increases and to restore a state program that provides tax credits to businesses that hire workers from blighted neighborhoods, among other things.
The plan also calls for the elimination of 43 boards and commissions, several of which pay six-figure salaries to their members and have been labeled patronage posts by critics.
What's with Brown and prisons? Even Schwarzenegger was going to cut their budget.
fyi --there is a link embedded in my comment above in case you can't tell due to the faint color
anyway, I forgot to clearly ask my question:
Are we now dealing with
($15B - $6.6B) = a $8.4 Billion deficit?
Chris said: "If I have misread something here, or you can explain why it's a lot better for health and education and public infrastructure to have Jerry Brown rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor's mansion, please write."
Let's not forget that Brown was not running against Arnold. Meg would have been much, much worse.
I voted for Brown but I totally disagree with your comment that Meg would have been worse. Maybe worse for a liberal agenda but I'm pretty sure she would have been better for UC -- she understands the importance of higher education and research to the economy. I don't think Jerry Brown shares that value -- he would prefer more resources to the community colleges.
Now, I am really confused. If you think Meg would have been better (so do I). Why on earth did you vote for this guy???
better for UC and Stanford; Brown would be better on a host of other social issues that face the state
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