Posted on 02/07/2005 6:21:33 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Some of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top federal funding priorities for California would go unmet under the lean $2.57 trillion federal budget President Bush proposed Monday.
Funding increases the governor requested for after-school programs, water quality improvement and reimbursing states for the cost of jailing illegal immigrants all were ignored.
Other programs were funded at levels less than Schwarzenegger sought - among them the CalFed water project to restore California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and a high-tech research project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
But the budget proposal did include some of Schwarzenegger's federal spending goals, which he listed in a letter to Bush in December.
The document proposes changes to homeland security spending, replacing grants determined by congressionally mandated formulas with money distributed according to threats and vulnerabilities. Such a change would likely send more money to California, though Congress has balked at enacting similar proposals in the past.
The budget would increase Title I grants to help students in low-income schools, although the increase would come at the expense of other education programs Bush wants to cut. It also proposes modestly increased spending on hydrogen research programs, which Schwarzenegger wants to advance his goal of building a network of hydrogen fueling stations in California.
Overall, "it looks like a predictable mix of things to like and things to hate," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Schwarzenegger's finance department. He said that the governor, who campaigned on a promise to be "the Collectinator" and get more federal funds for California, will visit with state legislative leaders in Washington on Feb. 17 to strategize about the budget, among other issues.
The proposals would still have to be approved by Congress, where opposition is already mounting to Bush's austere spending package for the 2006 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The plan would tamp down non-security domestic spending - excluding automatically paid benefits like Medicare - by nearly 1 percent.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, called the plan "fiscally irresponsible, morally irresponsible, and a failure of leadership."
But Republicans including House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, pledged to work with Bush. "The president has proposed a budget and Congress will now work its will," Lewis said.
Here are more details on how some of Schwarzenegger's priorities fared:
-Bush included no funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, even though paying to incarcerate illegal immigrants who commit crimes costs California more than $750 million a year - a "significant burden," Schwarzenegger wrote to Bush.
Bush has tried to get rid of the program in past budgets, too, and Congress has not gone along. Lawmakers found $305 million for the program in 2005.
-Schwarzenegger wanted $100 million in 2006 in direct spending for California Federal Bay-Delta water projects, but the budget includes only $81 million, according to Keith Coolidge, spokesman for the California Bay-Delta Authority.
-Schwarzenegger asked for more money for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which provides money for water quality protection projects. Instead funding was decreased from $1 billion to $730 million.
-The governor wanted strong support for Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility, which is being designed to simulate conditions created in nuclear explosions.
Congress sliced $25 million off Bush's funding request for the project in 2005, and it has gotten behind schedule. Schwarzenegger asked for a funding proposal in 2006 to top $300 million.
Instead Bush's plan would cut the scientific budget for the facility 12 percent, to $43 million in 2006, while increasing the construction budget just 10 percent, to $141 million, according to the office of Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, who represents the area.
-Schwarzenegger requested funding increases for after-school programs called 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Instead Bush proposed the same funding level in 2006 as in 2005, $991 million.
-The governor asked for more money for Title I grants. Bush proposed a 4.7 percent increase from 2005 to $13.3 billion.
When a state votes $6 Billion for stem-cell research, I would assume they don't need any more $ also.
oxymoron
What a shame.
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