 AFP/Getty Images Photo |
Posted on 01/09/2004 7:25:03 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) unveiled his first state, including cuts to education and healthcare spending in a bid to curb the largest state's multi-billion-dollar deficit.
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The former actor-turned-politician said he had been forced to make radical spending cuts in the face of a projected 12-14 billion dollar budget shortfall for 2004. Aides say Schwarzenegger's plan will balance the state's precarious finances.
"Over the past five years the politicians have made a mess of the California budget, and now it's time to clean it up," Schwarzenegger said in a televised news conference from the state capital, Sacramento.
Schwarzenegger's budget plan -- which needs the approval of the opposition Democrat-controlled state assembly -- includes plans to slice some six billion dollars from state and local government operations, transportation projects, and social and health programs.
The budget also envisions raising tuition at state colleges and universities.
An additional two billion dollars will be withheld from primary and secondary schools, though Schwarzenegger insisted that the amount the state spends per pupil will still increase.
The state's Medi-Cal program, which supplies health services to millions of Californians, will be cut by 900 million dollars.
On the revenue side, he said the state's deficit will be reduced by an estimated 2.9 billion dollar rise in income tax receipts hanks to an expected economic recovery.
The state assembly has to approve the budget plan by June, but analysts expect thorny negotiations in coming weeks.
"It will be a long and tough final negotiation," said Jean Ross, executive director of the independent California Budget Project.
She said the plan contained "smoke and mirrors" that would provoke resistance in the legislature.
She also called the budget's assumptions on rising tax income "very aggressive."
Kim Reuben of the Public Policy Institute in San Francisco said the budget cuts could end up forcing local county and city governments to raise taxes to pay for social service programs still in demand but cut by the state budget.
"One person's fat is another person's vital programs," said Reuben.
Drudge has it as SCHWARZENEGGER SAYS 'PAINFUL' CUTS ARE NECESSARY IN BUDGET...
Go Team! :-]
He proposes a small spending increase and the liberal press makes it appear that he's trying to take grandma's house through eminent domain.
Could you imagine the convulsions if he had actually proposed a cut in spending.
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