Associated Press
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger answered questions yesterday in Sacramento concerning the tentative agreement on a state budget.
Posted on 06/27/2006 9:14:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Edited on 06/27/2006 10:18:23 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
SACRAMENTO – The Legislature is scheduled to vote tonight on a $131 billion state budget that contains a 10 percent boost in school funding after legislative leaders and the governor agreed on the sweeping plan yesterday.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger not only gets much of what he wanted in the spending proposal, but as he runs for re-election he also might get a rare on-time budget, one that is in place before the new fiscal year begins Saturday.
A $7.5 billion windfall of unexpected tax revenue from a strong economy allowed Schwarzenegger to reach an agreement with school groups last month on repaying a debt owed to schools, paving the way for a budget agreement.
The final sticking points were negotiated by the four top legislative leaders meeting without the governor, a new process that began with an agreement last month to place a $37.3 billion package of public-works bonds on the November ballot.
Schwarzenegger said the budget is responsible and reflects a compromise between Republicans and Democrats, whose feuding in past years has delayed some budgets until early September.
“And I am very happy that we are able to be successful in that, especially in an election year when normally nothing is ever done,” Schwarzenegger said in endorsing the plan. “We got this done. So this is really great.”
The governor and legislative leaders said they were being careful to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, when a temporary windfall was spent on ongoing programs that left a huge deficit when revenue returned to normal.
While much of the money is targeted toward one-time expenditures, such as paying down the deficit, new money still is going to ongoing programs. A structural deficit continues to exist because the state has been spending more than it takes in for six years.
Schwarzenegger said when he made a revised budget proposal last month that the deficit he inherited three years ago as he took office – more than $16 billion – had been reduced to about $3 billion.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said yesterday that the budget would result in an estimated deficit of $3.3 billion in the fiscal year that begins in July 2007. Overall, Núñez was pleased with the spending proposals.
“I think this is not just a fiscally responsible budget, but a morally responsible budget,” Núñez said. “Not everybody gets everything they wanted. But at the same time, it does reflect the priorities articulated by Democrats and Republicans.”
Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia of La Jolla, who briefed his caucus on the budget proposal, said he was optimistic that the plan will get the half-dozen votes from minority Republicans needed for the two-thirds majority in the Assembly to approve a budget.
“Some people have legitimate concerns because there is still a structural deficit,” Plescia said.
After unyielding opposition from Republican legislators, the budget drops $23 million proposed by the Republican governor that would have gone to child health care programs in 18 counties that serve legal and illegal residents.
Democrats earlier abandoned an expansion of the Healthy Families health care program for the children of the working poor that would have cost an estimated $300 million in 2008, mostly for serving illegal immigrants.
Democrats successfully insisted that Schwarzenegger provide a full-year inflation adjustment in payments to the elderly, blind and disabled and an additional $100 million to the CalWORKS welfare program for needy families.
Democrats also obtained $250 million for deferred maintenance at state parks, a reduction of community college fees from $26 per unit to $20 per unit, and increased funding for foster care.
As announced last month, the proposed budget reflects a $5 billion settlement of a lawsuit filed by school groups that contended that Schwarzenegger illegally underfunded schools two years ago.
The settlement gives schools $2 billion in the current fiscal year that ends this month, plus an additional payment of $2.9 billion that will be spread out over the next seven years.
Following the Proposition 98 guarantee, spending on kindergarten through high school increases from $44.6 billion this year to $49.1 billion in the new fiscal year, up 10 percent.
The Proposition 98 funding provided by the state general fund and local property taxes increases spending from $7,402 per pupil in the current year to $8,291 next year, an increase of $889 per pupil.
Funding from all sources, including the federal government, will boost total spending per pupil to $11,268. Despite the increased funding, districts with declining enrollment, such as San Diego Unified, still might feel a budget crunch.
The proposed budget contains Schwarzenegger's proposal for $100 million to expand preschool programs in low-performing schools. On June 6, voters rejected an initiative, Proposition 82, that would have taxed the wealthy to provide preschool for all 4-year-olds.
Schwarzenegger wanted to spend school funds on specific programs he favors, among them art, music and physical education. Democratic and Republican leaders wanted local school districts and school councils to decide how to spend the grants.
Núñez said the proposed budget “split the difference” between the position of the governor and the legislative leaders, removing one of the final budget sticking points. No details were available yesterday.
In another change to the Schwarzenegger budget, the legislative leaders put $350 million in funding into school economic impact aid, sought by urban Democrats, and $350 million into equalizing basic per-pupil funding, sought by suburban Republicans.
Núñez said the result is a major increase in aid for English-language learners and in equalization funds for suburban districts that contend their basic per-pupil rate is below average.
A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the proposed budget contains the governor's proposal for $200 million for counselors in the seventh through 12th grades, a plan he pushed at a news conference in Poway earlier this month.
The governor's proposal to spend $148 million on a half-dozen local law enforcement programs is trimmed in the proposed budget, reportedly to $126 million.
Schwarzenegger had wanted to spend $1 billion on early repayment of $11.3 billion in deficit bonds. Those bonds were approved by voters in Proposition 57 in March 2004 to avoid a cash crisis as the state struggled with a massive deficit.
Democratic leaders, with agreement from their Republican counterparts, said the governor's proposal would repay debt that doesn't come due until about 2009. The proposed budget would pay down debt that comes due before then.
The proposed budget contains $1.4 billion to repay Proposition 42 transportation funds borrowed to help balance the budget in previous years. The governor had proposed paying off $920 million of the transportation debt.
A spokesman for the governor's Department of Finance said the proposed budget would pay down $2.8 billion in debt ahead of schedule and contain a $2.1 billion reserve.
H.D. Palmer, the Finance spokesman, said a debate about how to pay down debt is “a sea change, something we haven't seen in budgeting in recent years. That's big.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger answered questions yesterday in Sacramento concerning the tentative agreement on a state budget.
Do you have a link for this?
Funding from all sources, including the federal government, will boost total spending per pupil to $11,268.
More money down that black hole. More money will NOT fix California's schools.
No, it won't but think of all those administrators who can now get another raise!/sar
Coming at you, Thanks!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060627-9999-1n27budget.html
thanks
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
And I have my daughter in a top-notch private school that runs me less than $8,000/year... her class size has never been more than 14 and she is testing one full grade higher on standardized tests.
Vouchers, anyone?
Good for you, I wouldn't send a kid to one of our local illegal alien filled schools. As a matter of fact, I have a granddaughter going into first grade in August and she is in/has been in private school. I pay for half of it.
This makes reason #601 why I fled that madhouse.
I wonder which bit of the economy is the strong one?
(snip)
* In social services, some of last year's delays in cost-of-living increases for aid recipients appear to have been retroactively reinstated. And all sides seem to have good things to say about money for foster care programs, including more money for foster care caseworkers.
I see they are still reporting Donna Arduin's bogus deficit numbers (which also projected the cumulative deficit to reach $62 billion by June 30, 2007). Funny thing--that estimated deficit assumed General Fund spending of $99.8 Billion for 2006-07, considered outrageous at the time. By comparison, this budget spends $101.3 Billion (with revenue of only 94 billion).
The structrual deficit continues. The only difference is this Governor, to fund continued deficit spending, has borrowed billions, accelerated revenues from future years, taken revenues from counties and increased fees. So much for "Cut, Cut, Cut!"
a reduction of community college fees from $26 per unit to $20 per unit
ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. $26/unit is already NOTHING.
This budget, like all gov't budgets is still a PIG. Oink. Oink.
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