Posted on 11/15/2006 12:32:37 PM PST by SmithL
Lawmakers will need to make about $2 billion in spending cuts in next year's state budget to avoid running up the deficit, the Legislature's nonpartisan budget adviser projected in a report released Wednesday.
A sharp decline in the real estate market and soaring energy prices have dampened the state's economic boom, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said. Last year, that boom in personal incomes poured a $9 billion unexpected windfall into state coffers, cushioning this year's $131 billion spending plan from cuts.
But while energy prices have been falling and tax revenue is still running slightly ahead of projections, Hill's report said, there likely will not be enough to cover the difference between what the state spends and the amount it takes in for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2007.
In shaping the current fiscal year's budget, the extra money enabled Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to significantly boost spending for schools, pay down debt ahead of schedule, and restore funding to social programs that had been cut during the budget crisis early in the decade.
The outlook for next year, while not a fiscal crisis, could force the governor and legislators to make hard choices. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Yeah, the Governator and the Democrat-controlled legislature are going to make the hard choices.
heh heh heh
Maybe they can get some free money by selling more bonds.
Let's see.... Cut spending, or go bankrupt.
Man... That is a REALLY hard choice.
"Maybe they can get some free money by selling more bonds."
yes! that's it!
Another bond proposition! Guaranteed to pass.
So, which way are you betting?
Who needs to have a balanced budget when you have the authority to tax the living crap out of your citizens. Money don't mean a thing.
Sounds like business as usual in CA demoncRAT-controlled politics--tax and spend.
I bet they cut it just enough so that the government doesn't go bankrupt on their watch.
Or increase taxes. Arnold only needs to peel off six GOP Assemblymen and 3 GOP State Senators for the 2/3 tax threshold.
Faced with spending gobs of money on pet liberal causes or exercising fiscal discipline, Arnold has chosen the former time and time again. Mark my words. He's going to move to increase taxes (or sell more bonds).
Notice that the $2 billion cut is need to keep from running up the deficit (any higher). The real answer is to stop deficit spending.
Deficit spending means that the state spends more than it can take in or borrow. They will have to cut far more than $2 billion to stay even with income.
Of course, it won't happen. This is for show to keep the taxpayers from rioting in the streets.
My plan: cut spending for road construction and repair, fire protection and law enforcement, but make sure there is plenty of money left for illegal alien giveways, free needles for junkies and sex change operations for prision inmates - you know, the important stuff.
Hey, the 'fiscal conservative' Governor can just pass another bond measure. Since they just ran up another $49B or so in debt last week, I'm sure another $2B wouldn't even be noticed.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Uh... are you sure he could "cut" the funds to embryonic stem cell research since that was passed by the voters?
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