Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, who has forecast a $9.8 billion deficit for the next fiscal year, chats Tuesday before testifying at a Senate budget hearing.
Posted on 11/28/2007 10:39:27 AM PST by SmithL
Top Republican lawmakers on Tuesday called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a "fiscal crisis" to deal with California's looming budget problem, but administration officials said such a move would be premature.
Sen. Bob Dutton, a Republican from Rancho Cucamonga who refused to vote for the current budget because it spent too much, said the governor should use a special authority voters assigned him during the last budget crisis to tackle a budget deficit forecast to be nearly $10 billion.
Under Proposition 58 passed in 2004, the governor could declare a fiscal emergency if he determines revenue is "substantially below" what was anticipated in the budget and summon the Legislature into special session.
"If we don't do something now ... to deal with this crisis, we could find ourselves right back where we were five years ago," Dutton said following a Senate budget committee hearing in the Capitol on Tuesday.
The administration's Department of Finance cautioned that it was too soon to make such a call.
"When we have all our data and we have our decisions in front of us, that will be when we advise the governor," Finance Chief Deputy Director Vince Brown said during Tuesday's hearing.
The state Finance Department is waiting on additional economic and revenue indicators to help draft the 2008-09 budget. Those reports are expected Dec. 10. A month later the governor will release his proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2008.
Brown added that the administration is considering "all options."
Lawmakers were trying to get a jump-start on the state's finances amid a $9.8 billion projected shortfall for the next fiscal year. A recent report by the Legislature's budget analyst found that state spending continues to outpace tax revenue. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, who has forecast a $9.8 billion deficit for the next fiscal year, chats Tuesday before testifying at a Senate budget hearing.
Ah-nold, 8th most influential liberal in the United States.
“Fiscal Crisis” is putting it mildly - Sacramento should be declared a Disaster Area. Even a well-meaning outsider like Schwarzenneger was quickly co-opted by the corrupt system, letting spending continue to grow totally out of control. We’re right back where we were in 2003, only much deeper in debt and with more expensive entitlements to pay for. Thanks for the legacy, Arnie.
"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 Palelologus
"Without saying I told you so, Senate Republicans say we need to be very cognizant of this report and what it foretells," said Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula.
Last summer the budget was weeks overdue as most Senate Republicans held out for further spending cuts and a bigger reserve to prepare for what they said were hard times ahead...
Fine, I'll say it: We told you so!
You're kidding yourself. Arnold was in tight with the globalist crooks long before the recall.
Remember that his first campaign money was from Wall Street, for which he made a payoff that cost the state a cool half billion dollars in the issue of that first $15 billion in bonds. Had he selected a California firm, the state would have paid lower interest on tax exempt bonds and the underwriters would have paid taxes on the fees.
Arnold was a crook from the beginning, posing as an "outsider."
Good shot CO!
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