How about we start with a 30% reduction in the budget for the legislature and governor’s office, followed by an across the board cut of 20% for all management budgets - from school administration to CHP. That’d go a long way to easing the budget crunch.
It’s hard to understand why there are continual budget problems with the state of Calif. In 1999, after Gray Davis’ first year as Gov. the state had $12 billion in the bank after running a budget surplus. Apparently these budgets are cyclical, but still, it sounds like there’s little long range planning going on, to plan for saving surpluses to carry through leaner years. The same Gray Davis was recalled in ‘03 after the deficit grew to an incredible $34 billion.
>releasing 22,000 state prison inmates and closing nearly one in five state parks
Well, that should make everything better there for you...
One of the nasties the Governator proposes is to not pay Counties for Medi-Cal Mental health and social services and benefits delivered. They would delay payments until next fiscal year. Since he is also cutting schools the same way, we do not have those kinds of reserves to cash float the state. The Board of Supervisors is talking about closing the doors for those services and returning the programs to the state if we reach a point where we are unable to make payroll or pay benefits.