Governor's budget plan would divert gas taxes to help close gap ($17.2-billion budget shortfall)

LA Times ^ | 5/14/08 | Jordan Rau

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO -- More than $828 million in gas tax money that is supposed to go to public transportation projects would be diverted to help bail the state out of its financial problems ...

--snip--

His revised budget would:

* Restrict full in-home supportive services for seniors and people with disabilities, and cut the pay of the service workers to the minimum wage. Only the most severely impaired would get aides for household tasks, although in-home medical assistance would continue.

* Eliminate California's $111-million program of healthcare for legal immigrants, and pare back the healthcare provided to impoverished people who have been in the country for five years or fewer. That would save $87 million.

* Eliminate cost-of-living increases for disabled people in the supplemental security income program, part of the Social Security system, with the state keeping $109 million the federal government is providing to California.

* Cut welfare grants under the Cal-Works program by 5% instead of providing a cost-of-living increase, saving $187 million.

The gas taxes Schwarzenegger wants to keep are a product of the higher oil prices Californians have been paying at the pump. The money is intended to improve public transportation, but the state in the past has rerouted the funds for such things as bond payments and school transportation for students.

In his new budget plan, which would need approval from the Legislature to be enacted, Schwarzenegger would ask voters for approval to borrow $15 billion over three years against future profits from the state lottery.

The governor wants lawmakers to agree that if the electorate were to reject that idea in November, the state's sales tax would automatically rise by 1 percentage point. The sales tax could remain in effect for as long as three years unless the state's financial balance was restored.

[Myrddin]

Get laws changed to allow only legal people in public schools and the country would probably save 50 billion a year at a minimum.

Eliminate birthright citizenship to the anchor babies of illegal alien parents. Prosecute employers who employ illegal aliens. Deport illegals when detected and require them to take their minor children back to their country of citizenship. Those steps would kill the job magnet and the attraction to the welfare state. Many would self deport. Every illegal removed from the country represents an ongoing savings to the taxpayers.

[calcowgirl]

The whole thing is a gagger.

http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/9599/

The Governor’s proposal also acknowledges that it is fiscally responsible to put in place a last resort safety net, so he is proposing something modeled after former Governor George Deukmejian’s sales tax trigger. If the Lottery proposal is not approved by voters in November, a trigger would go off that would temporarily raise the sales tax by one cent. The sales tax triggers off when the rainy day fund is full or by 2010, whichever occurs first. When the economy recovers and the rainy day fund is full, taxpayers would receive rebates until the entirety of the sales tax increase is paid back in full. This safety net would be a last resort, and the Governor intends to never have to use it.

[A CA Guy]

I agree with what you say, because though some might be very nice, they are poor and suck up all our tax dollars in health care, food stamps, section 8 housing and public education.

[John Jorsett]

Every two years we vote on an initiative that’s supposed to prohibit the taking of gas tax funds for purposes other than roads, yet they keep finding ways to steal it. I guess it’s going to take a mob with pitchforks to convey the message that this crap has to end.