Posted on 05/29/2009 1:41:26 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — For the third time in as many weeks Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is slashing state programs by billions of dollars to wipe out a deficit that seems to be growing by the day.
The cuts would eliminate in-home nursing for all but the neediest patients, such as those who can't breathe or walk on their own. The proposal would grab $550 million from counties that's currently used to provide social services for the poor. And it would cut funding for schools and community colleges by an additional $680 million, bringing the total education cuts Schwarzenegger has suggested to more than $6 billion.
The plan would also cut the salaries of 230,000 state workers by 5 percent — on top of the two days per month of unpaid furloughs they're already being forced to take, the equivalent of a roughly 9 percent pay cut — for a savings of $470 million.
Schwarzenegger's finance team outlined the $2.8 billion in additional cuts this morning in response to a projection from the state's legislative budget analyst that the deficit had grown by slightly more than that amount in recent weeks. ...
If the state were a private company, it would be staring at bankruptcy, said Finance Director Mike Genest. But that's not an option, he said, so California will have no choice but to hack away at services to the most state's most vulnerable people, from school children to seniors to the indigent.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
you are sooooooooooooooooooooooo mean spirited!
Uh huh. Until they rob the counties and cities so completely that they have to lay off their Code Enforcement Officers, this is just kabuki theater.
If I call the city and complain that my neighbor’s garbage can has been sitting out all day, or his grass hasn’t been cut for two weeks, or they have a tree branch that’s below eye level of a six-foot-tall guy, and they say sorry, that’s just too bad, we can’t deal with that for two months, we’re understaffed for stuff like that, deal with it yourself, then I’ll start taking them seriously.
No legal US identity? No aid.
Not once do they mention ILLEGALS who we provide schooling for and provide health care for. In addition to sending them to college.
Arnold tried to reform the state a few years back. The unions convinced the people that those reforms were going to hurt people, so they failed.
I’m not happy with some of the stuff he’s done, but why is it he is getting all the criticism and the Dems are getting none? The Dems got us into this mess.
He could cut 13 BILLION right off the top by stopping all state services to Illegals.
He has not begun to do what the voters want and he is too much of a coward to ever do it.
Stop paying for illegals, allow offshore drilling, cut government waste, across the board salary cuts, no more pensions, no more unions writting legislation, tort reform, getting rid of the enviro-tards. These are just a few suggestions.
THIS should have been done years ago. But then again, what do I know. I’m just an ignorant voter.
What a bunch of slap d*cks, I mean really. California wasn’t always broke. If I ran my house like these guys, I would have ended up on the street years ago.
Gee whiz, we can’t cut services for illegals. I mean, Hussein is going to make them all VOTERS pretty soon, right? Besides, Maria would KILL me!
Each person who voted against the tax increases wanted the government to cut total spending. But I'll bet most of them now object to specific spending cuts.
It's a lot easier to be in favor of generic spending cuts than specific ones. It's a variant of NIMBY.
I dont think they will send the cut any illegals any programs anytime soon or else they will sue like these illegals did
16 illegals sue Arizona rancher
Claim violation of rights as they crossed his land:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/09/16-illegals-sue-arizona-rancher/
“If the state were a private company, it would be staring at bankruptcy,...”
...and it would be laying off 15-20% of those 230,000 state workers. They can’t all be vital to the state.
Arnie is implementing the Washington Memorial scenario which has been played out many times in the past by government bureaucrats namely cut something popular so there will be an outcry from the public. What we will see as his first cuts are things that the public needs, etc. Watch and learn. Don’t cut fat, cut muscle and bone. Listen the the taxpayer squeal.
He's not sending illegals home and refusing to allow them ER services or other welfare aides.
He's not cutting the legislature's pay(or asking for a referendum on it from the people)
He's not authorizing offshore drilling and getting the royalties from it.
He's not cutting income taxes or eliminating them so businesses will come back to the state.
He's not telling the EPA they have no business or legal authority to tell a state what to do so businesses can expand or start anew without undo regulation stopping them.
I know he can't do this alone but if he outlined all of this and put it on the ballot along with the useless proposals that he, and the legislature, claimed were the only way to "save" CA, he would have had the people behind him and could have accomplished all of it.
What he is doing now is the same old crap that politicians always do, cut the programs they think will alarm the voters so the voters will start screaming to raise taxes. It ain't going to happen this time.
“Special Nurse:” $350,000+
Municipal railway manager: $325,000+
“Administrative services” department head: $280,000+
State college workers salaries:
JEFF TEDFORD UC BERKELEY HEAD COACH-INTERCOLG ATHLETICS $2,831,654
PHILIP E LEBOIT UC SAN FRANCISCO PROF OF CLIN___-MEDCOMP-A $1,979,362
TIMOTHY H MCCALMONT UC SAN FRANCISCO PROF OF CLIN___-MEDCOMP-A $1,945,717
RONALD W BUSUTTIL UC LOS ANGELES PROFESSOR-MEDCOMP-A $1,570,897
RICHARD J SHEMIN UC LOS ANGELES PROFESSOR-MEDCOMP-A $1,195,837
KHALIL M TABSH UC LOS ANGELES HS CLIN PROF-MEDCOMP-A $1,048,891
BEN BRAUN UC BERKELEY HEAD COACH-INTERCOLG ATHLETICS $998,569
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/1669273.html
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Dan Walters: Big costs loom for state beyond deficit
Sacramento Bee | 5/19/09
FR Posted on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 by SmithL
When the governor and legislators talk about balancing the state budget, they're talking about closing the gap between revenues and required expenditures, either by increasing the former or reducing the latter. The task becomes more difficult by the minute.
Looming on the not-too-distant horizon, however, are some other huge obligations that the current crop of elected officeholders has chosen to ignore, because acknowledging them would make closing the chronic budget gap just that much harder.
There is, for example, a potentially huge increase in the "contribution" that the state must make to the California Public Employees' Retirement System to cover public pensions.
CalPERS has seen its once-immense investment portfolio shrink dramatically, due to recession and some truly boneheaded investments, such as a $1 billion haircut on raw land in Southern California. Big increases in pension benefits, enacted a decade ago, are also a factor.
CalPERS won't tell the state how much its boost will be until sometime next year, but it could be hefty, unless CalPERS postpones the pain by stretching out the bite over several years – which would merely postpone the pain. An even bigger headache is a new requirement that state and local governments identify and quantify their obligations for providing health care to their retired employees. The state auditor's office and an advisory commission told the state two years ago that its unfunded liability for health care is $48 billion.
State officials were advised to commit $3.73 billion during the current fiscal year to begin shrinking the unfunded liability, but the state is paying just $1.36 billion to cover its current costs. The Legislature, under the sway of unions, rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to overhaul employee health care to save money, but he's trying again, seeking to increase the amount of time it takes...(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Q: Who proposes the budget? Who signs the budget? Who has line-item veto authority?
A: The Governor
Arnie owns this mess because it has been HIS fiscally-reckless policy that put us in this mess (again). From his first acts in office to borrow billions and abandon a spending cap to supporting every multi-billion dollar borrowing scheme presented by proposition. He owns it.
Schwarzenegger Caves on Spending Limit , January 28, 2004
Once we think the government is responsible for everyone’s problem, we will never be able to balance any government’s budget.
I'm honestly SHOCKED. 100% shocked. I expecting the Cali government to do the usual arm twisting and announce they would cut water and wastewater treatment, cancel all fire protection, empty the prisons, let the trash pile up, and turn off the power to the traffic lights. Then have another one of those proposition votes. Yeeehaaaw, higher taxes! Add a proposition to tax the wealth of those leaving the state too, make a total communist wunderland.
Someone hold me, a state government is cutting health, welfare, and education - I think this is a sign of the apocalypse, the part right before the horsemen. Won't cure the underlying mental condition responsible for magical "free everything for everyone forever" solutions being sought by the voters, but it should at least result in some high comedy in the media.
You have hit the nail on the head here!
Politicians just toss our money all over to hit as many people as possible so that when the time comes to have to tighten belts everyone gets affected in some personal way and then vote to have the politicians reinstate the programs.
We have become so rich as a society that we are too lazy and complacent to understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
And...Don’t forget the schools.
Cut homosexual indoctrination courses immediately.
Also....
In my state retired teachers’ benefits are gold plated and untouchable....And...none of these retired teacher expenses ever show up in the figures of how much it costs to educate a child. These retired teachers are merely listed as “retired state employees”.
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