hey, what ever it takes...
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 ...
It’s a lot easier to be in favor of generic spending cuts than specific ones. It’s a variant of NIMBY.
Sure, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make a case for doing it. If the cuts seem reasonable, he can overcome this.
For example: Calif. commited to spend $3 billion on stem cell research. This might be a good thing to do (or not), but Arnold could easily argue that this should be cut and left to the federal govt. so Calif. wouldn’t have to cut school teachers or police officers.
They could freeze/cancel any infrastructure improvements. The only spending allowed would be for maintanence of current infrastructure.
Things like this wouldn’t be popular, but they need to be done to get through the crisis.
Nope, as I understand it, this money was specifically allocated by referendum. Neither the legislature nor the governor can alter it.
A very large part of the CA budget is of this type. Specific funding sources and amounts are specfied by referenda.
Then they’ll have to come up with a referendum to undo it. That’s what they should have done before, instead of presenting a referendum that was nothing more than tax increases.
State Senate and State House are run by dems.. have been forever... add to that all that friggin Propositions for more spending, that were continually getting voted in “for the children”... and voila... a total complete meltdown.
agreed that Arnold should have stood up to them, but as someone stated above, he did try and was slapped down by the unions.
Unfortunatley, what most here, will conclude,(with the help of the newspapers and the local TV stations) is that Arnold got us into this mess, and what the state needs is a dem govenor. And thus the problem will continue..... forever. this state is hopeless.
Your analysis is dead on! The state will make targeted service cuts to attract the most attention in the hope that the public will come to its senses regarding "necessary tax increases".
I feel California’s pain and it feels GREAT!
hey, what ever it takes...
230,000 state workers is at least 130,000 too many.
But the Governator has declared a war of retaliation against the people, instead.
I don’t see any cuts to the prisons.
How much money can be saved by simply locking all the cell doors, turning off the power, firing all the prison guards, and hiring a few minimum wage thugs to toss baloney sandwiches through the cell bars twice a day ?
It does seem a mystery to those of us that live here. Solving CA’s problems seems so pathetically easy, but every time the voters try, the courts deny our will.
Had Prop 187 not been challenged and delayed until Gray Davis could take a dive rather than defend it, CA would be in fine shape today.
If people would stop trying to figure out how to untax the “poor” at the expense of driving away the “wealthy”, CA would be in fine shape as well.
Personally, if CA today extended its Sales tax to ALL goods and services and replaced its progressive income tax with a flat 3% rate, I don’t think the “poor” would even notice. Yet that would close the budget gap and bring capital FLOODING back into the state.
And Wilson? left them with a surplus, dag-nab-it.
wouldn't that be something...
Are you crazy? Are you proposing taxing food? And what "services" do you propose to tax? I think you just want poor people to die; that would solve it.
I heard on radio this a.m. that Arnie proposes closing Will Rogers Ranch State Park. Someone tell me how this will save the state one dime. The docents who lead tours of the ranch house are volunteers, and a private organization holds polo matches. The stables are also private.
How stupid. And ironic, that WR Ranch is down the street from Ahnolt’s mega-mansion.
They do the same thing here where I live. Everytime they want a tax increase, they threaten to shut down the public pools and the library. This info hits the newspaper on the hottest day of the year. After everyone with kids screams, the politicians raise taxes and don’t cut anything. It’s a game. There are plenty of places to cut, but it’s easier on them to just raise taxes.
He might consider withholding services from illegals. Ooops, forgot, authorities aren’t allowed to ask if someone is illegal.
Of course I mean food. And medicine, and all services, from haircuts to plumbing to lawyers to doctor visits. If you pay for it, you should also pay the 6% CA sales tax.
Why do people believe that “poor” people shouldn’t contribute to the cost of government ? They vote for government, therefor they should pay for what they voted for.
For decades we’ve tried to get the “wealthy” to pay for everything and it obviously hasn’t worked — the “wealthy” have left CA in droves. It is time to learn the lesson that Californians ALL need to contribute to the tax base, and the “wealthy” aren’t going to pick up the tab anymore.
As in the US Congress spending comes from the Congress. Arnie was not elected dictator of California. He put forward many good proposals to do things like control public employee unions, and they were all voted down. One could make the case that he should have passed on running for his second (first full) term at that point.
I’m not a huge Arnold fan but the majority of the blame rests with the almost-but-not-quite veto proof Democratic majority in the state House and Senate who have controlled the budget process for decades.
Now Arnie has the strongest hand he has ever had. The bankruptcy is imminent. The tricks are all used up. The taxing proposals (which he pretended to support but rather obvoiusly didn’t give a damn about passing) have failed.
So now he does have a mandate to cut things. And he seems to be enjoying it.
I’m not wealthy, and I damn well contribute to the tax base in this state every time I shop, on utilities, income, etc. So your plan sounds stupid to me. CA is bankrupt because of illegal invasion from south of the border. Comprende?
You missed my post about Prop 187 ? Of course the cost of services to illegals is a problem.
But ... another reason illegals are such a problem is that they do not contribute significantly to taxes — not property taxes when they are living 15 to a house, and not income taxes, and not sales taxes when they spend their money only on “food”.
Why do you make the leap to considering yourself “poor” just because you aren’t “wealthy” ? If you “shop”, pay “utilities”, and pay “income taxes” then you have no idea just how many people pay none of those or pay trivial amounts.
Suppose somebody bought their clothing online or at thrift stores (no sales tax), cooked all their meals at home (no sales tax on groceries), and rode a bike (no fuel taxes). They would contribute essentially NOTHING in CA taxes, while voting for more government spending, and that’s wrong. Buying food and services are the only activities you can count on being done locally, so it makes sense to be sure they pay taxes on those purchases.
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