Posted on 07/01/2009 7:52:07 AM PDT by SmithL
California is on the brink of issuing IOUs and state workers will take a third unpaid furlough day in July after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers failed to strike a budget compromise late Tuesday.
By allowing the fiscal year to end without trimming $3.3 billion from the 2008-09 education budget, lawmakers and Schwarzenegger lost the chance to cut spending in a manner considered crucial to bridging the $24 billion deficit.
Instead, Senate Republicans, Democrats and the GOP governor remained in a political standoff over other parts of the budget, particularly how much to slash health and welfare programs.
Without the education cut, state leaders face a more difficult challenge because they must find billions in new solutions after virtually exhausting their bag of budget tricks over the past year.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Oh my goodnesss! NOOOOooooooooo......!
A California Democrat Speaks the Truth! (May 30, 2009)
Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians...
“Government doesn’t provide services to rich people,” Mike Genest, the state’s finance director, said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t even really provide services to the middle class.” He added: “You have to cut where the money is.”
He does have a point but the hyperbole is not befitting his office.
I think he was referring to state government. Police and fire are (normally) government functions of individual municipalities, as are most roads. At least they used to be. Education used to be that way, too.
you just KNOW that a bailout is coming...
It'd be more accurate to say that the state does not provide services, it provides benefits to those it employs, bribes to those it fears, and a cover story to the rest of us.
I agree that too much money is being wasted on social programs and Illegal Alien Freebies.
Sir, that is one of the best descriptions of government I have ever heard. It is downright Reaganesque!
I believe that if most people in California really knew how much money their government workers are getting paid (especially their teachers), they would be up in arms.
Throw in state prisons,the judiciary, and the courts and you have.... $140 billion??? Yowza!
That's a little out of context, but it shows the problem with most state and federal governments and both dem and republican “leaders”. Don't spend more than you have except in emergencies (and don't find an emergency every year to justify spending what you want). When you do get in a big hole do more than try to trim <15% - fix the core problem.
California Legislature is controlled by special interest groups, mostly representing the teachers and the state employees. These groups finance the Democratic reps campaigns for re-election. When those reps win . . the unions control them.
These elected reps cannot bring themselves to vote in opposition to their masters wishes or they will not be re-elected.
Which brings us to today. California must cut over $24 billion in cost because of decreased revenue. In a special election in May, by an impressive 2/3 majority, the voters said NO MORE TAXES. Yet those special interst groups won’t let their bought-and-paid-for electors cut the money from their groups.
The Marines have a beautiful term to explain this . . . FUBAR.
This is BS man, I got a 10% pay cut at my job. So these slap d*cks should get one too!
Sorry, some guy mopping the floors in city hall should get a pay cut just like the rest of us.
This is ridiculous! All the state employes should be happy that they still have a job and eal with the pay cuts.
Unions are so corrupt and completely irrelevant now a days. They are part of the problem, not the solution.
This could be a wonderful moment for good to prevail. Lots of parents could switch to private schooling, including home schools. Businesses could step in to fill the void in essential services. Liberals could get schooled in how the real world works.
I see the only negative to this being a great exodus of undesirable people to other states in the region. The Rocky Mountain states are about to be overrun with vermin.
It’s all Prop 13’s fault!
Prop 13A is way overdue.
Checked your auto registration fee lately?
That, and (literally) hundreds of other fees, creatively conjured up out of thin air, to legally distinguish them from "taxes," which Prop 13 limits by law.
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