Free Republic

California Governor Jerry Brown met with the Executive Committee of the Bay Area Council and picked up the group’s endorsement of his budget proposal. Emerging from a meeting at the Bank of America building, Council CEO & President Jim Wunderman termed the talks tough, but refreshing and honest. “California’s budgets of the recent past have violated every principle of fiscal responsibility by conjuring up billions of dollars in fake revenues and pushing hard decisions off until ‘next year.’ The day of reckoning has finally arrived, and the only way through it is with a spirit of shared sacrifice and grownup...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown is calling for $12.5 billion in cuts, including deep pay cuts for state employees and a "vast" restructuring of government operations. To close the entire $25.4 billion budget deficit, Brown also will seek an extension of sales, auto and income taxes -- some for as long as five years to coincide with a long-term realignment plan to shift responsibilities from state to local governments. "These cuts will be painful, requiring sacrifice from every sector of the state, but we have no choice," Brown said in a statement before his news conference today. "For 10 years,...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - California's finance director told a budget study committee Tuesday that California took in more revenue than it spent in July and August, and said there is a public "misconception" that a $38.2 billion deficit still exists.</p>