Free Republic

SACRAMENTO -- California's budget deficit for the current fiscal year has ballooned to nearly $15 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday, with the state overspending its revenue by about $40 million a day. Without quick action by the Legislature to fix the budget's gaping hole, the state will finish the fiscal year $14.8 billion in the red, the governor said at a news conference at the Capitol. The deficit is far worse than the $11.2 billon shortfall that Schwarzenegger announced last month, but the deteriorating economy is likely to make the problem even worse next year, Schwarzenegger said. Schwarzenegger said...

A potential borrowing campaign to fund new roads, schools and other public facilities in California drew a generally positive response on Wall Street on Monday, but with a caveat: Sacramento should get its budget balanced first, many investors say. --snip-- In 2004, many on Wall Street were critical of a $15-billion bond deal that California voters approved to cover the state's accumulated budget deficits. But analysts noted that the new borrowing proposal would be more in line with the accepted use of bond financing to pay for long-lasting investments such as highways, levees and other infrastructure projects. And as the...

SACRAMENTO -- California's state budget has nearly doubled in the last decade, far outstripping the growth of population or the personal income of its citizens, a Californian analysis shows. Skyrocketing spending has also outpaced tax revenues, resulting in massive debt. It is certain to increase even further when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveils his budget proposal Monday, despite his efforts to cut expenditures. Driven by automatic spending increases and the failure to save boom-time revenue windfalls for a rainy day, the state's spending has climbed from $55.1 billion in the 1994-95 fiscal year to $105.4 billion this year. That is an...

Still, he insisted that the state would be able to balance its books without raising taxes, a pledge he made repeatedly in his campaign to unseat Gov. Gray Davis. "Oh yes, absolutely," Schwarzenegger said.... Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte, who played a major role in putting together the $13 billion in borrowing that helped balance the current year's budget, called Angelides' comments about the bonds alarmist. He said state attorneys and outside bond counsel are confident that the financing will survive legal challenges. "If the treasurer had doubts ... he should have voiced them during the budget process," Brulte said.

Leaders of a campaign to oust Gov. Gray Davis ended their signature drive Monday, saying they had gathered more than enough to put the Democratic governor's fate in the hands of voters in what would be California's first statewide recall election.

<p>LOS ANGELES -- Bill Simon, who has been ripping Gov. Gray Davis' record on California's economy wherever he goes, predicted Thursday that next year's budget deficit could reach $20 billion -- twice what anyone has projected so far.</p> <p>Elizabeth Hill, the state's legislative analyst, who spoke on a panel with former Gov. Jerry Brown just before Simon's speech to the Milken Institute's annual State of the State conference here, has projected that next year's budget will be about $10 billion in the red.</p>