Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - California Passed a Budget!

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California Passed a Budget!

What do you think about the new budget California has now passed?
Will the cuts affect you personally or anyone you know?

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My thoughts:

Finally!
Since my mother is in education in California, I'm curious how the budget is going to affect her and her school district. I keep thinking "Thank goodness I'm no longer in that state," but at the same time I'm concerned about the people who live there and have to deal with the inadequate system.
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Here's an article from the New York Times about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/us...ef=global-home

Quote:

July 21, 2009
California Reaches Budget Deal, With Billions Cut
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
LOS ANGELES — California lawmakers, their state broke and its credit rating shot, finally sealed the deal with the governor Monday night on a plan to close a $26 billion budget gap.

The plan, which is certain to be viewed with trepidation among legislatures across the country also facing huge budget gaps, distributes pain through nearly every aspect of government services. While the Legislature pushed back on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to eliminate health care programs for children and the state’s generous welfare program, both took large cuts. So did public education, universities and local governments.

All told, the deal contains $15.6 billion in cuts, about $2.1 billion in borrowing, $3.9 billion in new revenues and about $2.7 billion in accounting maneuvers like shifting a payday into the next fiscal year, which Mr. Schwarzenegger had claimed he would not brook.

Under the new budget, which runs through the 2010 fiscal year, localities will basically serve as unwilling lending agents to the state. It will raid their coffers and repay them over time as the state’s fiscal situation improves.

“I would characterize this budget as shared pain and shared sacrifice,” Karen Bass, the speaker of the California Assembly, said in a telephone interview from Sacramento.

Last February, lawmakers signed off on a budget deal with $14.8 billion in spending cuts, $12.5 billion in tax increases and $5.4 billion in new borrowing, along with the creation of a $1 billion reserve fund. But that budget depended on a nod from voters on several ballot measures. All failed.

With the deficit continuing to grow, the state was forced to issue millions of dollars in i.o.u.’s to vendors and taxpayers in lieu of payment.

After weeks of often-cantankerous negotiations, state officials have come up with a compromise that few who receive government services will celebrate. While the state’s health insurance program for children, Healthy Families, remains, it was cut by $144 million, meaning thousands of children will probably be on a waiting list for the program unless a private foundation makes up the balance, as the Democratic-controlled Legislature hopes.

In-home services for the elderly and infirm were reduced by several million dollars, and Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, achieved his goal of having caregivers and the recipients fingerprinted in the future with the goal of preventing fraud. While the governor wanted certain welfare benefits to be reduced from a five-year period to two years, the program was instead given an overall cut of $500 million.

Local governments will lose millions of dollars that are used to build housing, among other purposes, and the state plans to borrow roughly $2 billion in property taxes from localities, which would have to be repaid within three years. Lawmakers believe that cities and counties could in turn borrow against that borrowing; localities bankrupt or nearly so would be exempt.

One of the biggest sticking points was over the $11 billion already cut from public schools. The budget deal calls for roughly $650 million more in cuts.

Under California law, though, the state is on the hook to pay that money back, something it has not done in the past. So lawmakers have written legislation guaranteeing that the money goes back to schools. The governor had faced strong criticism from the state’s teachers’ union.

“We accomplished a lot,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said after the agreement was reached. “We made government more efficient and also we’re cutting waste, fraud and abuse.”

The governor also said, on his Twitter feed: “We’ll actually be having a CA Garage Sale at the end of Aug to auction cars and office supplies.” He will sign some of the items to increase their value.

I notice that they didn't cut any elected representatives salary or expense accounts.

I'm glad this has both new revenues and cuts, though it still seems imbalanced. Too many people were clamoring for only cuts, which in a situation as dire as ours is unreasonable. California needs to learn how to spend the money we have and that means making more money and spending less.

Maybe California should get rid of prop 13. It doesn't make sense that 2 houses next to each other with the same value would pay vastly different amounts of taxes...

I saw Arnold on the news today, he said that at the rate things are going California may have to bail out the federal government.

Arnold has his Austrian Head Firmly Placed Up his Ass. The man is a weight builder & actor.

Someone with "super smarts" needs to be the Gov. in California - The most important State in the World - it's far too important to let someone who's not even a natural born American citizen run it. C'mon....does Arnold really understand World Policy or is he just another Hollywood puppet that stands in front of the Republican Party? /Like another tallking head/ as a popular "face" and a Yes Man?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunnychile (Post 2674168)

... in California - The most important State in the World - ..

http://i.mynicespace.com/478/47831.gif

Name another State in the USA that has more to offer, a higher GNP or more people per capita or more companies per square mile...

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunnychile (Post 2674185)

Name another State in the USA that has more to offer, a higher GNP or more people per capita or more companies per square mile...

Not my answer, but it seems like it was meant just for you...

I would define your parameters for answering this question. My
recommendation would be to rate the categories of population, State
Economy and produced goods and services (a state version of the GDP),
fortune 500 companies, land value and accumulated personal wealth.
This is off the top of my head, but I would lay those out, and most
likely you'll come up with Texas, California and New York, with
Florida being a close fourth.

One more note, I would not think about individual companies and their
impact on their states, only the broad numbers associated with that
state. For instance, don't take Microsoft in Washington or Johns
Hopkins in Maryland into consideration. Then you are getting into
philosophy which is not measurable.

FWIW, TX's GSP is nearly that of California with only 2/3 the population, the most F500 companies, and the greatest control over the O&G, petrochem, and power industries.

And it does so without 99% of the asinine laws.

California will go bankrupt

Quote:

Originally Posted by flstf (Post 2673935)

I saw Arnold on the news today, he said that at the rate things are going California may have to bail out the federal government.

Is California going bankrupt?
25 June, 2009, 20:42

California, America’s most populous state, has a projected $24.3 billion budget deficit for the coming year, and may start issuing IOUs starting next week.

California’s fiscal controller, John Chiang, has called the state’s spending plan “massively unbalanced,” adding that the Golden State is suffering from a cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression.

Despite the deepening budget crisis, the California Legislature on Wednesday failed to pass a proposed $11 billion in cuts.

The current problems are linked to a combination of a steep decline in revenue from income taxes, sagging retail activity and the drawn-out downturn in housing. The unemployment rate soared to 11.5% in May, a jump from 6.8% a year earlier.

State authorities are planning drastic cuts on healthcare and education. Among other plans is the closure of 80% of the state’s parks, which will not only endanger the environment but also cost thousands of people their jobs.

More of the same sad story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=106852483
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009...-bankrupt.html
http://www.mahalo.com/california-iou
http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/is-ca...oing-bankrupt/