Schwarzenegger is appearing to do what we all hope the termed-out governor would do. Cutting. Axing. Hacking. Removing.
In his own words, there are no more low-hanging fruit (in his mind) in the California budget. Of course, that’s only if you ignore the elephant in the room which includes the government employees’ exorbitant pay and benefits packages, or if you ignore the no-bid public services contracts. Yeah, there’s nothing else to cut except major portions of the budget.
From the LA Times:
Elimination of CalWorks, the state’s main welfare-to-work program, would affect 1.3 million people, including about 1 million children. Average family grants are around $500 per month. Abolishing those payments would save the state more than $1 billion, the administration said.
Families would also lose state-subsidized day care under the governor’s proposal; about 142,000 low-income children would be affected. The state would save $1.2 billion with such a cut. Preschool and after-school care would remain in place, as would some federally subsidized day care for the neediest children.
Local school funding would remain at its current amount. Education officials say that amounts to a multibillion-dollar cut, as they won’t have the funds to cover scheduled cost-of-living raises and other increases. Education spending has already been rolled back substantially, forcing many districts to impose layoffs, eliminate programs and increase class sizes.
The governor had been expected to call for the elimination of in-home healthcare for the elderly and disabled. Instead, he proposed cutting roughly a third of the program’s budget to save $637.1 million. Previous efforts to scale back the program have been blocked in federal court. Schwarzenegger’s budget does not say how the new attempt would withstand a legal challenge, citing future “consultation with stakeholders.”
The plan would reduce prison costs by shifting the responsibility for state inmates to the local level, as the governor has proposed before. The state would save $244 million by sending low-level felons to local jails instead of state prisons. Counties would receive $11,500 per offender to help pay for probation, drug courts, and “alternative” methods of custody, such as home detention.
The governor is proposing to borrow $880 million in gas tax revenue and other funds from state transportation programs to help balance the budget. He has also revived a plan to raise more than $200 million by installing automated cameras to ticket speeding drivers at red-light intersections across the state.
As I travelled to work this morning, I wondered to myself what would happen the state took seriously the enforcement of traffic rules… yikes!
These austerity measures only serve to exacerbate the problem. Indeed, this is precisely why governments should end structural deficits, because then there is nothing to borrow in times when it is really needed. Nothing was set aside in California in the past 30 years. Nothing.
If our seven fat years are behind us and we look forward only to 7 lean years, California will most assuredly be emptying out. This does not bode well for housing prices going up in Southern California any time soon; not that I thought they ever would.
Even after these cuts, it appears that this will only partially solve the shortfall. Up to 50% more in cuts may be necessary.
Arnie, get your axe!
Average teacher salary in Ca.- $70,430. per NEA. Highest in the nation.
9 months work-
one week off at Christmas-
one week off at spring break-
free, or heavily subsidized medical insurance.
Retire at age 53, with $40,000-$50,000. a year. see
pensiontsunami.com
Seriously, the state of California would clean house if they really started to enforce traffic laws and actually fast track cases and fines for texting, cell phone use, speeding, running red lights, illegal lane changes with no signaling (ergo “I go now, good luck everybody else!”) and bum, bum, bum! – illegal parking!
OMG, if this happens I swear California would never have a budget crisis again. Ever.
That tells you how bad the residents driver here. It’s only getting worse.
Dude….you think that’s gonna solve anything? The more money we pay the state, whether its through taxes or tickets, is less money we can spend elsewhere in the economy.
So while your little solution might solve the immediate deficit, it still will lower revenue in the long run.
Spending is the problem. Spending is always the problem.
I agree with you completely that spending is the problem. But California’s political system with voter initiatives has housewives, CEOs and construction workers voting on financial and legal obligations (CalPers: http://www.latimes.com/busines.....7497.story) that they cannot possibly understand. It’s far too complex. Why do we do this to ourselves?
Why can’t Schwarzeneggar chop up CalPers and lower the entitlements? Well, because Cal voters agreed to make these pensions protected by state law forever and ever. He can’t raid them without crippling legal challenges to his office and the state.
I’m not saying the elected officials in Sacremento are much smarter or doing much better to control spending. Clearly, they are not. But allowing laypeople to try and make sense of complex issues and then make critical decisions(uninformed and in haste) is simply a dumb one, and not without painful consequences for the state.
As for the speed cameras, I lived in Europe and liked the efficiency. I got a ticket in the mail and paid the fine on line. Done. No court. No asshole police officer. No issues. I also knew that the police were actually doing something useful like preventing and investigating real crime, not listening to Rush Limbaugh, eating donuts and waiting for the speed radar to go *Bing*!
Anyone trying to read Mark’s link… trim off the ) from it. Example, http://www.latimes.com/busines.....7497.story
That having been said, it’d be nice if speed cameras didn’t include court costs if you don’t go to court for it, but I seriously doubt they’d drop most of the fee by removing that.
What else did the citizens of California expect when they elected an ACTOR to be governor of their state? I mean, seriously, folks…did you think just ANYONE could do this job (do it WELL, that is)?
Too many delusional people living in California, imo. It’s no wonder real estate went so badly awry here. Maybe too much sunshine really DOES make folks believe stupid things.
hey,Terrific blog dude! i’m Fed up with using RSS feeds and do you use twitter?so i can follow you there:D.
PS:Have you thought about putting video to this blog posts to keep the visitors more entertained?I think it works.Best wishes, Nana Picerno
Dude….you think that’s gonna solve anything? The more money we pay the state, whether its through taxes or tickets, is less money we can spend elsewhere in the economy.
So while your little solution might solve the immediate deficit, it still will lower revenue in the long run.
Spending is the problem. Spending is always the problem.
Account Operations Development Manager Nike, Inc. Company Overview Careers US EMEA Asia Pacific Americas Career Areas Diversity Locations Development Programs Internships Overview How To Apply US Requirements EMEA Requirements FAQs Benefits Overview Health, Life & Disability Retirement ….