CA Budget Deal Passes

No drilling revenues, and hey, let's snag 3.4BB from local govs and a little accounting magicness!

Of the $25 billion in budget "solutions," $15.5 billion come by way of cuts, with schools ($6 billion) taking the biggest hit. The University of California and California State University systems will be slashed by $2.8 billion; MediCal services are facing a $1.3 billion hit; corrections are facing an unspecified $1.2 billion in cuts, and three major welfare programs — the welfare-to-work CalWORKs program, In Home Supportive Services and the children's health insurance program — stand to lose a total of $878 million.

The rest — about $10 billion — is achieved through one-time raids on local government funding (for a total of $3.4 billion) and accounting maneuvers, such as deferring state employee paychecks by one day for a savings of $1.2 billion. Another $1.7 billion is saved by speeding up tax withholdings on individuals and businesses.

The controversial proposal to allow offshore oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast in exchange for $100 million in selling the rights, the final issue taken up, fell well short, on a 28-43 vote, a major victory for Democrats and environmentalists.

The cuts likely translate to workforce reductions (those just tend to be beeg numbers), which, if some of out California morons can put me some knowledge, grew like crabgrass in my yard over the past 8 years thanks to Sacramento union snuggling.

Hey, if they can figure out how to do this without squeezin my big white Texas ass, God bless em.

ALL SERIOUSNESS ASIDE. I don't believe they can fix their little problems for one minute. But why pretend to do so? Legal constraints (again, put my some f'n knowledge Californicators)? Or an awareness that the rest of the country is quite prepared to offer up a big "Fuck you" to a California bailout?

These questions, they haunt me.

posted by Dave In Texas at 07:56 PM

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