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Last year was arguably one of the worst economic years since the Great Depression or at least since I can remember, few will argue this.
This month I decided to wait until the Govenator gave his final State of the State 2010 Address and issued his Proposed Budget for the next 18 months.
He spoke on January 6th and than again on the 8th mostly addressing the $20-billion budget disaster. Incidentally, who really believes that it is only $20-billion? All I can say now after watching it all – is – what a bunch of hyperbole! I would have preferred using a series of four-lettered words. Whatever happened to him? It has to be that Sacramento water thing!
It’s gotten to a point with me that I can’t stand to hear him speak, from the way he says California to the unadulterated lies and disinformation he spews out now. I have to close my eyes when I see him on TV, and when I do, I can’t help thinking that at any minute I’ll open my eyes and he’ll turn around and unzip himself from head to toe and Senator Barbara Boxer will walk out of his skin and suit. I know it’s a little scary, but it would explain many things to me!
So, if you didn’t hear the Governor’s speeches, we have links here.
To view his State of the State Address on the 6th, go to: http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/14124/
To view his 2010-11 Proposed Budget on the 8th, go to: http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/14154/
It is in my opinion that these record budget deficits are nothing more than an indictment of the ineptness of this government. In my mind, we are all to blame because we have allowed this government and its overregulation to not only flourish, but to grow by massive unabated proportions.
Apparently the Governor has a master plan based on things like this:
- The California Jobs Initiative, a $500-million program to pump jobs up in California by creating or retaining up to 100,000 jobs and providing training to 140,000 individuals to enable them to retain their current positions or compete for higher paying jobs. Apparently the 3-4 million Californian’s out of a job, are not educated enough or not in the right “green” professions and will require to be retrained. It also appears the school system will get its pound of flesh on this one, doing all this important retraining.
- He’s going to hit-up the feds for more money, $8.5-billion. If we don’t get the funds, the governor is threatening to cut a bunch of social welfare programs. Apparently, under the Clinton and even Bush administration’s California received back around 94-cents for every dollar that we sent to Washington D.C., and now we are lucky enough to receive 78-cents. Is everyone aware that the state has already received $85-billion of ARRA stimulus finding? That’s 11% of the total which is incidentally about the same size as the states “new” general fund budget. Of that $85-billion, a whopping $4.7-billion (6%) has gone to transportation related construction projects. Senator Feinstein’s response to the Governor’s request for additional funding was, “It sounds like the Governor is looking for someone else to blame for California’s budget.’’ She added, “California’s budget crisis was created in Sacramento, not Washington. These problems are not going away until there is wholesale reform of the state’s budget process.”
- The Budget Proposal also includes provisions that will divert State support for public transit and rearrange and revamp the structure of fuel sales and excise taxes. Provisions of the Budget proposal prepared by the State Department of Finance include:
• Elimination of the State sales tax on gasoline – the revenue source for Proposition 42,
• Enactment of additional 10 cents per gallon excise taxes to cover lost STIP and local roads revenue and debt service,
• Annual gas tax increases to cover the growth in debt service,
• Carry-over of Public Transit Account funds to cover future debt service on Proposition 1B transit and High Speed Rail bonds,
• Maximum implementation of Proposition 1B projects.
- The Governor’s plan, which will need to be approved by the Legislature, includes $8.5 billion in spending cuts, mostly to health and human services, state employee salaries and prisons. Here are some of the lowlights of his 2010-11 fiscal year spending plan:
FEDERAL MONEY - Schwarzenegger’s budget also relies on getting an additional $6.9 billion in federal money he says the state is owed:
- $2.1 billion in an extension of federal stimulus money for Medi-Cal, CalWORKS, child welfare, foster care, special education and child support.
- $1.8 billion in Medi-Cal reimbursements. Schwarzenegger said the federal formula to calculate state reimbursements unfairly penalizes California, giving it the lowest possible reimbursement rate of 50%.
- More than $1 billion for special education programs.
- $1 billion for Medi-Cal prescription drugs.
- $880 million for full reimbursement of the state and local government cost of providing guards to oversee illegal immigrants who are in state prisons or county jails.
- $87 million for foster care.
FEDERAL BACKLASH - If the state does not receive the additional federal money, Schwarzenegger proposes even more spending cuts, including:
- $1 billion by eliminating CalWORKS, the state’s primary welfare-to-work program.
- $847 million in funding for mental health services.
- $532 million in Medi-Cal cuts by reducing eligibility to the minimum allowed under federal law and reducing most remaining optional benefits.
- $508 million through another 5 percent pay cut for state employees.
- $495 million by eliminating the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program for the disabled.
- $325 million in funding for counties to administer programs.
- $280 million by eliminating inmate services, including rehabilitation programs and increasing the number of parolees each agent would supervise.
- $126 million by eliminating the Healthy Families program.
- $115 million by eliminating health programs funded by Prop. 99.
- $112 million for the University of California and the California State University to compensate for annual enrollment growth.
- $100 million to trial courts.
- $79 million by freezing the awards and income eligibility for Cal G.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - $2.9 billion reduction, including:
- $950 million in cuts to the state’s in-home supportive services program for the disabled, achieved through reductions in wages and services.
- $130 million reduction in payments through CalWORKS, the state’s primary welfare-to-work program, by reducing individual grants.
EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION - $1.6 billion in savings, achieved partly through a 5 percent across-the-board pay cut and a 5 percent increase in employees’ contribution to their pension funds.
PRISONS - $1.2 billion in cuts:
- $811 million reduction in prison health care expenses by making the system more efficient and reducing funding to a level he said would be comparable to New York state.
- About $360 million in savings by shifting nonviolent offenders out of state prisons and into county jails and by reducing the juvenile prison population and closing the facilities that house them.
EDUCATION - Proposes to hold spending at $48 billion for K-12 schools, community colleges and the four-year university systems. The budget could reduce some education funding, however, through a complicated swap in which the current gasoline tax would be replaced with an excise tax. $225 million increase for the University of California and California State University systems that the governor said he hopes would avoid further student fee increases.
EXCISE TAX - The budget proposes to eliminate the sales tax on fuel (about 16 cents per gallon) and increase the excise tax on gasoline by 10.8 cents. The administration said this approach would maintain funding for transportation programs while reducing net taxes paid by consumers by $976 million.
STATE EMPLOYEES - Three-day-a-month furloughs would end on June 30 under the governor’s proposal. Instead, he:
- Seeks payroll reductions of 5% across all state departments, except for constitutional offices, which already achieved 5% reductions. The administration says much of the payroll reduction can be achieved by departments not filling current vacancies.
- Seeks 5% pay cut for all state workers and a 5% increase in their pension contributions.
- ncludes an additional 5% pay cut for state employees if California does not receive the additional federal money it is seeking.
OFFSHORE DRILLING - Proposes to fund state parks by allowing more oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast, which the governor’s office estimates would generate $100 million in the current fiscal year and $119 million in 2010-11. In total, the administration said the drilling would generate $1.8 billion in royalties for the state over the next 14 years. If the state Lands Commission approves the drilling plan, the Department of Parks and Recreation would receive $140 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, restoring last year’s cuts.
If it does not, the state parks budget would be funded through the general fund.
CATCHING SPEEDERS - Would upgrade existing red light cameras at city and county intersections to fine speeders up to $325 per violation, for exceed the limit by 3-MPH. The administration says the tickets generated by the technology would raise about $338 million a year for government operations, a portion of which would be used to improve courthouse Governor’s Smoke & Mirror Budget Plan
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