| You may have heard this by now, but we have a deal. The #cabudget hashtag should get you your fix. The topline stats:
$15 billion in cuts, no new taxes, $11 billion in gimmicks and borrowing
$4-5 billion in local government raids
only an $800 million reserve (initially the talks were for a $4 billion one)
$6 billion in reductions to public schools, but an $11 billion dollar payment somewhere down the road though not in writing
yes, there's new offshore drilling in this deal, going around the Lands Commission, and without an oil severance tax for the producers
$1 billion assumed for the sale of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, which is not only unlikely but would really crush small businesses if sold
no suspension of Prop. 98
basically a reinvention of state government, more austere, and precisely when folks need the opposite.
Story here.
...three furlough days a month for some state employees still in place for the rest of the year
$500 million in cuts to Cal Works
smiles all around from Dem leg. leaders as they cheer that "we did not eliminate the safety net for California." Poking a big hole in it, apparently, qualifies as A-OK.
...we're also cutting $1.2 billion to corrections without releasing any prisoners, as per the actual politics as usual. The only way you can do that is by cutting every treatment or rehabilitation program in the prisons, or eliminating overtime for corrections officers. In other words, we're turning prisons into Public Storage units.
UPDATE by Robert: The main takeaways here:
• Arnold and the Republicans got everything they wanted - a cuts-only budget that protects their wealthy allies and the big corporations from having to pay their share and that makes everyone else suffer.
• California's government is functioning as intended - producing right-wing outcomes despite large Democratic majorities. I will continue to blame specific legislators for agreeing to this shit, but lasting change will only happen when we press the reset button on state government.
UPDATE by Dave: Just to state the obvious, only the Republican leaders have agreed to this. We still aren't through the process where individual Yacht Party members have to be bribed for their votes.
Of course, we aren't through the process where progressives just say "no we're not voting for that, try again," but I've never seen that process come into play.
UPDATE by Robert: More elements of the deal, from John Myers at KQED CapNotes:
• Background checks for IHSS providers
• Fingerprinting of workers and clients (so if you are disabled and cared for at home, you will be treated like a common criminal merely because you need assistance)
• "Some state parks will close" even though parks generate more tax revenue than they cost
• OC Fairgrounds to be sold
• Integrated Waste Management Board to be abolished, despite the fact that its annual cost is statistically negligible
The February deal was bad, but this is far worse.
...CalPERS reports $56 billion loss. Local governments are going to have to make up part of this shortfall - but with what money? The legislature has guaranteed mass bankruptcies for local governments with their raid on local funding, which was probably the point of Arnold's insistence on such raids. |
