While most of the talk around these parts has been about the state budget, the federal budget fight is heating up. And, as you would expect, that’s going to put a few wrinkles in the plan. Namely, with additional cuts to states likely, how much will the federal cuts hit California. Capitol Alert has some of the first word from the President’s budget released today:
The Obama administration’s $3.7 trillion budget proposal unveiled Monday includes myriad cuts for California programs. It also includes some increased funding for Sacramento-area flood control projects.
Obama, for instance, proposes cutting a reimbursement program that aids California and other states that imprison large numbers of illegal immigrants on other criminal charges. The so-called State Criminal Alien Assistance Program is providing states $300 million this year, with California getting the largest share. Obama proposes cutting this to $136 million.(SacBee)
As you know, California is a donor state, receiving about 80 cents per dollar we send to the federal government in the most recent numbers. That changed slightly with the stimu-bux, but as most of those are being phased out at this point, the hit to our budget is real
So, as we continue to focus on Sacramento, dark clouds are forming over Mordor Washington that threaten to make our fight more difficult.
I know it seems like we all have our priority issues that the budget will impact, but I think we Californians need to pay a lot more attention to those that directly impact our employment market here. Everything’s going to see some cuts, including the Defense Department. While that can be good news in a lot of ways, for us here in California it can be bad news if we’re not careful.
Some programs, like the Joint Strike Fighter (which affects thousands of private-sector jobs here in California) could be on the chopping block and mean bad news in a lot of ways. You’d think replacing 40+ year old aircraft with something newer and more capable would be a no-brainer, but we still see these things being cut. For California, that means thousands more jobs lost when we can least afford to lose any jobs.
If we don’t keep jobs for the people in our state, we’re going to be in worse trouble than we are now.