Honest, Painful Budget Finalized

by CalWatchdog Staff | June 30, 2011 1:11 pm

Katy Grimes: By lunch time today, Gov. Jerry Brown finished signing the rest of the budget bills reducing state spending by an additional $15 billion, and creating a $500,000 million reserve.

Without a news conference or any pomp and circumstance, Brown’s office put out a press release announcing the budget details.[1]

“This is an honest but painful budget that returns California’s General Fund spending to levels unseen since the 1970s. We’ve cut our deficit by $15 billion dollars and achieved financial balance this year. This is a huge step forward. But California’s long-term stability depends on our willingness to continue to pay down debt and live within our means,” said Governor Brown.

The good news is that Brown cut the Prop 1A allocation for High Speed Rail saying it appeared unrelated to an integrated high speed rail system.

Brown also cut the California Post Secondary Education Commission[2] calling it “ineffective,” as well as the CalTides[3] system, slated to track teacher performance.

All in all, there was $23.8 billion cut in line item vetos[4] including court operations and security, transportation reductions, California Public Utility Commission, and even cut money from the Commission on the Status on Women[5].

The veto letter is available here[6], as is the entire budget, here[7].

JUNE 30, 2011

Endnotes:

budget details.: http://dl5.activatedirect.com/fs/distribution:wl/ze7pzanwmhlzgt/ztcj9rmf5spty4/daid/ztck750k018cdl?_c=d%7Cze7pzanwmhlzgt%7Cztck750k018cdl&_ce=1309462937.0fa41ebc0378c2cb5f17ba169604a1b3
Commission: http://www.cpec.ca.gov/
CalTides: http://www.edsource.org/iss_datasys_caltides.html
line item vetos: http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_0087_Line_Item_Veto.pdf
Commission on the Status on Women: http://women.ca.gov/
here: http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_0087_Line_Item_Veto.pdf
here: http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2011/06/30/honest-painful-budget-finalized/