[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Robert Cruickshank

The AP has gotten a hold of the Governor's May Revise speech and therefore the major budget proposals that are to be unveiled tomorrow. The key elements are described below and over the flip I provide some analysis of each proposal.

• Arnold will float bonds using the state lottery as security. $15 billion over 3 years will be raised but $10 billion goes into "rainy day fund"
• If that fails, 1% sales tax hike to last no more than 3 years
• Prop 98 suspension abandoned; instead COLA will not be paid
• State parks closures abandoned; instead fees to rise $1 to $2
• $6 billion still left to cut or balance out somehow."

Overall thoughts: Here we go again. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to office in the recall of Gray Davis in 2003 promising to solve our state's budget problems once and for all. Instead he immediately blew a $6 billion hole in the budget with the Vehicle License Fee cut and then borrowed to close the rest of the gap - costing the state around $3 billion in annual debt service.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Karen Bass is making history as we speak.  She is currently being sworn in as the first Democratic female speaker in California history. Furthemore, she is the first African-American female to be Speaker in any of the 50 states and the federal government.

Good Luck Speaker Bass. And if you are really prepared to take on reforming our tax structure, we'll be in good hands for the next two years.

With so much worth protecting and so much that threatens our economic well-being, it is far past time to move beyond simply patching over budget problems to finding a real, creative -- and bipartisan -- way off the budget roller coaster we seem to be stuck on year after year after year.(LAT 5/13/08)

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

Bad news for California’s budget came in from the precincts today. The latest PPIC survey indicates that (1) voters don’t want to cut education’s budget; and (2) don’t want to raise taxes to avoid those cuts. Years of budget flim-flam – led by Governor flim-flam – have convinced voters we can simply ‘reorder’ priorities and get by.

I suppose we shouldn’t be too hard on the Governor. After all, he floated into office because of Gray Davis’ failure to fix budget problems earlier in this decade. Naturally he’ll be trying to avoid a similar fate by placing the blame on the Legislature.

For weeks now the Governor has been making appearances touting his rebaked version of Pete Wilson’s “solution” to budget woes (cut out the Legislature). But the day of real reckoning approaches.

Democrats, who have called for revenue increases, can raise about $2.5 billion in ‘fee increases’ that don’t require GOP backing because they are majority vote bills. Then we can lease or sell the lottery, the capitol, and anything else to raise money – and still have a multi-billion dollar problem.

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Mark Leno [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]