[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Following this week’s release of the Governor’s revised budget proposal for 2008-09, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) called for a more balanced, thoughtful approach to balancing the state’s books. Speaker Bass, who was sworn in as the 67th Assembly Speaker the day before the Governor released his revised budget, went on to say the Governor’s spending plan includes cuts that unfairly hurt struggling California families and solutions that may be no more than risky schemes. However, Speaker Bass added she does applaud the Governor for embracing her proposal for a budget commission that will study ways to bring the state’s revenue collection into the 21st century. Assembly Budget Committee Chair John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) also criticized the governor’s May Revise proposal, saying it’s bad for our economy, lays off teachers and is based on risky assumptions. Here’s more in this Assembly Web Report.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

California will lose a trusted public servant and bona fide "budget nun" when Elizabeth Hill steps down from the Legislative Analyst's office atthe end of this year. She called it like she saw it, never doing favorsfor unions or property owners, Republicans or Democrats, the LosAngeles Times reports. I met Hill when she visited my school a year orso ago and was really impressed by her candor and pragmatism—it's aloss.

It isn't just gas that is rising in price. Food, too, is becoming a higher expense for California families, with many in Northern California forced to ration, buy foods on saleand come out retirement to take part-time work, the Sacramento Beereports. This where the economy really starts to pinch.

Statewide protests against Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts are underway, with many education advocates declaring a "morality problem" rather than a spending problem with respect to K-12, the LA  Timesreports. It may be premature, however, to focus one's attention onArnold's budget, given its swift dismissal by everyone who takesbudgets seriously—the numbers are going to look quite different in acouple months.

There's more... 

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Emily Clayton

by Paul Rosenberg [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]