Today's Fresh Meat

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Governor Scharzenegger declared a fiscal emergencytoday, requiring every state department to slash 10% of their budgetsin an effort to close California’s $14.5 billion deficit, reports theSan Francisco Chronicle. The Governor’s proposed budget will take $4.5billion away from public schools over the next year and a half, andresult in the early release of up to 35,000 prison inmates in the nexttwo years. In order to make the cuts to education, the legislaturewould have to vote to suspend Proposition 98, which mandates that 40%of the state budget must be spent on schools.

The California Progress Report is lamenting Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut funding for a state program which provides home careto hundreds of thousands of disabled and elderly people in California.The In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) receives bipartisan support, butthe Governor has routinely cut funding for the program in order tobalance the state budget.