Jerry Brown Calls for 4-Day Workweek to Trim $15.7B Deficit

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) California Governor Jerry Brown proposed a four-day workweek to reduce pay for state employees and $8.3 billion of other cuts, mostly in welfare and medical care for the poor, to help close a $15.7 billion budget deficit.

Trimming the standard week would be the equivalent of a 5 percent pay cut, saving $400 million a year, Brown said today in revising his budget for the year beginning July 1. Health care for the poor would take the biggest reduction, about $1.2 billion, with $1.1 billion sliced from welfare and care for the disabled. School spending would grow $1.5 billion less than planned.

“I said in the beginning, when I ran for this job, that it’s taken a long time, nearly a decade, to get into this mess,” Brown said at a briefing for reporters in Sacramento. “We’re not going to get out of it in a year.”

California, with the world’s ninth-biggest economy, lost more than 1 million jobs in the recession that struck in 2007, reducing the most populous U.S. state’s revenue by 24 percent. The new deficit estimate increases the urgency of the governor’s plans to boost income taxes on top earners to the highest in the nation, and raise sales levies that now top all states. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-14/brown-calls-for-8-3-billion-cuts-to-fill-15-7-billion-deficit.html

[coalition_unwilling]

1. What a putz. Sure, let's impose austerity on the working class by making it take a pay cut, while

meanwhile the rich just skate on by.

Fuck Jerry Brown. He failed to speak up when the police smashed Occupy. He is a total loser and no longer my governor.

Here's a suggestion, you putz. How about a wealth tax on anyone driving a BMW, Mercedes, Lexus or Infiniti or Acura?

[sabbat hunter]

5. couple of things

1) it isn't very easy to raise new taxes in California thanks to prop 13 (under which a tax on luxury cars would fall)
2) it is equally hard to raise income taxes in california (you need a 2/3rds vote to raise taxes)
3) he is also trying to raise income taxes on the top earners, but faces a tough road to do so

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/14/11697542-california-governor-calls-for-higher-taxes-4-day-state-workweek-to-fill-16-billion-gap?lite

So maybe you should see the entire issue before attacking Governor Brown.

"The plan would also raise the income tax on residents earning between $250,000 and $300,000 a year to 10.3 percent from 9.71 percent and to 11.3 percent on people with annual incomes between $350,000 and $500,000 — a 17.7 percent increase over the current rate

.

[phleshdef]

8. Yea, California has had a fiscal mess thats been decades in the making because of the tax raising...

...difficulties there. I think this really started in the late 70s.

[coalition_unwilling]

11. I saw all I needed to see of this so-called Governor in the days and weeks that followed the

Oakland and Los Angeles police departments' brutal attacks on the respective Occupy encampments.

I participated in the (imo) premature May Day General Strike call. But I think there would be nothing like a real general strike in this state to show Brown and the political class who really calls the shots here WHEN IT CHOOSES TO FLEX ITS MUSCLES.

My point about luxury vehicles is that anyone who has the $$ to drive a BMW SUV has the $$ to pay his or her fair share to maintain Caliifornia capitalism.

[jeff47]

12. Your lashing out doesn't change the law. (nt)

[yesphan]

2. They will, of course,

be expected to increase their production by 20 % to make up the difference.

[WI_DEM]

3. California is in a big fiscal mess--thanks Arnold! but the way back shouldn't be on the backs

of the poor and state employees. Sure some sacrifice has to be shared by all, but what about the rich and powerful? what about corporations? where is their sacrifice?

[sabbat hunter]

6. Gov Brown is trying to get the pain shared

by raising taxes on the wealthy.

[jeff47]

13. You're laying the blame a few decades too late

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978)

(You'll have to cut-n-paste that. DU doesn't understand parentheses in URLs)

[xchrom]

4. Du rec. Nt

[TalkingDog]

7. I see all the naysayers, but the Spousal Unit works for our county Govt. and would love

a 4 day work week. Even if it meant less in the paycheck.

But we don't have kids, only have our mortgage and one minimal car payment. So we are in better shape than some.

He also likes to point out that, in the past, when work weeks have been shortened, it has led to more community involvement in the social and political process.

[Politicalboi]

9. But we can't legalize

Marijuana to help pay the bills. Let's just stick it to the poor again. Let's try and raise the tax on cigarettes a dollar more instead too. Why not a 50 cent tax on ONE bottle of beer Jerry? How about making alcohol commercials extinct, or tax them more for putting that shit on the air. What an ass Jerry.

[Angleae]

14. CA legalizing marijuana won't do much

The feds will simply come in and shut down any point of distrubution and arrest all involved.

[lunatica]

10. How about lowering the price of everthing including mortgages by the same amount?

I sure wouldn't mind working one less day if everything I pay for is lowered proportionately by the same amount.