Brown seeks 5-year extension of California taxes

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Yahoo/AP
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press

Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a budget for the coming fiscal year Monday that deals with the state's ongoing deficit with tough medicine for nearly every Californian, making deep cuts to most areas of government while calling for a five-year extension of tax increases enacted in 2009.

In releasing his first budget plan, the newly elected Democratic governor said he wanted to end the types of acccounting gimmicks, borrowing tricks and overly optimistic revenue assumptions that characterized the recent budgets signed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

To close it, Brown called for $12.5 billion in spending cuts, including reductions in welfare, social services, health care for the poor, community colleges and a combined $1 billion cut to the University of California and California State University systems.

LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110110/ap_on_bi_ge/us_california_budget
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Looks like 30% increase in Jr. College fees, and an increase in UC/CSU fees will also be coming (from the article).

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. Its almost as if you have to vote for the candidate with the opposite platform that you want. nt

[abelenkpe]

2. CA is in trouble

Not sure what can be done quite frankly. What would you do to fix the mess?
Increases in college costs couldn't come at a worse time.

[Adsos Letter]

3. Brown's comment (from the article linked to)...

is that it's better to take the medicine now, and get on a solid footing.

There appear to be some heavy cuts coming to the network of social services, especially MediCal.

[Xithras]

4. Yes and no. The CC costs generally aren't paid by the poor or unemployed anyway.

CC fee hikes tend to be absorbed by middlle class families with 4 year transfer students. Low income students, people on welfare, the unemployed, and any student qualifying for financial aid gets his/her fees waived anyway with a BOG waiver. They only need to pay for their books.

California does still maintain a few vestiges of progressivism. Among those is the idea that anyone can get into a CC without regard to their previous academic history, and that those who can afford the least, pay the least.