Jerry Brown's budget cuts

[Hannah Bell]

On Monday, newly installed California governor Jerry Brown released his proposal to resolve the state's $24.5 billion budget deficit...

Brown claimed that there was no option but to implement deep cuts―a patent lie given that California is home to some of the richest Americans, and even a small tax on the wealthy could easily cover the budget deficit...

Brown's budget includes massive cuts to health care and other support services:

- $1.7 billion cut from state Medicaid (serves 7.7 million low-income Californians)

- $1.5 billion from CalWorks (dropping about 115,000 unemployed from the welfare to work program)

- Increased co-payments for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. For an after-tax income of $21,000 co-payments would increase to $1,300/year.

- $135.7 million from Healthy Families (subsidized medical services to low income children), on top of earlier cuts.

- $486 million from In Home Support Services care to elderly and disabled. Hours for providers down 8.4 percent on top of an earlier 3.6% decrease. 46,000 recipients to be dropped from service.

- $800 million from mental health, services shifted to the local level.

- $750 million from centers for the developmentally disabled (affects 250,000 clients)

- Elimination of adult day health program

- $1.4 billion in cuts to higher education -- 20 percent of higher education spending from the state's general fund.

-- UC & CSU systems to have $500 million in cuts, the rest from community colleges.

-- UC officials say there will be mass layoffs, program cuts & an 8% tuition increase, "making overall UC fees three times higher than they were just one decade ago."

-- California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott says the cutbacks will result in approximately 350,000 students losing the ability to enroll in classes at the state's 112 community colleges.

- $33 million from parks budget this year and next.

-- "This relatively miniscule amount, which could easily be bankrolled by the collective fortunes of the State Assembly and Senate alone, will result in reduced hours and outright closures in many of the state's 278 parks."

- $250 million from state fire-fighting services (after the worst wildfires in state history).

-- Firefighters per truck reduced from 4 to 3.

-- Local fire departments to be tasked with fighting fires on state land.

- A 0.25 percent personal income tax surcharge

- A reduction in the dependent tax credit from $309 to $99

- A 1% increase in sales tax

- A .5% hike in the vehicle licensing fee.

- If the tax measures are not approved, the governor is threatening to make extensive cuts to K-12 education.


Notice how all the tax measures are "flat"? Progressive taxation is anathema to the new corporatists.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/cali-j13.shtml

[avaistheone1]

1. I think it is the poor who are really taking it in the shorts according to this breakdown in the OP.

I think that sucks. They are the most vulnerable of all the special interest groups by far.

It stinks to high heavens.

[Hannah Bell]

2. pain flows down, money flows up.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I'm sure you're aware of the fact that he has to get the

Republicans to agree to all this, along with the Democrats?

Believe me, if he could have simply raised taxes on the wealthiest, he would have done so.

I firmly believe he is doing the best he can, given the circumstances.

[Raine]

4. I agree

I'm not happy about this but when I think about who/what we could've ended up with. :scared: :puke:

[avaistheone1]

5. I voted for Jerry Brown.

I have tremendous respect for him. However the needs of the poor, can not be compared to those of other special interest groups including fire fighters, public employees, teachers etc. Of course I understand the rich can't sacrifice much if anything.

These cuts weigh too much on the poor and it truly sickens me.

[Hannah Bell]

7. shifting state functions to localities = shifting costs to the smallest, poorest units.

it's precisely the same tactic as shifting the costs of the banksters' crapshoot to the rest of the population -- the pain always flows downward to the people with the least power.

as for state employees v. the poor, i'm not sure what you mean by "the poor" other than unemployed people, or how it helps the poor to make more people unemployed.

[andym]

6. I'm ready to vote for increased taxes on the rich, but are a majority of other

citizens willing to do it on an state initiative, since it's nearly impossible to get 2/3 of the legislature and senate to vote for any new taxes.
I hope to see such an initiative. Jerry Brown suggested that he would try to restore the cuts he would make through new taxes via state-wide initiative when he was running.

[dreamnightwind]

8. This hurts

Many of the cuts he is making are to places that need MORE resources in this climate, not less. These are the services that help people after they lose jobs, after they go crazy when their lives fall apart. And the schools are already running on fumes.

We're in big trouble, folks. And the right-wing is working hard to allow states to declare bankruptcy, with the public employees unions and their pensions being the prize they hope to win in the bankruptcy proceedings. I watched this go down last week on C-SPAN in a meeting between congress-critters and Ben Bernanke. Their were Dems on the panel (Kent Conrad was one of them) who appeared to be fully on-board with this plan, so the threat is real.

Why, in times of fiscal emergency, do they go after the poor, when the wealthy are the ones who have the money?

[dkf]

10. They aren't getting money from the poor, they are giving less to the poor.

[Hannah Bell]

11. of course they are. check out the tax increases. they're flat increases on income, sales,

& auto licensing.

i.e. the effect is regressive. the guy who makes $1000 a month get the same tax increase the guy making $100,000 a month does.

only the guy making $1000 a month doesn't have the many ways to hide or sequester his income the other guy does.

[dkf]

9. We will see if raising taxes works well in Illinois.

[Kolesar]

12. I had an impression that Schwarzenegger had already cut the prison budget

Any news on prisons?