Lawmakers OK billions in program cuts in California budget

[The Northerner]

State lawmakers on Wednesday approved billions of dollars in cuts to welfare, medical programs for the poor and in-home care for the elderly and frail, among other services, moving forward key pieces of Gov. Jerry Brown's budget reduction package.

They also voted to sharply reduce services for the developmentally disabled and shifted hundreds of millions of dollars away from mental health and early childhood programs to use instead to reduce the deficit.

The cuts would cover only part of the state's roughly $26-billion shortfall. But legislative leaders pushed ahead on the budget actions for which there was bipartisan support as they and the governor continued to lobby for votes for the more contentious provisions of Brown's plan. They are still scrambling to secure GOP support for a ballot measure that would ask voters to extend billions of dollars in temporary tax increases.

Brown needs at least four Republicans, two each in the Assembly and Senate, to place the tax question before voters in a June special election.

As lawmakers debated into the night on Wednesday, some warned that the reductions they were enacting would dramatically reshape California government.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110317,0,942757.story