California budget: Gov. Jerry Brown approves cuts to services for poor, sick and elderly

[cali]

The billions of dollars in cuts to government services signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown address a portion of the estimated $26-billion deficit facing California. Brown is still negotiating with Republicans on a proposal to put tax extensions before voters.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law billions of dollars in budget cuts Thursday that will mean fewer government services, particularly for the old, the poor and the sick.

The governor signed the new laws to tackle $11.2 billion of the state's estimated $26-billion deficit, even as he scrambled to find Republican support for the other half of his budget plan: a ballot measure asking voters' blessing to renew expiring taxes. Time is running out to place such a measure on the June ballot, he said.


State officials will now begin notifying many Californians that their government benefits are to be cut within 90 days — at just about the start of the new budget year. Come July, welfare grants will be reduced by 8%, and parents will be kicked off the rolls after four years instead of the current five.

Assistance for the elderly and disabled, in their homes and at senior centers, will also be reduced. State-subsidized child care for 11- and 12-year-olds will be eliminated.

<snip>

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/25/local/la-me-state-budget-20110325

[xchrom]

1. the rich and corporations are killing california. nt

[William769]

2. He is just following the Federal Governments lead.

[Marblehead]

3. someone

has to go after the banksters

[grasswire]

4. and here in Oregon our Democratic governor...

....is cutting proven programs for at-risk juveniles in order to pay for more prisons.

The world turned upside down.

[vi5]

5. Wow....between Brown and Cuomo....

The Democratic names of yesteryear sure as shit ain't what they used to be.

Of course it also used to be that Democrats as the federal level were actually democrats who fought for and upheld traditional democratic values instead of shouting "ME TOOO!!!" to whatever the Republicans demanded, so I guess times are different all around.

Democratic Party R.I.P.

[cali]

8. hey, my new guv's a dem

and he ran on single payer and closing Vermont Yankee.

[vi5]

15. I was more referring to....

The fact that if anyone told me 10, 15, 20 years ago that Jerry Brown and someone named Cuomo would be governers and would be pushing for what these guys are pushing for now and not holding corporations accountable and going after public workers and cutting programs for the needy and the powerless.......I'd have thought they were crazy.

There are some good dems, though they are few and far between at this point. Glad your gov is one of them.

[TheKentuckian]

6. This highlights a key difference in the two parties.

Democrats will do what the Republicans run on and the Republicans will do something altogether more fucked up than can be speculated in advance.

Voting Democrat gets you Republican, voting Republican gets you absurdity beyond all but the most vivid and cynical imaginations.

[snappyturtle]

7. The old, the poor, the sick and the young are easy targets...it will hardly be noticed.

:sarcasm:

[theaocp]

9. The idea of hackers stealing an election

for a third party is more and more appealing as days pass. Something's got to break the grip corporations have on our federal and state governments. With unlimited money available to the corporatists, I don't see alternatives. :grr:

[Zhade]

10. Just once I'd like to NOT regret voting for someone.

I'm starting to wonder why I even fucking bother.

[Cleita]

11. Brownie wants counties and municipalities to pick

up the slack because he is tied to Proposition 13 and can't do anything about it until the people of California do. If he can't get the taxes passed needed to reinstate these programs, he wants more local governments to get the taxes passed on a local level to do it. I'm confident more liberal enclaves like San Francisco and other coastal districts will do it and show the rest of the state how to do it. I have little hope in my little red nook area of the state doing anything that progressive.

Proposition 13 or the Jarvis Amendment is the real problem people and it will take the people to change it.

[madrchsod]

12. illinois is actually to do something different to try to save our services

maybe it will work or maybe not but at least we are trying not to kill people.

[Pisces]

13. So many on this board have nothing but criticism. As if these problems can be fixed easily with no

pain to anyone.


Tax the companies they move causing more unemployment. No one will vote to raise homeowner taxes because no one wants a slow down in home purchasing.

Where are the easy answers. Tax the rich, great they just buy a house in Las Vegas and claim Nevada residency to avoid the taxes.

Keep borrowing money and then what?????

I don't want to see any programs cut, and Brown is a lifelong democrat. Why are we attacking someone who is working within the confines of his job. As if these choices he is making are a whim.
I don't have the answers but I know attacking Brown is not it.

[Initech]

14. Really, is anyone surprised at this by this point?

:grr: :mad: i