Governor's Latest Budget Proposal
The good news is that the Governor has a plan to close the deficit. The bad news is that the State Controller tells us that this plan needs to be implemented by June 15. After that, the State has a cash crunch of herculean proportions.
As expected, the Governor's plan includes "borrowing" $1.982 billion from local government--which equates to about $1 million from us. It also attempts to divert $750 million in local road funds. The plan also severely impacts every aspect of state funding, including many that will threaten our quality of life here in Manteca. For example, the budget proposal includes a $4.5 billion cut for K-12 education. It also takes over a billion dollars from our community college system and a like amount from the 4-year colleges.
It guts the safety net for the tens of thousands of families living below the poverty line in this County. Programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families are gutted and CalWorks and Child Welfare programs are severely reduced. The State Prison system will release thousands of prisoners and our severely overcrowded jail system will be expected to handle many more recidivists.
Click here to see the detailed listing of all the programs impacted.
While the impacts are devastating, it may lead toward the need to restructure and downsize our state government. As I've mentioned before, those of us at the local level believe there are a lot of areas where state government could just go away--and let the local citizenry run the show. Click here for an op-ed piece in last week's Sacramento Bee that talks about this in more detail.
As expected, the Governor's plan includes "borrowing" $1.982 billion from local government--which equates to about $1 million from us. It also attempts to divert $750 million in local road funds. The plan also severely impacts every aspect of state funding, including many that will threaten our quality of life here in Manteca. For example, the budget proposal includes a $4.5 billion cut for K-12 education. It also takes over a billion dollars from our community college system and a like amount from the 4-year colleges.
It guts the safety net for the tens of thousands of families living below the poverty line in this County. Programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families are gutted and CalWorks and Child Welfare programs are severely reduced. The State Prison system will release thousands of prisoners and our severely overcrowded jail system will be expected to handle many more recidivists.
Click here to see the detailed listing of all the programs impacted.
While the impacts are devastating, it may lead toward the need to restructure and downsize our state government. As I've mentioned before, those of us at the local level believe there are a lot of areas where state government could just go away--and let the local citizenry run the show. Click here for an op-ed piece in last week's Sacramento Bee that talks about this in more detail.
posted by City Manager @ 10:34 PM
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