Brown Proposes $8.3 Billion in Cuts for California [View all]

[cali]

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: May 14, 2012


LOS ANGELES — Struggling to contain mounting state budget shortfalls, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday proposed $8.3 billion in spending cuts, including slashing state employees pay and spending on social programs and prisons. He warned that California would have to impose another $6 billion in cuts on public schools and higher education if voters fail to improve his initiative this fall to raise sales and income taxes.

Mr. Brown said the state was facing an estimated $15.7 billion shortfall, up from $9.2 billion in January. He blamed the worsening state budget situation on the slide in California’s economy, which has led to less revenues than he had projected just last year, and court decisions preventing the state from imposing cuts voted on this year.

“I don’t like making additional cuts, and I recognize the impact they have on Californians,” Mr. Brown said in releasing his budget plan. “They are difficult — but necessary — in order to get us back on firm fiscal footing until California fully recovers from the global economic recession.”

Even as he proposed cuts, Mr. Brown proposed a 16 percent increase in funding for public schools. But he said they were contingent on voters approving a quarter-cent hike in the sales tax and an income tax surcharge on wealthy voters this year, hardly a sure
thing.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/us/brown-proposes-8-3-billion-in-cuts-for-california.html?_r=1