(California) State budget deficit soars [View all]

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

California's budget deficit has jumped to $16 billion, forcing Gov. Jerry Brown to call for even deeper cuts in state spending when he releases his revised budget plan on Monday.

Brown revealed the dramatically higher deficit in a web video posted on YouTube Saturday. Lower than projected tax receipts along with the loss of proposed spending cuts already rejected by the courts and the federal government have increased the gap, the governor said.

Brown's January budget had projected a $9.2 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

"This means that we will have to go much further and make cuts far greater than I asked for at the beginning of the year," Brown said in the video.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/12/BAB31OH8KL.DTL&ao=all

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