Until we can figure out how to advance such policies, Brown’s self-declared middle-of-the-road budget probably is as good as it’s going to get.Best Business Ideas to Start in India 2023 Unfortunately, that’s the one thing that rarely happens in the Capitol, even from the governor - serious discussions about creative, nongovernmental solutions to problems, or at least solutions that work within existing budgets. Then sometimes the law turns into a lawsuit.” The key, he said, is to find creative ways to satisfy those needs with the money available. Then after a while the need gets turned into a right. “And then someone tells you how to turn that desire into a need. “First you have a desire,” Brown quipped. After the budget release, some Democrats called for more “investments.”Īsked by a reporter about legislative proposals to impose a severance tax on oil companies and to chip away at Proposition 13’s property-tax limitations, the governor said, “Well, if you want to fund all the things they are talking about in this building that’s exactly what you’ll have to do.” Fortunately for taxpayers, the governor said he doesn’t support that approach. Newly inaugurated Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, outlined in her speech on Monday a series of costly spending goals ranging from providing health coverage for all Californians to spending more on homelessness and low-income housing. That was a reminder, Brown said, about the need to go slow on the spending side. State revenue forecasts are up by $2.4 billion since January - but the costs of government programs have risen by an equal amount. The governor said that if the Legislature thinks an extra year of schooling is important, it should allocate the money from the existing budget. To the GOP’s relief, Brown said he opposes Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg’s plan to spend an additional $1 billion a year on a universal preschool program. Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar said the budget is “pretty good,” but notes that it still spends $12 billion more than last year. Nevertheless, Republican legislators were largely satisfied by the budget, even though some questioned the governor’s continuing push to build a $68-billion High Speed Rail system. And who knows if future Legislatures will follow the plan when the bills get higher? Still, Brown thinks that’s as much as he can get legislators to accept. Only $73.2 million of that contribution comes from the general fund this year, with the rest of it coming from higher contributions from teachers and school districts as detailed in two proposals in the Legislature. “Well, we have to recognize we’ve done a lot already and we haven’t paid for all that we’ve already done.”Ĭommentary: More Steven Greenhut columns about California “(There are) a lot of ideas around Sacramento and throughout the Assembly and Senate halls. The governor emphasized the unpredictability of state revenues and hammered the “responsibility” theme - contrasting himself with legislative leaders who support even more spending. Jerry Brown on Tuesday.Īt a press conference in the Capitol, Brown released a “May Budget Revision” that starts to slightly pay down the unfunded liabilities that plague the teachers’ retirement system, holds the line on big, new programs, diverts some money into a rainy-day fund, but spends more than last year. Given how beholden California’s legislators are to the idea of expanded government-funded social programs and nation’s-highest benefit levels for public employees, there was little realistic chance to get a more responsible budget proposal than the one offered by Gov. Fiscal responsibility is largely in the eye of the beholder.
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