The Latest on California's Budget Crisis

When it comes to the state budget, CA is always late. The deadline for the state budget was June 15. Today is September 4. We still do not have a budget, and we don't seem very close to a breakthrough. CA is the only state in the country without a budget for the new fiscal year (which began on July 1).

Let's cut to the chase: California has a $15.2 billion deficit. That's huge. I do not envy the legislatures that have to battle out a budget for us in Sacramento. But, we need to make sure that politicians in CA create a budget that will reduce our deficit, but at the same time not hurt the most vulnerable CA citizens by cutting spending for important safety net programs like Medi-Cal, Cal Grants, etc. Shoutout to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and to our Assemblymember, Pedro Nava, for working their tails off these past couple of months.

So how do we reduce our deficit, and still keep CA rolling? The Governor and Senate Democrats have proposed a small tax increase (1 cent sales tax- temporary). Assembly Democrats want to raise taxes on the rich and corporations, and remove some businness tax breaks.

The GOP want to borrow $2 billion from the future sales of lottery tickets. Really? Really.

This is where it gets ugly: in addition to borrowing dinero from the lottery, in order to avoid raising taxes the GOP has proposed the following cuts:
- $5.5 billion in education
- $1.5 billion in safety net programs (Medi-Cal, in-home care for the elderly, support for children, Cal Grants, student aid)
- Borrow $349 million from a fund that supports low-income housing across the state

On the front page of San Francisco Chronicle this morning is an article, "Needy Students Face Loss of Cal Grant Aid" that is definitely worth reading (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/03/MNCL12NJAD.DTL&tsp=1).

So that's the latest on the CA state budget crisis. Call your Assemblymember today and tell them not to cut Cal Grant Aid for needy students, not to give into GOP demands that would slash funding from our already crumbling school system and safety net programs.

If you live in Santa Barbara, call Assemblymember Pedro Nava's office at (916) 319-2035 and encourage him to fight the proposed GOP cuts.