Jerry Brown's tough budget hinges on big if

Gov. Jerry Brown begins wooing GOP support for tax plan
Reporting from Sacramento — Before Gov. Jerry Brown can ask voters to ratify the multibillion-dollar tax plan he says will rescue California's finances, he must win over a handful of Republicans with a combination of charm, arm-twisting and Compromise — a task he's already begun. The Democratic Governor needs as few as four GOP votes to place a measure on the ballot that would extend $9 billion in recent tax hikes — levies Republicans have opposed. "I will … go into th...

LA County CEO: Brown's Budget Will Hurt
Los Angeles - A top public official said Tuesday he's worried about whether Los Angeles County will have enough funding to support Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to shift a host of responsibilities from the state to counties. County CEO Bill Fujioka told county supervisors that California's most populous county should embrace Brown's proposal to restructure State Government to help resolve a projected $25.4 billion Deficit. Brown on Monday called for $12.5 billion in Spending Cuts, including reduct...

Public Transit Funding Slightly Better in Jerry Browns Proposed Budget
For the first time in three years, California public transit agencies could see a full dose of funding from the State Transit Assistance (STA) fund, thanks in large part to the passage of Proposition 22, which prevents legislators from raiding Local Government funds, and Governor Jerry Brown, who announced his “painful” Budget plan yesterday. The Brown administration said state funding for local transit agencies would amount to $329.6 million for Fiscal Year 2011-12, significantly mo...

Brown's budget plan -- pain everywhere
Every governmental Budget is inevitably a political document, and the crisis blueprint Gov. Jerry Brown proposes for California is, depending on your perspective, either breathtakingly cynical or strategically masterful. Perhaps it's a bit of both. When you round things out, the Budget Brown introduced Monday proposes $12.5 billion in cuts and $12 billion in tax extensions that will have to be approved by voters in a Special Election this spring. It's a document that spreads its wrenching pain i...

Calif. state workers: Turn in cellphones
SACRAMENTO, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Half of California's 96,000 Taxpayer-funded cellphones for state workers must be turned in -- and thousands of cars and vans may be next, Gov. Jerry Brown said. "It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all State Employees must be equipped with Taxpayer-funded cellphones," Brown said Tuesday in ordering 48,000 state workers' phones turned in by June. "The current number of phones out there is astounding," said Brown, a Democrat, who took over last week fr...

Apocalypse Not: In a World Without the Tomo-Kahni State Historical Park, Survivors Would Envy the Dead
One of the most entertaining things about the state fiscal crisis is that the longer it goes on, the more clear it becomes how useless State Governments are. As California's walking wounded wander the wasteland and resort to Cannibalism in the wake of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed "Austerity" Budget, the Sacramento Bee attempts to lay out how the damage will impact each and every state resident. If you're worried that the Golden State might have to axe such essential services as the boards of chi...

California slashes official cell phone use
Stumble This! Los Angeles — New California Governor Jerry Brown ordered Tuesday the confiscation of half of the cell phones used by Public Employees in the state, as he slashes its Budget to rein in a huge Deficit. Brown, a Veteran Democrat who took over from Republican former film star Arnold Schwarzenegger this month, said far too many Civil Servants had their Mobile Phones provided from the public purse. "It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all State Employees must be ...

Illinois lawmakers pass massive tax hikes
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Major personal and corporate Income Tax hikes to bring Illinois' Budget back from the financial abyss received final legislative approval early Wednesday. Illinois is facing a $13 billion Budget Deficit that must be resolved by the end of the Fiscal Year on June 30. This includes $6 billion in unpaid bills to social service agencies, schools, contractors and others. In addition, the state's Pension Plan is severely underfunded. Email Print Comment To address these shortfa...

California budget: Jerry Brown proposes $1.4 billion cut for universities, community colleges
Continuing two decades of declining state support for increasingly large and expensive campuses, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed cutting $1 billion from the state's universities and $400 million from community colleges -- a reduction educators say could limit access and increase fees. Last year, campuses were helped by last-minute extra funding and they were able to boost enrollment with a Budget that represented 12.6 percent of all state spending. But Brown's newly proposed Budget does not shiel...

Calif. governor orders 48,000 cellphones confiscated
Sacramento, Calif. — Alarmed at discovering that the state pays for 96,000 cellphones, California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an Executive Order Tuesday seeking to cut in half the number of devices being billed to Taxpayers. Requiring 48,000 cellphones to be turned in by June 1 will save the state about $20 million a year. "It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all State Employees must be equipped with taxpayer-funded cellphones," Brown said. "Some state employees, including d...

Change You Can Xerox: Guv Budget Mimics Legislature's, Plus: More On The Union Pacific Deal, And: Back On The UNM Beat
It may be hard core fiscal Conservatives, not die-hard liberals, who will be most displeased with Governor Martinez's first Budget. She hews doggedly to the middle of the road in the $5.4 billion plan, belying campaign pledges of bold change, but avoiding politically perilous confrontations with the Legislature that could sink them both in the popularity polls. The budget reinforces the old adage that in New Mexico the political gold is mainly in the center of the spectrum, even when a Republica...

Do or die for massive Illinois tax hike
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Democratic state lawmakers in Illinois are scrambling to pass massive personal and corporate Income Tax hikes Tuesday to bring their state Budget back from the fiscal abyss. Timing is critical because it will be much harder to raise taxes after Republicans take over more seats on Wednesday. The state GOP is firmly opposed to hiking taxes, preferring instead to cut spending. Email Print Comment While the proposal is still in flux, it contains a mix of Tax Increases and new...

Brown's school budget spurs questions over deferred payments
After Gov. Jerry Brown released his Budget Monday, the big question among education officials was whether K-12 schools had been spared from cuts. Brown said Monday that his Budget protected K-12 schools and kept them at the same level of funding they received in the 2010-11 Budget passed in October. But there were different interpretations of that claim due to ambiguity surrounding payment deferrals to schools. The problem starts with the 2010-11 Budget passed in October. That Budget set fundi...

Brown to talk budget with legislators this afternoon
Gov. Jerry Brown is meeting with State Legislators this afternoon to urge quick action on the Budget proposal he released yesterday, his office announced. Brown wants lawmakers to approve Spending Cuts and a proposal to ask voters to approve a five-year extension of temporary taxes by March, in time to call a June Special Election on the tax piece. The second part is a tough sell for Republicans, who said yesterday they wouldn't vote for the Special Election as the plan stands now. The serie...

Jerry Brown's budget for California is 'honest' and 'very painful'
Gov. Jerry Brown answers a question on his approach to dealing with an estimated $25.4 billion state Budget Deficit during news conference where he released his $84.6 billion general fund state spending plan at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 10. Gov. Jerry Brown released a balanced state Budget Monday that cuts $12.5 billion in spending, raises billions in taxes, includes an 8 to 10 percent cut in pay for most State Employees, and proposes a restructuring of government that purports ...

Gov. Jerry Brown orders California workers to turn in 48,000 cellphones
Reporting from Sacramento — Strike from the list of state workers' perks a free cellphone on which to gab. Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday ordered tens of thousands of State Employees to turn in their Mobile Phones. Brown, a notorious tightwad, says he can't imagine that their 96,000 cellphones are necessary for the people's business, and he wants the number cut in half. "It is difficult for me to believe that 40% of all State Employees must be equipped with Taxpayer-funded cellphones," Bro...

A breakdown of Jerry Brown's budget
Taxes Gov. Jerry Brown wants voters to renew $9 billion in higher sales, income and vehicle taxes in a Special Election this spring. The Legislature passed the increases as part of the 2009 Budget, and they will otherwise expire by the end of June. Lawmakers' approval would be needed to put the extension on the ballot. Brown would ask voters to prolong a 0.25-percentage point surcharge on state income taxes, a 0.5-percentage-point increase in the vehicle license fee, a 1-cent increase in the ...

State budget plan: Five years of higher taxes, $12.5 billion in spending cuts
SACRAMENTO -- To erase the state's enormous Deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday asked Californians to accept deep service cuts, more taxes and a fundamental shift in the way resources are distributed. Brown, who took office a week ago, called for $12.5 billion in what he called "drastic cuts" to nearly every state program except K-12 schools, $12 billion in revenues and nearly $1 billion in reserves for the next 18 months to lead the state out of a $25.4 billion Budget deficit that has been grow...

Ill. faces 66 percent tax boost amid budget crisis
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Democratic Illinois lawmakers beat a looming deadline and approved a 66 percent income-tax increase in a desperate bid to end the state’s crippling Budget Crisis. Legislative leaders rushed early Wednesday to pass the politically risky plan before a new General Assembly was sworn in at noon, taking a slice out of the Democratic majority and removing lame-duck lawmakers willing to support the tax before leaving office. The increase now goes to Democratic Gov. ...

Illinois Faces A 66 Percent Tax Hike Amid Budget Crisis
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 By Deanna Bellandi, Associated Press Springfield, Ill. (AP) - Democratic Illinois lawmakers beat a looming deadline and approved a 66 percent income-tax increase in a desperate bid to end the state's crippling Budget Crisis. Legislative leaders rushed early Wednesday to pass the politically risky plan before a new General Assembly was sworn in at noon, taking a slice out of the Democratic majority and removing lame-duck lawmakers willing to support the tax before...

California Reintroduces Its Own Dream Act
The DREAM Act is back, in California at least. Today Assemblyman Gil Cedillo re-introduced the DREAM Act which would allow undocumented youth who are accepted to college the ability to apply for institutional Financial Aid and state grants from the state’s public universities, state and community colleges. Cedillo’s new strategy is to split the bill in two. The San Jose Mercury News reports that one bill would allow undocumented immigrant Students who are California residents to appl...

New Michigan Legislature convenes on Wednesday
Michigan's new State Legislature is getting ready to convene for the first time. Lawmakers are scheduled to gather at the State Capitol on Wednesday for swearing-in ceremonies. Republicans retain their majority in the Senate and are replacing Democrats for control of the House as the 2011-12 session begins. Lawmakers likely will focus much of their energy on the state's projected $1.8 billion Budget shortfall for the Fiscal Year that starts in October. Republicans want to try and erase the defic...

Voters say they dont want spending cuts
According to one poll, anyway. Voters gave Republicans an overwhelming victory in November, leaving the GOP with nearly two-thirds of the seats in the Legislature and every statewide office. Many have interpreted the election as a clear call for Spending Cuts, and in fact, a Texas Newspapers poll conducted in the weeks before the election showed that voters prefer spending cuts to higher taxes. But the new poll shows voters want more than half of the state Budget protected. Some 70 percent of ...

New Michigan Legislature ready to roll Wednesday
New and Veteran Michigan lawmakers are scheduled to convene at the State Capitol for swearing-in ceremonies. The 2011-12 Legislature is expected to meet for the first time Wednesday. The majority of lawmakers will be new to their jobs in both the Senate and the House. The turnover is caused partly by the state's term limits law and a strong showing by Republicans in last year's Elections. Republicans built on their advantage in the Senate and grabbed control of House from Democrats. The state's ...

The Budget Battle: How President Obama Is Trapped
The mistake that most commentators are making on the Budget is the idea that a bill has to be passed to cut spending. For much of the 2012 budget, which Congress is now debating, that is not true. In many cases, the absence of Legislation can cut spending. With Republicans thoroughly in control of one house of Congress, that legislative reality leaves them with great power to cut spending. Moreover, today's new political realities, as evidenced by the historic 2010 election, sharply constrain th...