LA County CEO: Brown's Budget Will Hurt

An older, bolder Gov. Jerry Brown deserves kudos for his budget plan
Gov. Brown is showing a willingness to take big risks in his share-the-pain plan to close the Budget gap It's a different Gov. Jerry Brown we're seeing these days — a subtle but significant difference between Brown I and Brown II. The Brown who was Governor at age 36 would not have been as bold — as calmly willing to stick his neck way out — as the 72-year-old version. The contrast—along with a stark stylistic difference between Brown and predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger...

Brown's budget gets mixed reviews, San Bernardino County assemblymembers react
Days after California’s Governor released his Budget proposal reactions have been mixed, ranging from cautious optimism to rejections of various aspects. San Bernardino County’s two Democratic assemblymembers said they were pleased Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown released a proposal that was not based on budgeting gimmicks and that would allow lawmakers to produce an on-time Balanced Budget. They also said they were pleased Brown was honest with voters and put forward ideas that would no...

Gov. Brown strips cell phones from state employees
(01-11) 18:40 PST Oakland -- Gov. Jerry Brown issued his first Executive Order Tuesday, taking aim at a convenience that wasn't in vogue the last time he was the state's Top Official: cell phones. The Governor ordered state agency and department heads to collect half of the approximately 96,000 state-issued cell phones used by Public Employees, a move he said will save California at least $20 million a year. Brown also plans to return his own state-issued cell phone, said Evan Westrup, a spok...

Gov. Brown strips cell phones from state employees
(01-11) 18:40 PST Oakland -- Gov. Jerry Brown issued his first Executive Order Tuesday, taking aim at a convenience that wasn't in vogue the last time he was the state's Top Official: cell phones. The Governor ordered state agency and department heads to collect half of the approximately 96,000 state-issued cell phones used by Public Employees, a move he said will save California at least $20 million a year. Brown also plans to return his own state-issued cell phone, said Evan Westrup, a spok...

Analyst praises Brown budget plan but sees many risks
In its first review of Gov. Jerry Brown 's Budget proposal, the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office called the plan a "good starting point" Wednesday and praised the Governor for focusing on solutions to fiscal problems beyond this year. But the analyst's report identified several major ideas that could fall through, particularly in Brown's plan to shift a variety of services to local governments and eliminate redevelopment agencies. The 40-page review noted that "there is signifi...

Texas faces budget shortfall; GOP likely to 'slash and burn'
AUSTIN, Texas | There is one enduring political value in Texas: The state does not mollycoddle. In the best of times, it spends as little as possible providing aid to the unemployed, the sick and the injured. Texans have consistently elected lawmakers who will add to the Public Safety net only when threatened with a federal Lawsuit. And now that the state must overcome a $15 billion Budget shortfall, life for those who rely on the state for employment or support is likely to get even tougher. Th...

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...

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...

Can Maryland afford in-state tution for illegal aliens now?
State Sen. Victor Ramirez (D-MD) says he will introduce a bill to provide immigrant Students in-state Tuition rates for Higher Education. He was the lead sponsor of the Legislation when it passed the House of Delegates in 2007. Ramirez’ office made the announcement in a Dec. 27 Press Release. A request sent that same day for details of the bill were ignored. When introduced, the proposal would grant in-state Tuition to Students that have attended and graduated from Maryland High Schools an...

TX Gov. Perry cowers to political base by perpetuating immigration myth
LatinaLista.net -- Things aren't going so hot in Texas these days. First, the state is faced with a revenue shortfall estimated at $13 billion, but the State Legislature is said to actually have to raise revenue closer to $25 billion to close the Deficit. Secondly, Texas found itself the subject of a recent New York Times op-ed penned by columnist Paul Krugman. In the column, Krugman hangs the Lone Star State's dirty laundry out for all to read: The truth is that the Texas State Government has...

Mitch Daniels, Deficit Arsonist: "The Building Was on Fire Anyway!"
Via Mark Thoma: Economist's View: "Bush, the Bubble, and the Deficit": Indiana's Republican Governor Mitch Daniels tries to blame the 2001 Recession for the deficits that occurred under president Bush. David Leonhardt sets the record straight: ...Here is [Wolf Blitzer] interviewing Mitch Daniels...: BLITZER: A columnist in The New York Times wrote recently ... saying if you decide to run for president, you need to explain .. “why as Budget director, [you] did not try to prevent the Bush ...

ITT to break itself up, fueling share rally
By Karen Jacobs Atlanta | Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:00pm EST Atlanta (Reuters) - U.S. manufacturer ITT Corp (ITT.N) plans to split itself into three publicly traded companies to take advantage of growing water management and industrial markets as its defense unit braces for U.S. Military Spending cuts. The diversified conglomerate is the latest in a string of companies that have moved to split up their operations, including Fortune Brands and Motorola. ITT Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Loranger...

Jerry Brown will 'probably' do budget road show
It would not be unusual for a Governor, having just proposed a Budget, to take his show on the road, soaking up media in key markets and pressuring lawmakers in their home towns. At the end of a day of meetings at the Capitol on Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown said he probably will do that, but not yet. "Probably, but I mean, nothing yet," Brown said. "Nothing I can tell you. So, I'm not ready to make that kind of announcement." Brown was meeting with lawmakers that afternoon, and he was planning to...

Jerry Brown's Cell Phone Crackdown
Sacramento, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown is hanging up his state-issued cell phone, and he's ordered half the state Bureaucrats who have government-paid cell phones to do the same. "It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all State Employees must be equipped with Taxpayer-funded cell phones," the new Governor said Tuesday. "The current number of phones out there is astounding." Brown used his first Executive Order since taking office a week ago to instruct department heads to c...

Medicaid under scrutiny in tight budget year
WASHINGTON-Despite tight Budgets and ballooning enrollment, Medicaid programs in Connecticut and across the country were able to preserve or even expand Health Care services to the poor in 2010, according to a new report released Tuesday. But 2011 could be dramatically different. Arizona officials have already moved to cut off Medicaid coverage for people in need of organ transplants, resulting in the deaths of two patients. Officials in Texas have pondered dropping out of the Medicaid program...

California budget: Jerry Brown calls for counties to take on more safety-net responsibilities
Proposing a major shift of Social Services from the state to the county level, Gov. Jerry Brown envisions 58 locally run systems for Foster Care, drug and Alcohol treatment and programs for the elderly. And while county officials conceptually like the idea, they fear the shift will not be accompanied by appropriate levels of funding. Those fears were stoked by the Democratic Governor's Budget plan announced Monday, which also proposed significant cuts to the state's welfare, child care and in-h...

California budget: Jerry Brown calls for counties to take on more safety-net responsibilities
Proposing a major shift of Social Services from the state to the county level, Gov. Jerry Brown envisions 58 locally run systems for Foster Care, drug and Alcohol treatment and programs for the elderly. And while county officials conceptually like the idea, they fear the shift will not be accompanied by appropriate levels of funding. Those fears were stoked by the Democratic Governor's Budget plan announced Monday: Funding for Brown's plan is contingent upon an extension of taxes over the next ...

California budget: Jerry Brown calls for counties to take on more safety-net responsibilities
Proposing a major shift of Social Services from the state to the county level, Gov. Jerry Brown envisions 58 locally run systems for Foster Care, drug and Alcohol treatment and programs for the elderly. And while county officials conceptually like the idea, they fear the shift will not be accompanied by appropriate levels of funding. Those fears were stoked by the Democratic Governor's Budget plan announced Monday, which also proposed significant cuts to the state's welfare, child care and in-h...

Gov. Brown offers gimmick-free budget, experts say
(01-12) 04:00 PST Sacramento - -- Gov. Jerry Brown promised Californians that his Budget proposal would avoid gimmicks, and Budget experts who reviewed the plan said Brown has mostly stuck to his word. In tackling the projected $25.4 billion Deficit, Brown has proposed $12.5 billion in cuts and an additional $12 billion in taxes and avoided relying on solutions that have little chance of materializing, the experts said. Such gimmicks used to balance the Budget in the past have merely pushed t...

Gov. Brown offers gimmick-free budget, experts say
(01-12) 04:00 PST Sacramento - -- Gov. Jerry Brown promised Californians that his Budget proposal would avoid gimmicks, and Budget experts who reviewed the plan said Brown has mostly stuck to his word. In tackling the projected $25.4 billion Deficit, Brown has proposed $12.5 billion in cuts and an additional $12 billion in taxes and avoided relying on solutions that have little chance of materializing, the experts said. Such gimmicks used to balance the Budget in the past have merely pushed t...

Brown makes case for cuts in budget summary
Budget geeks that we are, we have a pile of Governor's budget summaries on our desk, and Gov. Jerry Brown's budget document is considerably thicker than his predecessor's. One reason is that Brown and his Department of Finance team have added longer narratives to his proposal. Rather than just outline cuts, Brown's document adds arguments for every health and social service reduction, many of which boil down to assertions that California currently offers more public services than other states....

Reason Writers on Teevee: Matt Welch Talks Jerry Brown's Austerity Budget on Varney & Co.
On Monday, January 10, just before California Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his first Budget proposal, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch discussed the paramaters of the cuts on Fox Business Network's Varney & Co.: ...

Gov. Brown offers gimmick-free budget, experts say
(01-11) 04:00 PST Sacramento - -- Gov. Jerry Brown promised Californians that his Budget proposal would avoid gimmicks, and Budget experts who reviewed the plan said Brown has mostly stuck to his word. In tackling the projected $25.4 billion Deficit, Brown has proposed $12.5 billion in cuts and an additional $12 billion in taxes and avoided relying on solutions that have little chance of materializing, the experts said. Such gimmicks used to balance the Budget in the past have merely pushed t...

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...

Jerry Brown's budget earns business leaders' raves
They like it, they really like it. That's the early reaction to Gov. Jerry Brown 's Budget from Bay Area business leaders, Economists and a labor representative I spoke to on Tuesday. The Governor gets an A+ for "honesty" and for generally grabbing the bull by the horns, even on taxes. Concerns were expressed on the proposed elimination of state redevelopment and enterprise zone funding, and a requirement that corporations use a "single sales factor," based on their actual sales in California...