Schwarzenegger's budget cuts to target health, services programs

[Judi Lynn]

Schwarzenegger's budget cuts to target health, services programs

TOM CHORNEAU, Associated Press Writer Friday, January 9, 2004




(01-09) 07:02 PST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) --

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to fix California's budget problems without raising taxes, a daunting task in the face of a mounting $14 billion shortfall next year.

On Friday, he planned to unveil a budget plan that would cut billions of dollars from public health and welfare programs while calling for a sweeping reevaluation of how state tax money is spent, but it still isn't expected to cover the entire shortfall.

The budget, expected to come in close to $100 billion, is the first major test for the former Hollywood movie actor who was elected governor only three months ago when voters recalled former Gov. Gray Davis.

Schwarzenegger faces a challenge getting the spending plan through the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats who have already voiced concerns that the burden of the state's fiscal crisis falls on the poor and disabled. Two-thirds of both chambers must approve the budget for it to take effect.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/01/09/national0545EST0480.DTL

[Beetwasher]

1. Screw the Poor and the Helpless

Yup, he really is a Republican.

[joefree1]

2. The elephant in the room

Even Gray Davis wouldn't talk about it. The problem is we are shackled by so many tax laws that protect the rich from tax increases. Watch next year as schools, roads, and social services start to fall apart.

"It's not over 'till Arnold gropes the fat lady" —Bill Press, on MSNBC

http://www.recallarnoldwatch.org

[arcane1]

3. hey Arnold, ask your BUDDY Ken Lay where our NINE BILLION is!

asshole :grr:

I haven't heard anything recently on his choice of a settlement over full payment, has there been any more word on that? If he signs that settlement he needs to be sent to the fucking gallows

the bastard

:mad:


ah, but he DID say we need to build more power plants, just like Bush and his Dick were saying during the power "crisis"

[proud patriot]

4. Hey Ahhhhhhnold , get your groping hands off the poor

Hey I have an idea , I think people who can afford to buy
new cars , could pay more taxes on those vehicles to
help keep kids healthy and educated ..

Oh that's right Davis already thought of that ,
implememted it and you revoked it ...Asshole :grr:

[Say_What]

5. Always on the backs of the poor...

[soup]

6. Donna Arduin on the case

>Arduin flew into Sacramento last week to begin work as Schwarzenegger's unpaid budget auditor. She's on loan from Florida after helping Republican Gov. Jeb Bush find ways to cut state taxes by $8.1 billion over the past five years. In the process, however, Florida eliminated money for eyeglasses, hearing aids and dentures for poor seniors and forced 55,000 low-income children onto health insurance waiting lists.<

>"In any state budget in this nation, when you have to start making cuts -- when you have to make big cuts -- you have to look at the percentage of revenues that are allocated to social services," said Jon L. Shebel, president of Associated Industries of Florida, the state's leading pro-business lobbying group. "You're in a major crisis there in California. There's no way to not take money out of social services, and that's what Donna does."<

>Advocates for that state's poor disagree. This year, they have railed against $26 million in state Medicaid cuts that eliminated the hearing, dentures and vision programs for 235,000 people. They also have sharply criticized the 4.3 percent reduction in state money for poor children's health insurance that resulted in the waiting lists in Florida.

"Her philosophy -- and it's at the direction of whoever her boss is -- was pretty strict along the lines of cut and slash on budget programs, particularly in the human services area," said Karen Woodall, one of Florida's leading social service lobbyists. "There have been lots of serious cuts proposed across the board in a lot of those programs, and that's going back several years. It was always done in the name of efficiency and streamlining, and the rhetoric always followed that it was not going to hurt the delivery of services, which in fact never was true."<
http://www.whoseflorida.com/watch_out_california.htm

[Say_What]

8. Uh oh, on loan from Florida, we're in deep sh*t now...

[soup]

9. I believe she's all yours now.

http://www.dof.ca.gov/

sorry.

hmm, wonder who's doing the slashing in FL now that she's gone? guess I'd better go look it up.

[lovedems]

7. Yep, get rid of the services the repubes can afford themselves.

Every time I see a story like this I just think KARMA. Someday being a republican won't be so much fun. Look at my state, Illinois, I would hate to be a republican living in Illinois right now.