Budget crisis may be harder to solve this timeWyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Sunday, November 22, 2009
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(11-22) 04:00 PST
Sacramento -- Leaders at the Capitol will have about six months to resolve the new $20.7 billion deficit, and some believe the job will be tougher than the $62 billion budget hole they plugged earlier this year.
The difficulty is multilayered: Many of the easier cuts already have taken place; cutting too much in some areas would jeopardize federal money; federal stimulus money already has been spent; and many one-time solutions already have been used.
The new jaw-dropping deficit - projected through June 2011 - was released last week by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office only four months after legislators closed a $24 billion budget gap.
State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the upcoming work, to start in January, will be harder than the grueling budget fights this year, "because the fact is we're starting at a very different place. Look at what's happening at UC - that's Exhibit A here," referring to mass student protests of tuition increases and staff cuts.
Both the governor and the Legislature are mum on what they plan to do, but they likely will carry on the Sacramento tradition of resurrecting many if not all of the ideas rejected this year when lawmakers passed a spending plan in February and returned in July to patch the $24 billion hole.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until Jan. 10 to submit a proposed spending plan to the Legislature, and the lawmakers have until June 15 to approve a balanced budget. ..........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/21/MN2V1AO1D2.DTL
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