Gov. Brown and a painful budget

[littlewolf]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7095FB20110110

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Brown said he would ask lawmakers to support a ballot measure to extend temporary tax increases that expire this year. He plans to campaign vigorously for the measure and is hopeful voters will endorse it in light of even deeper spending cuts if they reject it.
He ruled out borrowing to help balance the state's books. "It's better to take our medicine now," he told reporters while unveiling his budget plan.

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Brown's overall budget plan depends on a successful June special election to extend temporary tax increases for five years. For that plan to proceed, lawmakers must support the budget plan by March.
Brown is likely to face difficulties convincing the Democratic-controlled legislature to sign on to such deep cuts to the state's social safety net. At the same time, he will have to convince some in the legislature's anti-tax Republican minority to support a special election to extend taxes.
Republican Assemblyman Jim Nielsen told reporters that would be a challenge and that convincing voters would be a hard sell since they rejected a tax measure last year.

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Brown proposed cutting the take-home pay of unionized state employees in six bargaining units by between 8 percent and 10 percent. The units account for more than a third of the state's general fund payroll. Salaries are projected to cost the fund $7 billion in the next fiscal year, and cutting the pay of the six units would bring them in line with the agreements reached by Schwarzenegger's administration and the state work force's 15 other bargaining units last year.
Brown also wants the six units to remain on three-day-per-month furloughs through June. Schwarzenegger made aggressive use of furloughs to hold down payroll expenses.
In addition, the budget proposal includes $1.7 billion in cuts to the state's health program and $1.5 billion in spending reductions for its welfare-to-work program.
Big cuts are also slated for programs for the disabled, including the mentally retarded and autistic.


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