Posted on 10/07/2008 8:19:42 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will meet with legislative leaders Wednesday to try to find ways to fill an immediate hole in this year’s budget that could be as large as $5 billion, according to estimates from Senate Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland. Perata said the deficit could swell to $15 billion or more by the middle of next year.
The bleak outlook comes amid a weakening state economy and an unprecedented meltdown on Wall Street, which has pinched corporate and municipal credit.
“The options are all bad,” Perata said Wednesday. “I am not very optimistic we will get a tax increase,” which means there could be more cuts to state health services and education, he added.
The talk is also sure to revive some “revenue acceleration” options that were rejected by Democrats in the round of budget talks that wrapped up less than three weeks ago. But legislative sources in both parties said discussion of accelerating collection on individual taxpayers’ withholding payments would not be on the table.
“If Democrats think this reopens the door to tax increases, they’re wrong,” said Jennifer McDaniel, a spokeswoman for Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis. While she did not say whether or not her boss supports reconvening the Legislature in a special session, she did say time is of the essence.
“The longer we wait, the more opportunities are missed for savings” through spending cuts, she said.
The shortfall in state budget revenues stems from the weakening economy, both in the state and nationally, in the wake of a persistent housing slump and general economic slowdown. The gap is also attributable to overly optimistic revenue projections made by state budget makers.
And Perata said the outlook for next year is even worse.
“I think we’re heading into another year of $15 billion to $18 billion deficits,” he said, looking ahead to the 2009-10 budget year, which begins next July 1.
While the state wrestles with lower than expected income into state coffers, it is also being hit by the Wall Street credit crunch.
Last week, Gov. Schwarzenegger sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warning the state may need assistance securing $7 billion in short-term loans to cover operating expenses.
State treasurer Bill Lockyer said the state could run out of money by the end of month if it does not secure some form of short-term loan. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said these types of short-term loans are commonplace, and that the state routinely relies on bridge loans to overcome the uneven cycle of state payments and income flow.
“These types of revenue anticipation loans are very common,” he said. “But we may not be able to secure it through Wall Street,” because of the virtual credit freeze, he said.
Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, sent a letter to Lockyer this week, suggesting the state look beyond the federal government for help with the short-term cash crisis. “The state should look to one of the world’s largest investors, the California Public Employee Retirement System, as a reasonable purchaser of short-term California state debt,” he wrote.
That idea was rejected by Perata, who said he does not support effectively borrowing against state employee pensions. “I wouldn’t want to do that,” said Perata. “Public employees right now are feeling a lot of pain.”
The reconvening of the Big 5 to wrestle with budget issues comes just weeks after Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders finally agreed to a 2008-09 budget, the most overdue spending plan in the state’s history.
Now, the governor and the four leaders of the Legislature – Senate Leader Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, both Democrats; and Senate GOP Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines – are poised to meet Wednesday afternoon to talk options.
McLear said representatives from the Department of Finance and the state treasurer’s office would also be at the 2 p.m. meeting Wednesday.
Icebergs Dead Ahead!
And there arent enough boats!
Yeah but just think of all the “cheap” labor they’ve got.
LMAO. There’s an obvious solution here. What do families do when they run out of lenders to give them $? They FREAKING stop spending.
Screw the idea of the US taxpayer having to fork over even more $ to pay for the socialist utopias in Cali, Massachusetts, and New York.
Our Mexical Senate and Assembly are like kids in a candy store. Throw the bums out! However this is California and the libs will vote these jerks back into office.
look at what unions have done to the big 3 auto makers
and then think what gov jerry brown did to this state:
he made all state employees union members.
the police and sheriffs don’t do much. the prison union are thugs.
the public schools are in shambles. in my valley 97% of the entering commmunity college students require remedial math and english.
then there’s the leftist judges,
the trial lawyers,
the hollywood and silicon valley leftists,
the health care for the illegals and section 8’s,
...
who cares?
there is no republican party to speak of.
There are a lot of rich liberals in California. Tax them.
Cut services to illegals you frickin’ MORONS!
Good God, what will it take for them to understand?
This state, or this nation, for that matter, cannot
continue to pay the freight for these people.
Here’s a suggestion for California. Everything is free for everyone, including those here illegally and let the feds pay for it. Then we can disband the legislature, the gov’s office, and just hire more bureaucrats to pass out bennies.
I hope Arnold has lots of fun with his new-found liberal friends.
QUICK! Time to go after climate change, the spotted owl, Y2K, and global warming.
The LA Times says, "The federal government pays $315 million of [a health] program's $432-million annual cost. Because those federal funds can be spent only on legal residents, California picks up the tab for the services to undocumented immigrants." (Dispute imperils California family planning program for the poor The state could incur millions in costs because of dispute with Bush administration over how it counts illegal immigrants in the successful service. By Jordan Rau, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 3, 2008 )
Why is it so hard to understand that you cannot continue to spend more than you make?
We don’t insist our governments follow the simplest law of finance.
The politicians are not worried about it...... our children will pay for it. How American is that?
Dedicated funds leave $2B Texas budget surplus:
Looks like Texas had a surplus as of May 2008 - and we have no state income tax (just sales tax). They even have a rainy day fund of $5.7 billion.
And no, CA, MA, and NY - you can NOT borrow it...unless the interest rate is 25%, lol...
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Like we didn’t know this already.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Californicate is doomed. I should know. I live there. I was born there. I’ve lived my entire life there and the state is doomed. The ignoramus illiterati of the electorate has voted in communist dingbat legislators for so many decades now, that there is no saving the state. The communist pols dole out entitlements to the idiot electorate that votes them back in. Scrub. Rinse. Repeat.
California is dooooooomed. The very day I retire, I am fleeing for the green hills of Virginia, assuming the Bolshevik beltway bastards haven’t ruined that state by the year 2020.
Maybe the feds could sell the state to Arizona. Of course, Nevada would probably make a better offer and end up getting sued.
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