"California Governor Gray Davis signs the 2003-04 state budget Saturday during a ceremony at the Capitol in Sacramento."
Ceremony?
Here is a link to some of the budget impacts on counties. We will be looking at heavy lay-offs in police, the D.A. and departments that handle elder and child abuse.
http://www.csac.counties.org/legislation/legislative_priorities/sbn_2002X/budget_watch.pdf Then we move on to the cuts in CDF (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.) Looks like they will be collecting a hefty fee ($50 million) from rural folks for wildfire fighting.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/6425925.htm "Landowners on nearly 32 million acres where fire protection is provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection may have to jointly pay $50 million in firefighting costs that was stripped out of the budget approved by state lawmakers.
"The budget pulls $50 million from the department's $600 million annual budget to help eliminate a potential $38 billion deficit.
"A pending bill, still being finalized for lawmakers' consideration later this month, would let the department recover the $50 million by collecting fees. How is still uncertain, said department spokeswoman Karen Terrill, but the fire protection fees would likely be charged to landowners, possibly collected by county tax assessors.
"The department provides fire protection for nearly a third of California's roughly 100 million acres, mostly in rural areas at lower elevations. By comparison, the federal government has jurisdiction and primary firefighting responsibility for another roughly 40 million acres."
