ACP Pubs

Loren Faulkner

Belt Tightening Budget Proposed
May 15, 2008

There will never be the perfect State budget, or agreement by everyone on every facet of proposed cuts and spending.

Wednesday, Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed roadmap for getting California out of a scary $17 billion deficit for 2008-09 at least keeps a full $1.5 billion in the transportation fund, as historic Proposition 42 calls for. But a windfall of some $1.1 Billion-- from increased gasoline prices—will be diverted to other projects.

For example, more than $800 million in public transit operating funds were stripped from the Budget.

“These cuts are going to hurt,” said Mark Watts, executive director of Transportation California. “There will be a domino effect that squeezes highway programs as well as public transit. This is unfortunate, but not surprising, given the State’s dire fiscal straits.”

Dire is right. How California is going to ever get its budget under control while the Legislature continues with “business as usual” is a mystery to most Californians. Things are pretty bad when a Governor gives voters the choice between approving a doubling of State Lottery revenues and borrowing against that to squeak by for another year, or automatically accepting a sales tax increase. Some choice…

Posted by Loren Faulkner on May 15, 2008 | Comments (0)