Public services will suffer $1 billion in cuts over the next few weeks as the state grapplies with dwindling incoming revenues, Gov. Brown announced. The reductions, not unexpected, may be only the first in a series of cuts, and they set the stage for a painful budget blueprint next month for the 2012-13 fiscal year.
From Wyatt Buchanan and Marisa Lagos in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Higher education, K-12 schools, public safety, and health and social services all will see a drop in funding, and Brown warned that state spending will face further cuts in the 2012-13 fiscal year under the budget proposal he will unveil in January."
"The good news is the economy of California is recovering ... but (it's) still not enough to close the deficit built up for years," Brown said during a news conference at the Capitol. "These cuts to universities, In-Home Supportive Services, schools, prosecutions - are not good, they are not the way we would like to run California, but we have to live within our means."
"The governor evoked a Latin phrase, albeit with a twist, saying, "The state cannot give what it does not have."
A list of the cuts can be seen here, courtesy of the Bee's Kevin Yamamura.
The triggers haven't even been pulled yet, but the lawsuits already are being prepared. First out of the box: L.A. schools are going to sue the state over the cuts to busing programs. From the Bee's Kevin Yamamura.
"California's largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, announced today it will file suit to block the state from eliminating $248 million in school bus funding."
"Superintendent John Deasy said in a statement that his district is under a 1981 court order to run buses for 35,000 students in the wake of a desegregation case. The district must also provide transportation for 13,000 students with disabilities under state and federal laws."
"Gov. Jerry Brown announced the bus cut as part of a $980 million package of cuts that triggered into effect once fiscal officials determined the state would fall $2.2 billion short in revenues this year. The governor acknowledged that K-12 districts are still required to bus some students but suggested they could still pay for buses by cutting elsewhere."
Meanwhile, more than 300 miles to the south, there were demonstrations in San Bernardino against the budget cuts.
From Ryan Hagen in The Sun: "More than 60 protesters from San Bernardino and Riverside counties marched through downtown Riverside Tuesday night, carrying candles as a "vigil" for services that will be cut as part of the "trigger cuts" to the state budget announced earlier that day."
"Waving signs with messages ranging from "Students First" to biblical references to the importance of caring for the needy, the protest was organized by 10 groups."
"I think the diversity of this group is what's most impressive - we're united and can't be divided," said Hector Guzman, a student at San Bernardino Valley College who has been involved in other movements, including Occupy San Bernardino Valley. "I came as an individual, as a student and as a brother to a sister that is going to be affected by the (healthcare) cuts."
State Treasuer Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, quit a pension advisory panel in protest of a report authored by former lawmaker and Stanford University professor Joe Nation that called for cuts in retirement benefits for current public employees.
From the LAT's Patrick McGreevy: "In quitting the institute's pension advisory panel, Lockyer said he questioned the conclusions and methodology of the study."
“When it comes to public pensions, maybe SIEPR should stand for 'Stanford Institute to Eviscerate People’s Retirement,' " said Joe DeAnda, the treasurer’s press secretary. Lockyer said the study did not adequately consider the legal impediments to reducing benefits for current employees and ignored research indicating that retirement systems perform better when their boards include members of the retirement plan."
"Nation said public pension systems need more dramatic changes than those proposed recently by Gov. Jerry Brown. "Although it offers many positive elements, Governor Brown’s proposal provides only modest additional cost savings,'' the study said."
And finally, from our "Sensitive Billboards" file comes word of the latest ad from a church in New Zealand. This time, the Virgin Mary takes a pregnancy test.
"St Matthews-in-the-City Church has again rolled out a provocative billboard in time for Christmas - their latest showing Mary with a positive pregnancy test."
"The church says the billboard aimed to “avoid the sentimental [and] trite” and “spark thought and conversation. St Matthews has caused controversy with numerous provocative billboards in recent years."
In 2009, their Christmas billboard showed Mary and Joseph in bed with the tag line, “Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow.”
Indeed....
