With all the bad budget news out there, we've decided on this final Friday in May to focus on
the tidbits of good news amid the carnage. First, there's the break through in the stalemate over prison health
care.
"State corrections officials and the prison system's medical care
receiver said Thursday they have reached the outlines
of an agreement
to build two new long-term health care facilities for inmates at a cost
of $1.9 billion," the Bee's Andy Furillo reports.
"If
the two sides can craft the memorandum of understanding
that they say
is imminent, it would represent a significant step
toward ending the
federal oversight of prison medical care in California
that has created
a constitutional crisis over the past year."
"That's certainly
something I believe we can finalize with this deal," federal receiver
J. Clark Kelso said in a joint telephone press conference with the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Secretary Matt
Cate.
The LAT's Bailey and Rothfeld report the proposal is a big
compromise for Kelso. "The overseer of healthcare in state prisons has agreed
to dramatically
scale back an $8-billion plan to build inmate medical facilities in a
deal with Schwarzenegger administration officials who
had called for
his removal only months ago.
"The new proposal would cost $1.9 billion, about a third of the initial price tag."
So, we on'y have to spend $2 billion on prison healthcare. Well, that's sort of good news...
AP's Judy Lin reports there is new optimism that the federal government will back
short-term loans the state needs to meet it's cash flow obligations.
"n a move with only one modern- day precedent, California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers are pressing
the Obama
administration and members of Congress for federal
loan guarantees to
help the state out of a desperate, multibillion-dollar jam.California
is not asking for cash, like the tens of billions given
to AIG, General
Motors or Morgan Stanley. Instead, the state with the
worst credit
rating in the nation is asking that Washington act
as a sort of
co-signer on the state's borrowing, to be backed up with money from the
Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Speaker Karen Bass went back to D.C. last week, and got the secret handshake
from Rep. Barney Frank. Or something like that.
"Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman
of
the House Committee on Financial Services, said he
supports legislation
to help California and other cash-strapped cities.
"'I think if
the federal government can go to the aid of major financial
institutions, particularly when state and local governments
face
short-term liquidity issues, I think helping them out is
very
relevant,' Frank said."
OK, that's enough of that. Back to our regularly scheduled programming...
The governor continues to dribble out new
rounds of cuts. The Chron's Matthew Yi reports, "California state employees would lose 5 percent of their pay under the
latest proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to help
close a widening
budget deficit, his spokesman said Thursday.
"The plan is expected to be unveiled today as part of
$3 billion in
new cuts that come on the heels of $5.5 billion in proposed cuts that
were announced Tuesday.
"The only state workers who would not face a pay cut
are legislators and court workers, who have their own
budgets."
The Bee's Ortiz and Yamamura report the governor "will ask for a 5 percent across-the-board pay cut for state workers to
save $470 million in next year's general fund budget and to preserve
cash, a spokesman said Thursday.
"
The pay cuts
would affect 235,000 workers under the Republican governor's control.
The state's judicial and legislative branches would be exempt
because
they are autonomous, but McLear said employees who
work for
constitutional officers would receive a pay cut."
And since the governor unveiled his January budget
in December, and held an election in May, there's no reason why he can't have a state of the state address in June , right?
KQED's John Myers reports, "Add another unusual event to an already unusual year: Governor Schwarzenegger said today that he will deliver a speech to a joint session of the Legislature
on the state's $22 billion budget deficit.
"The governor made the announcement in a Q&A with reporters after an
event promoting an electric version of the gas guzzling
Hummer, and
said the speech will be followed by a 'Big 5' meeting with legislative
leaders.
"We will talk not only about [spending] cuts," said Schwarzenegger
about next week's meeting, "but how do we make government run more
efficiently, because I think it will be one dimensional
if you only
talk about cuts."
Cuts you say? We've got your cuts.
Today's coverage boasts lots of stories about specific cut
proposals made by the governor. And a couple of stories
tell of local state park closures that would happen under
the governor's plan.
Among those stories is the San Diego tale from the
Union-Trib's Mike Gardner.
"Cash-starved California may be forced to close some of its
most
treasured state parks, including Anza-Borrego and Torrey Pines in San
Diego County. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget-cutting plan would
take more than $213 million away from parks over the next two fiscal
years, leaving little choice but to shut down 220 of 279 statewide as
early as this fall.
"Iconic parks where visitors gasp at towering redwoods,
gaze into the emerald hues of Lake Tahoe and learn
how life was lived
in the Old West could be off-limits to the public. Several state
beaches along San Diego's world-famous coast are on the list, as are
some mountain campgrounds.
"Parks officials yesterday released what they called
worst-case-scenario closures. The governor has targeted parks
for
budget cuts before with little success.
"Last year, Schwarzenegger proposed temporarily shuttering
48 state parks and beaches. The plan drew stiff resistance
in the
Legislature and elsewhere, and was withdrawn.
"But the state's budget picture has become much worse since
then. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are staring at an
estimated $24.3
billion deficit."
Anyone taking bets?
And you can add changing Proposition 13 to the list of proposed budget reforms coming down
the pike.
The San Francisco Assessor wants to make it easier
for the state to raise property tax revenues for businesses,
revisiting the so-called 'split-roll' proposal that has been around the Capitol for years.
The Bee's Jim Sanders reports, "With California facing fiscal calamity, the assessor
for one of the
state's largest cities has launched a long-term, grass-roots campaign
to increase state revenue by altering Proposition 13 property tax restrictions.
"San Francisco Assessor Philip Y. Ting filed documents this week with the secretary of state's office to create the Close the Proposition 13 Loophole committee, which now can begin soliciting
donations.
"The effort is intended to increase future state revenue,
but not soon enough to ease next fiscal year's projected $24.3 billion shortfall."
And finally, how's this for sneaky? The good news is, you get a free
iPhone! The bad news? The university is giving you that phone so it can keep
track of you at all times.
"
Truants in Japan
often fake attendance by getting friends to answer
roll-call or hand in
signed attendance cards. That's verging on cheating since attendance is
a key requirement for graduation here.
"Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo is giving Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G to 550 students in its School of Social Informatics, which studies the use of Internet and computer technology in society.
"The gadget will work as a tool for studies, but it also comes
with GPS, a satellite navigation system that automatically checks on its whereabouts. The
university plans to use that as a way check attendance."
