California is facing a much deeper budget deficit than expected due to weak tax revenues and slow progress in cutting budgets, Governor Jerry Brown said on Saturday.
Brown said the shortfall for the fiscal year ending on June 30 now stood at $16 billion, up from a previous estimate of $9.2 billion made in January.
While it might not seem to be much of a budget-cutting start, it would help if the tax rate structure for our counties were to be changed (lowered) in order to attract and keep new businesses. This means cuts in funding community college education for those seeking to improve themselves for job placement, and for all too many would-be college students, that’s not acceptable…….so that’s out. A non-starter. What IS acceptable to most of us is the elimination of retirement benefits for our state legislators; most of whom are business people and lawyers who already have more than one source of income, and who could live quite well without that state paycheck anyway.
I love how they always frame this in a manner that holds the public hostage: either fund all these special interest entitlements or we cut essential public services.
What I find particularly disgusting is the FACT that the cuts being made in our community college funding mean that many needy students, and this includes some who are now in college and learning job skills designed to enable them to seek and find gainful employment in fields such as automotive service and repair and radiology services, cannot enroll in school for the Fall semester because the classes are already “full,” forcing them wait until the Spring 2013 semester. There is no guarantee that there will be enough class openings even then!