Calif. deficit falls under $10 billion, Brown says

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(05-17) 04:00 PDT Sacramento --

California's deficit has dropped to under $10 billion because of increasing tax revenues, and Gov. Jerry Brown wants to raise education spending by $3 billion under his major revision of the budget plan released at the Capitol on Monday.

Brown said that although California's economy is looking better, the new revenue collected by the state does not eliminate the need for more taxes. He plans to seek approval from the Legislature to impose the additional taxes and then allow voters to rescind or extend them, a strategy the governor floated during meetings in Riverside last month.

The plan instantly becomes the new framework for lawmakers and the governor to craft a spending plan for the next 14 months and, if approved, would begin to chip away at what Brown called the "wall of debt" that California has built in passing previous budgets that relied on borrowing or unrealistic assumptions.

"Our finances were plunged into turmoil by the Great Recession and a decade of short-term fixes and fiscal gimmicks. This is not the time to delay or evade. This is the time to put our finances in order, and that's precisely what this May revision intends to do," Brown said at a Capitol press conference unveiling the new plan.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/17/MNQ51JGP5U.DTL&ao=all

[Taverner]

1. Thank you. This is what LIBERAL solutions acheive

Brown is no bluedoggie

He is as far to the left as any of us true Democrats

I'm sure the bluedoggies will spread lies about him hurting education, but education was cut the least. Prisons, however, took some major cuts.

Howl, bluedoggies, howl away

But you know in your heart of hearts we're right and you're wrong

[valerief]

2. +1