Saturday, May 15, 2010

SCHWARZENEGGER'S REVISED STATE BUDGET @ A GLANCE

Associated Press Writer Juliet Williams compiled this report.| from the San Francisco Chronicle

Friday, May 14, 2010 17:15 PDT , CA (AP) --Here are details of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's revised budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

CLOSE THE $19.1 BILLION DEFICIT THROUGH:

  • $12.4 in spending cuts.

  • $3.4 billion in federal money.

  • $3.3 billion in other measures, primarily through borrowing from other state funds. The others include: $450 million from the sale of 24 state office buildings, despite the governor's promise that he would not go through with the sale if it doesn't work out in the taxpayers' favor (multiple reports have said the sale appears to be a bad deal for taxpayers in the long run); $76 million from a 4.8 percent property insurance surcharge to pay for firefighting and other emergency services.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

About $3.7 billion in reductions, including:

  • $1.1 billion through the elimination of CalWORKS, the state's primary welfare program, which serves 1.4 million people, two-thirds of them children.

  • $750 million in unspecified cuts to the state's in-home supportive services program for the disabled, achieved through reductions in wages and services.

  • Cuts $532 million from Medi-Cal, the state's medical program for the poor, by reducing eligibility, limiting doctor's visits to 10 per year, reducing funding for hearing aids and other medical equipment, and increasing copays.

  • Cuts $15 million from Healthy Families, which provides health care to nearly 700,000 children from low-income families, shifting more of the costs to recipients, including raising the co-payment for emergency room visits from $15 to $50.

PRISONS

$1.2 billion in cuts:

  • $811 million reduction in prison health care expenses by making the system more efficient and reducing funding.

  • About $360 million in savings by shifting nonviolent offenders out of state prisons and into county jails and by reducing the juvenile prison population and closing the facilities that house them.

EDUCATION

  • Proposes to hold spending at $48 billion for K-12 schools, community colleges and the four-year university systems, but includes a $1.4 billion reduction in the Proposition 98 guarantee by eliminating subsidized child care services for 142,000 children. Federal money would remain available for about 78,000 children who are deemed the neediest.

  • Restores $45.5 million for CalGrants that the governor had proposed suspending.

  • Ends his proposal to cut $111.8 million for UC and CSU enrollment growth and reduce CalGrants by $79 million by freezing income eligibility and award levels. The budget says those cuts will "no longer be considered as budget solution options under any circumstances."

STATE EMPLOYEES

Three-day-a-month furloughs would end on June 30 under the governor's proposal. All state employees instead would be subject to a once-a-month unpaid personal day, regardless of whether their programs are funded from general or special funds.

The governor's proposal also maintains other measures he proposed in January, including:

  • Payroll reductions of 5 percent across all state departments, except for constitutional offices, which already achieved 5 percent reductions. The administration says much of the payroll reduction can be achieved by departments not filling current vacancies.

  • A 5 percent pay cut for all state workers and a 5 percent increase in their pension contributions. The administration says this will save $1.6 billion.

STATE PARKS

Restores $140 million from the state's general fund for state parks. The governor earlier had proposed funding the parks with revenue from expanded oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast. Schwarzenegger backed off that plan after the massive explosion and oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

CATCHING SPEEDERS

  • Would upgrade existing red light cameras at city and county intersections to fine speeders up to $325 per violation. The administration says the tickets generated by the technology would raise about $338 million a year for government operations, a portion of which would be used to improve courthouse security. About 15 percent of each fine would go to local governments, with the rest of the money — estimated by the administration at $206 million — going to the state.

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