Some Facts Worth Remembering About California’s Budget

This is the fourth straight year California’s books have carried a deficit.

The Golden State ended its fiscal year June 30, 2012 $3.6 billion in the hole, the Legislative Analyst said in an updated report on the state’s budget issued after Gov. Jerry Brown completed action on the 776 bills lawmakers sent him after they adjourned for the year on August 31.

Prominently noted in the analyst’s report is that the budget for the fiscal year running from July 1 to June 30, 2013 is balanced on the assumption voters will approve Proposition 30 on the November ballot and increase state income and sales tax payments by $8.5 billion during 2012 and 2013.

The sales tax would rise by one-quarter cent from 2013 through the end of 2016 under Brown’s plan.

Californians would pay 10.3 percent in stead of the current maximum of 9.3 percent on income between $250,000 and $300,000 ; 11.3 percent on income between $300,000 and $500,000 and 12.3 percent on income above $500,000 if Porpositon 30 were approved.

A September 20 Field Poll found the Democratic’ governor’s proposal supported by 51 percent of likely voters but  a rising number of undecided voters.

The budget Brown signed on June 27 automatically cuts state support for public schools by $5.4 billion and public universities by $500 million if Proposition 30 fails.

Republican lawmakers complained the spending blueprint did not cut deeply enough.

The analyst notes that $4.6 billion – less than 30 percent – of the estimated $15.7 billion gap between revenue and spending commitments was closed through “expenditure actions.”

Some $9 billion in new revenues were added — $8.5 billion under the belief voters will pass Proposition 30.

More than $5 billion in “loans, transfers and funding shifts” were also OK’d by Brown and the Democratic majority Legislature, nearly $1.5 billion from using cash from eliminated redevelopment agencies to reduce the state’s contribution to public schools. 

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