GOP seeks deep cuts
Sacramento Bee
Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008
By Jim Sanders
Republicans finally threw a no-new-taxes proposal on the table Monday that calls for easing the state's massive budget shortfall by cutting deeply into schools and social service programs.
The plan broke new ground by making public the GOP's vision for cutting $22 billion from a projected $40 billion shortfall over 18 months, but neither Democrats nor Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger embraced it.
"This isn't a negotiated compromise, this is a drill," said Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's spokesman.
"Until Republicans and Democrats start negotiating with one another on solutions the governor can support, the problem will continue to get worse every day," McLear said.
California expects to be unable to pay its bills by February or March, and fiscal officials will consider pulling the plug on $5 billion in public works projects Wednesday.
Republican Senate leader Dave Cogdill and GOP Assembly leader Mike Villines hailed their plan Monday as sticking up for taxpayers by forcing the state to live within its means.
"Raising taxes would not help the economic situation, but would only cause it more harm," Cogdill said.
Legislative committees will hold hearings on the GOP plan this week.
But criticism from leaders of the Democrat-dominated Legislature made it clear Monday that the proposal is basically dead on arrival.
"Republicans obviously don't think the time for ideology and posturing is over," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said that "at first glance it appears this proposal is not the serious response this crisis requires."
A controversial program that allows longtime, undocumented immigrants to receive in-state college tuition is among those targeted by the GOP for elimination.
Sen. Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the Latino Legislative Caucus, said the state needs "more funds, not necessarily more cuts."
Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, a Santa Rosa Democrat who chairs the Assembly Budget Committee, said the GOP's $10.6 billion cut to schools and community colleges could wreak long-term havoc on the economy as well.
"We're at a time where we need economic stimulus – and the bedrock of a good, solid work force is schools," Evans said.
School leaders and officials of other groups targeted for cuts loudly ripped the GOP's plan.
"This would shortchange an entire generation of students," said Robin Swanson, representing a coalition of teachers, school boards and other education groups.
Courtney Pugh, executive director of the Service Employees International Union's state council, called it a "reckless plan that will hurt our economy and jeopardize our future."
The GOP plan would cut more than $10 billion from schools and community colleges, and more than $3 billion from Medi-Cal, health services, and programs for the poor, aged, blind or disabled.
Many of the Republicans' cuts had originated in plans by Schwarzenegger or Democrats – for example, a one-day-per-month furlough of state workers and elimination of two paid state holidays had been proposed by Schwarzenegger.
One new wrinkle proposed by the GOP, however, is a 5 percent reduction in the Legislature's own budget – including a cut in lawmakers' own salaries, although it could not be forced upon officeholders because an independent commission sets their pay.
Though the GOP plan would not raise taxes, it would increase state revenues $6 billion by raiding voter-approved preschool and mental health funds.
Specifically, the GOP would ask voters to redirect $3.9 billion in mental health funds from Proposition 63, approved in 2004, and $2.1 billion in preschool funds from Proposition 10, passed in 1998.
Rusty Selix, co-author of Proposition 63, said raiding mental health funds would slap voters who opted to end neglect to vulnerable citizens who were "dumped on the street when state hospitals were emptied."
Republicans also are calling for a stiff state spending cap to be placed before voters, and for the state to adopt a two-year budgeting cycle, trim waste and alter labor and environmental rules to bolster business.