Budget Cuts To Pass Today

This morning, in a matter of minutes, the State Senate and State Assembly will ratify the emergency cuts which will "ensure the state will have enough cash to get through the fiscal year."

While the cuts are not nearly as severe as what was requested by the Governor, and of course this only impacts the current fiscal year and not the projected $14.5 billion dollar deficit, it offers something of a template, one would assume, for how the future budget problems will be approached. There's a very good summary of what will be affected by the California Budget Project here (PDF). Some of it is creative accounting, a small sliver of it closes tax loopholes like Dick Ackerman's yacht loophole (and even Republicans voted for that), but a good deal of it will manifest themselves in a reduction of needed services. I guess the best you can say is "it could have been worse," and at least one tiny loophole (worth about $5 million this year and $21 million in 2008-09) was closed.

I think I'm being a little charitable.

Frank Russo, as usual, has more.

Republicans acknowledged in today’s hearings that these were painful cuts being made. Both Republicans and Democrats spoke with passion about many of these cuts—sometimes expressing hopes that when next year budget is adopted that some of the cuts can be reversed. The need for speed was acknowledged by all, as California is in danger of running out of funds to pay ongoing expenses.

It was a "back-against-the-wall" solution, and it shows. We now have several months until the deadline for the next budget. That needs to be addressed in a manner where cuts-only solutions are not forced by circumstance.