Yay Deal.

You may have heard this by now, but we have a deal. The #cabudget hashtag should get you your fix. The topline stats:

$15 billion in cuts, no new taxes, $11 billion in gimmicks and borrowing
$4-5 billion in local government raids
only an $800 million reserve (initially the talks were for a $4 billion one)
$6 billion in reductions to public schools, but an $11 billion dollar payment somewhere down the road though not in writing
yes, there's new offshore drilling in this deal, going around the Lands Commission, and without an oil severance tax for the producers
$1 billion assumed for the sale of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, which is not only unlikely but would really crush small businesses if sold
no suspension of Prop. 98
basically a reinvention of state government, more austere, and precisely when folks need the opposite.

Story here.

...three furlough days a month for some state employees still in place for the rest of the year
$500 million in cuts to Cal Works
smiles all around from Dem leg. leaders as they cheer that "we did not eliminate the safety net for California." Poking a big hole in it, apparently, qualifies as A-OK.

...we're also cutting $1.2 billion to corrections without releasing any prisoners, as per the actual politics as usual. The only way you can do that is by cutting every treatment or rehabilitation program in the prisons, or eliminating overtime for corrections officers. In other words, we're turning prisons into Public Storage units.

...Just to state the obvious, only the Republican leaders have agreed to this. We still aren't through the process where individual Yacht Party members have to be bribed for their votes.

Of course, we aren't through the process where progressives just say "no we're not voting for that, try again," but I've never seen that process come into play.

...per John Myers, these are the main cuts:

$6 bil K-14
$3B higher ed
$1.3B worker furloughs
$1.2 B corrections
$1.3 B Medi-Cal
$528 M calworks
$211 IHSS

...yes, the Dems gave in on the Governor's anti-fraud measures not associated with the budget, making me wonder what that whole hissy fit from Bass where she refused to negotiate was all about. Background checks and fingerprints for IHSS and welfare recipients are in, with the wholesale goal of kicking eligible people off of the rolls. IHSS salaries remain at $12.10/hr. The Integrated Waste Management Board is el foldo. Some state parks will close. If you're wondering what Democrats got out of this deal, you're not alone.