Budget Emergency
Will an Obama Tide in CA Lift Local Legislators?
As anyone who followed the budget battle knows, California's legislature is gridlocked. Without a 2/3 majority, legislators who are pushing for real solutions to our chronic budget shortfall keep failing. This election cycle promises some potential changes in several competitive seats, which could get us closer to breaking the gridlock.
Legislators To Be Called Back on Budget
Word from the Governor's office on October 21, just two weeks before the election, is that California's budget situation is deteriorating so much that a special session will be called. Initial reports pegged the projected shortfall in this year's gimmicky budget at $3 billion, but others report additional fiscal icebergs that could bring the total to $5 billion. Read Capitol Notes .
Budget Falling Apart, Less Than a Month After Passage
It's been less than a month since the Legislature and the Governor agreed to a budget of gimmicks, borrowing, cuts, and damaging future constraints -- and it's already falling apart. The revenue projections aren't holding; the Governor is looking for a bailout loan from the federal government, and a federal judge says California may need to fork over $3.5 billion more for prison healthcare reform. All signs point to a swift return to the same ugly impasse our leaders couldn't break through earlier this year. Read more in the Los Angeles Times or the Sacramento Bee.
Schwarzenegger signs record-late state budget
On September 23, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed record-late state budget, officially ending the state's longest-ever budget delay at 85 days and at the same time took an additional $500 million in line-item cuts away from vital services and help for the elderly, people with disabilities, and low-income families, making an already bad budget that much worse.
"Not once did he propose that oil companies or his wealthy friends pay their fair share," noted Courtni Pugh, SEIU California State Council Executive Director. Read SEIU's full statement and the California Budget Project's summary of the final budget .
Officials say a crisis of equal magnitude looms next year because of the weakened economy, uncertainties about the use of future lottery revenue and political gridlock among state legislators.
For more information, click here.
Thank you for telling your legislators where you stand!
SEIU members called their legislators and told them to
Hold the line on cuts and revenue;
Block a spending cap that forces ongoing cuts into the future.
For more information, please read this document.
Republicans Offer Budget With No New Ideas, No Compromise, & Sketchy Borrowing
After waiting two and a half months past the due date, Republican legislators finally offered a budget that offers no real new revenue, borrowing that might not come through, and deeper cuts to education, healthcare, and other vital services. Read SEIU's response.
SEIU Opposes Republican Cuts-and-Borrowing Budget, Rejects False "Solutions"
SEIU California State Council supports real solutions to our budget problem. The Republican budget proposal introduced on August 30 is NOT a real solution. California has an ongoing structural budget deficit. The only way to fix that is to support real, ongoing revenue and reject false solutions that will force us to cut vital services now and in perpetuity.
For more information, read this flyer:
Legislative Budget Alert on Republican Budget, 09/03/2008
This page is paid for by SEIU COPE, www.seiucope.org, with voluntary contributions from SEIU members and their families and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.