California - The Cuts Begin

Governor Jerry Brown today signed thirteen budget bills that, in total, would reduce the state's budget deficit by over $11 billion.

What was cut?

Come July, welfare grants will be reduced by 8%, and parents will be kicked off the rolls after four years instead of the current five. Assistance for the elderly and disabled, in their homes and at senior centers, will also be reduced. State-subsidized child care for 11- and 12-year-olds will be eliminated. Brown sought to use the "painful" cuts he signed to make his case that Republicans should support the plan to ask voters to pay more taxes to bridge the remaining shortfall. "It's going to be much, much worse if we cannot get the vote of the people and the tax extensions," Brown said.

Already, roughly $2 billion will be shifted away from voter-approved mental health and early childhood programs to reduce the deficit. Community college fees will rise from $26 to $36 per unit next fall. And funding for state university systems will be slashed by $1 billion.

But California Republicans aren't going to help Brown in any way. They'll sit around Sacramento with their thumbs up their asses until it's too late to call a special election for June to let the voters decide on extensions of existing temporary tax increases. They really wish they could be in Wisconsin, or Florida, or Ohio, or Michigan, where Republicans have run amok with budget-slashing.

However, the voters in those states (at least Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan) have started to turn on the Republicans, generally giving them failing marks in recent polls. California voters, who didn't like the Republicans much in the 2010 elections (the Republican wave came to a crashing halt on our shores) will likely like them even less in 2010, just in time for them to vote in newly-redistricted districts. Compared to Brown's willingness to do what it takes to help the state, they look like complete losers at this point.