The legislature failed to get a vote to abolish RDA's this evening. Republicans voted against the measure, choosing to keep RDA's. Schools are facing deep cuts. We have the same budget problems as last fiscal year, with this major exception: the federal government subsidized California schools with over $3 billion in stimulus funding. There will be no federal assistance this year. The Republican majority in Congress is concerned about not increasing the federal deficit.
The legislature will meet at 11 am tomorrow to tackle the budget once again. The speaker has called for the session to continue throughout the weekend.
source: Sacbee
Well, we see it again and again. Republicans pick Developers and the Rich over the Students and Poor. Look at the amount spent on Seniors in GT and they are less than 10 percent of the community. Then ask, how many children in GT are at the poverty or below the poverty level and you'll find a population that needs all the support they can get from school and school programs. I think the only way some of the Republicans would vote against the RDA is if the money went to cut the taxes of the people earning 90 Percent of the Income, or the upper 2 percent of the population. You know the rich who don't send their kids to public schools.
Calif lawmakers make headway on budget package
In floor sessions that stretched late into the evening, the state Assembly and Senate approved eight measures authorizing an estimated $7.4 billion in cuts to the CalWORKS welfare-to-work program, services for the developmentally disabled, the state's health insurance program for the poor and other spending areas. About half of the cuts come from shifting money away from local communities to programs normally paid for by the state's general fund.
After hours of behind-the-scenes vote wrangling, the Assembly fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required to approve a divisive bill to eliminate the state's more than 400 redevelopment agencies, saving the state an additional $1.7 billion. That prevented the Senate from taking up the measure.
The Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Thursday to tackle that issue as well as Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to ask voters to approve a five-year extension of sales, income and vehicle taxes set to expire this year.
"These cuts showed a lot of guts," the Democratic governor said late Wednesday, coming out of a meeting with Senate Democrats, though he added that "we've still got a long way to go."
While the bills made it through the Senate with relative ease, several votes in the Assembly came down to razor-thin margins, with almost no support from Republican lawmakers.
Republican Assemblywoman Diane Harkey of Dana Point accused Democrats of making cuts so painful to local governments that "they will beg to have taxes increased."
"This is not the fix we thought it would be," she said.
Even those who voted for the measures appeared to take no pleasure in doing so.
"These cuts go deep, hurting those most in need of services and extracting a pound of flesh in payment for our economic sins from those who have the least to give," said Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, who ultimately voted for the bills.
Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield described the cuts as "awful," but implored his Republican colleagues to get behind them.
"As bad as they are, they pale in comparison to the problems we face if we prolong financial instability," the Van Nuys Democrat said.
Lawmakers acknowledged that the toughest votes were yet to come.
"I'm sure we'll have a very energetic debate," Senate Minority Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, said of Thursday's floor session. "These were tough votes, but it was relatively low-hanging fruit."
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said there was a "strong possibility" the Senate would take up the rest of the budget package Thursday, including the tax extensions.
But Brown has given no indication he has the necessary support from Republicans to reach the two-thirds vote threshold necessary to place the tax question before voters in a June special election.
Two Republicans in each house would have to approve the plan, even if every Democrat votes yes.
The state GOP is scheduled to meet this weekend in Sacramento for its spring convention, putting pressure on Republican lawmakers to stand firm on the budget or risk being ostracized by party leaders and staunch conservatives.
Dutton said he and his fellow GOP lawmakers are primarily concerned about "restoring California's economic future," and they remain unconvinced that the budget package will increase job growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector.
A Field Poll released Wednesday found that a majority of Californians support the governor's approach of a ballot measure to decide the tax question. The poll also found that 58 percent of registered voters said they would vote to extend the tax increases, while 39 percent said they would vote to return them to previous levels.
The poll found overall support among voters for spending cuts, but a reluctance to specify which state programs should be targeted. Voters opposed cutting all but two out of 14 areas of state government spending: courts and prisons.
