The LATimes reports this morning on the meeting of the California Legislatures Budget Conference Committee. The committee has said no to Arnold’s plan to steal funds from local governments, and also reduce dramatically some of the other program cuts he proposed. There are still plenty of final budget decisions that need to be made to close the state’s more than $24 billion funding gap, but the decision not to raid local funds is a welcome relief for local governments including the county.
From the LATimes:
By Shane Goldmacher
11:02 PM PDT, June 15, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — A state budget panel Monday rejected some of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most extreme proposals to close the state’s deficit through cuts to government programs as the leaders of the Assembly and Senate announced their own plans for billions of dollars in additional taxes.
The joint legislative committee nixed Schwarzenegger’s plans to borrow $1.9 billion from local governments, close adult day-care centers and eliminate a health insurance program for low-income children. The panel voted to shave $70 million from the Healthy Families program that serves those children, but that cut, like most others the members agreed on, was significantly smaller than the governor’s.
Read the complete story here.