California braces for brutal budget cuts (LA TIMES)

[Nikki Stone1]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget21-2009may21,0,3817104.story

Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers scrambled Wednesday to avert a financial meltdown, and public officials across California braced for annihilating cuts on the day after voters trounced their leaders' rescue plan for the state.

Within two hours of returning from Washington, D.C., the governor huddled behind closed doors with Democratic and Republican legislative leaders to grapple with a projected $21.3-billion budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year and stop state government from running out of money by July....

The hacking of government began quickly, by the hand of a little-known state panel that sets elected state officials' pay. Citing a need for shared sacrifice, the group decided to reduce those salaries by 18% starting next year....There was a sense that the warnings this time, unlike some earlier ones, were real -- that state officials had no options left but to deliver devastating cuts that could force Californians to reconcile the desire for programs they have routinely approved by initiative with an insistence on limiting taxes.

"People are going to have to figure out: Do they want schools, do they want roads, do they want public safety, do they want to take care of the less fortunate?" said John Burton, a former state Senate leader who is now chairman of the California Democratic Party. "At some point, that's going to happen."....

[padia]

1. Good maybe if

they don't pay more than a 100k then those who sincerely want to do this will run. After all Villines did say that he thinks the pay raises are good because it will entice the talent from the private sector to run, yeah like we need anymore examples or demonstrations of their skill set.

[livetoride]

2. Stealing from the poor to feed the rich

is a crappy way to run a state. He wants to cut Cal-Grants and the Healthy Family (food) program. In a time of crises This is a real nod to his conservative ideals.

[Juneboarder]

3. Cutting Cal-Grants...

well there goes my sister's college education fund. Wonder how she's going to pay for her junior/senior year. This is not good.

[Sequoia]

4. And now he wants to close the state parks again.

I was fuming over the news this morning about his budget cuts and a sheep co-worker tells me I shouldn't be upset. I shouldn't be upset that he ran our state into the ground and blames everyone but himself for all this. So, I told the sheep that, yes, that's what's the good German's said when the Nazi's were rounding up the Jews. (Not that there's any comparison mind you.) Still, when people could care less about all these cuts and just follow headlong to the cliff. And cutting out Healthy Familes? Think of the job loss there not to mention the children affected.

[Xolodno]

5. The Ballots...

should have also contained a list of programs you were willing to live without if you voted down the tax increase. Just maybe it would suddenly seem real.