LA County supes hold off on releasing "worst ever" budget figures, for fear of scaring public

[villager]

Figures portend a massive, charred-landscape scale cutback in family, health, and other services:

<snip>

Los Angeles County officials said Monday they expect to face the worst budget in modern county history next year because of another round of drastic cuts expected from the state.

Most of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts involve health and social services. Unless the federal government bails out the state, hundreds of thousands of people face reductions or even the loss of welfare checks, in-home care, health and mental health services, county officials said.

<snip>

County officials had prepared a report detailing the state budget's expected effect on the county but held off on releasing it Monday out of fears of scaring the public. They planned to add language clarifying that the budget was only a proposal and could change through the budget negotiation process.

"We have an estimate of what (the impact) of the proposed budget will be, but because we know that it will change through the legislative process we don't want to (release it yet)," Fujioka said.

"What it would do is cause too much alarm in the community."

Hoping to close a $19.9 billion budget gap over the next 18 months, the governor on Friday proposed $8.5 billion in cuts in health and social services and $4.5 billion in alternative funding and fund shifts.

If the federal government doesn't provide the state with an additional $6.9 billion requested by Schwarzenegger, the governor's budget calls for eliminating In-Home Supportive Services, CalWORKS welfare and Healthy Families programs, which provides services to millions of Californians.

California State Association of Counties Executive Director Paul McIntosh said the budget proposal would "blow a huge hole in an already frayed safety net."

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http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_14168928?source=rss

[Yuugal]

1. K&R

I hope whatever they do they don't punish those poor rich people with higher taxes. It is always so sad to see our betters suffer even a little bit.......

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Nah. What we need is MORE tax cuts for the rich." - Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R)

"We need MORE Republicon strategery: more, more, more tax cuts for the rich."

- Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R - Voice of the Common Republicon)

[vadawg]

3. problem is you need to strike a balance, to much tax and people will simply leave

i know i would upsticks if the tax burden became overwhelming. Not sure how they are going to solve this problem there is only so much you can take from peter to give to paul before peter flies away...