Analyst: Governor Schwarzenegger's budget plan has large gaps | Sac Bee

[Ediacara]

Analyst: Governor's budget plan has large gaps

By Alexa H. Bluth -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 5:00 p.m. PST Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Even if enacted precisely as prescribed, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan would leave the state with large gaps between income and spending for the foreseeable future, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said Wednesday.

Although the governor's 2004-05 budget plan offers a "good start," it lacks sufficient permanent fixes and will result in a $7 billion budget hole in the 2005-06 fiscal year and "large operating shortfalls" for the next half-decade, she said.

"The governor's budget, I think to its credit, provides a lot of ongoing solutions," said Hill, the Legislature's nonpartisan budget adviser. "But there are also a number of one-time solutions."

The $99 billion plan also is "modestly out of balance" for the current and coming budget years, even if the Republican governor's $15 billion bond proposal is approved by voters on March 2, Hill said.

More at the Sacramento Bee

[burrowowl]

1. Ahnold's math

is from the Bu$hie Book of Fuzzy-wuzzy was a math-eating bear?

[Semi_subversive]

2. Thank goodness I work for

a department that doesn't rely on general fund. My boss, John Garamendi, will be occupying the Guv's office come 2007.