Well, we knew this was coming: Jerry Brown slashed somewhere between $7 billion and $10.8 billion* worth of funds from the state budget today, the Chronicle reports from Sacramento. That leaves another $12 billion or so the state will need to make up from additional cuts if Brown's $14 billion tax plan isn't passed by voters in June. Of course, before any taxes are put before the people, Brown will need to pick up some more GOP support in both the Assembly and the Senate to get it on the ballot.
Despite some harsh words for Republican legislators, who he accused of blocking Californians' right to have a say in the state's future, he seems confident that he can find enough support among the GOP to put the additional taxes on the June ballot. Before we all start lamenting tax increases, the Governor pointed out the alternative: another $5 billion cut to K-12 education and pulling billions more from public universities. As the man himself put it:
"We have to find more revenue or more and more drastic cuts, and certainly the next round of cuts will be much more painful and much more disruptive than the cuts to date. I want the people of California to understand we are in a serious bind here and we are going to get more revenues or get some drastic cutbacks."
*The roughly 3 billion dollar difference depends on whether you ask the Dems or the GOP - the Right is only counting permanent cuts, while the Democrats are including dollars shifted to the state's general fund.
