Moonbeam Still Confused...But Plunging Ahead

The SacBee is highlighting Gov. Moonbeam Brown's recent realization that

Gov. Jerry Brown said in a video release today that California's budget deficit has mushroomed to $16 billion, nearly twice as high as the $9.2 billion he estimated in January.  Brown blamed a slow recovery from the recession and the federal government's blockage of state spending cuts for the widening gap.

Yeah, right, Governor.  You are off by 74% in just four months!  Anyone who is paying any sort of attention knows he is way over his paygrade as he tries to "fix the economy" with more taxes, higher marginal tax rates for "the rich" and his union-pandering on High Cost Rail.  Very sad what he is doing to this great state, but we get the government we deserve.

Comments

[Alan]

Most people would be fired if they missed their quota by that much that soon. We are in deeper trouble than we realize and the winners will be Nevada, Arizona and Texas.

If you decide to stay here you will either be drinking the mother's milk like a Time magazine cover kid or someone will be biting your sensitive spots.

[jennifer]

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/Revised/StateAgencyBudgets/2000/2665/department.html#addinfo

"The California High-Speed Rail Authority's mission is to plan, design, build, and operate a high-speed train system for California.

Since department programs drive the need for infrastructure investment, each department has a related capital outlay program to support this need. For the specifics on the Authority's Capital Outlay Program see "Infrastructure Overview."

Governor's HSR Budget 2012-13 (Revised)
Totals, All Expenditures for this Dept.
$15,897 Jan '12 Proposed
$6,126,926 May '12 Revised
$6,111,029 Change
38441.40% % Change

Detail by State:
Totals, State Funds:
$15,237 Jan '12 Proposed
$2,837,236 May '12 Revised
$2,821,999 Change
18520.70% %Change

[Joe]

Thanks, Jennifer. I just saw these numbers as well.

While the newspapers have headlines about school funding cuts for K-12, "cuts to hospitals and nursing homes to reduce Medi-Cal costs;...Cal Grants..reducing state workers' pay by 5%, using assets that used to belong to RDAs, siphoning $410M from the mortgage settlement, UC and CSU cuts, CalWorks, In-Home Supportive Services, the court system and its computer upgrade, and state parks" (that's just from today's Mercury Times front page article while their editorial advocates for keeping the parks open)...and yet High-cost rail's budget skyrockets and not a word about it. What's a $100 Billion among friends?

It's really amazing--and yet numerous politicians stay in formation like County Supervisor Memo Morantes who even has a flyer touting his support! Do not vote for that guy!!!!

[Joe]

Sorry, I meant to say County Supervisor candidate Morantes--still do not vote for this guy!

[fred]

SFGate: Cal high-speed rail must hustle to keep funding

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/14/state/n082847D45.DTL

[Joe]

The hole deepens:

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office said Friday that Brown's revenue forecast is "reasonable," though the Analyst's own projection is still $550 million below the governor's through June 2013. On top of that, the LAO warned that Brown's estimate of money available from former redevelopment programs could be overstated by $900 million.
Based on those initial judgments, the Analyst's Office seems to suggest the state deficit is north of $17 billion rather than $15.7 billion, which was Brown's estimate. But the Analyst's Office didn't provide an exact deficit figure and simply says that the budget problem is "likely somewhat larger" than Brown has estimated.

[jennifer]

Amazingly, Californians have fallen for the Governor's 'hold the schools hostage' tactics, yet again. Polling numbers on last night's news-- 59% of respondents will support the tax increases. The story immediately following heralded the arrival of the HSRs newest CEO guru, Jeff Morales of Caltrans, who is expected to smooth out the kinks and butter up the lawmakers. Something tells me, he won't have much buttering to do, if voters actually bail the state out of its hole.