Schwarzenegger Will 'Declare Fiscal Emergency' In Weeks
Schwarzenegger Will 'Declare Fiscal Emergency' In Weeks
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he will declare a "fiscal emergency" in January to give him and the Legislature more power to deal with the state's growing deficit.
Schwarzenegger made the announcement Friday after meeting with lawmakers and interest groups this week to tell them California's budget deficit is worse -- far worse -- than economists predicted just a few weeks ago.
The shortfall is not $10 billion, but more than $14 billion -- a 40 percent jump that would put it in orbit with some of the state's worst fiscal crisis, those who have met with him said.
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A fiscal emergency would trigger a special session and force lawmakers and the governor to begin addressing the shortfall within 45 days.
"What we have to do is fix the budget system. The system itself needs to be fixed, and I think that this is a good year, this coming year, to fix it," Schwarzenegger said in Long Beach, where he was promoting his plan for health care reform.
California is struggling with shrinking state tax revenue from the meltdown of the subprime housing market and the credit crunch on Wall Street.
State spending also has increased by more than 40 percent since Schwarzenegger took office after the 2003 recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis.
Schwarzenegger in August signed a $145.5 billion budget that increased spending 11 percent due largely to the increased cost of bond repayments and special funds. General fund spending for day-to-day operations increased less than 1 percent, from $101.7 to $102.3 billion for the budget year that began July 1.
In August, Schwarzenegger's office projected the state would end its current budget year with a $4.1 billion reserve. Last month, the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst reported that the state would instead end the year in the red, and was on pace to rack up a staggering $10 billion deficit over the next 18 months.
Schwarzenegger and his top aides this week have privately told lawmakers and interest groups that the gap could top $14 billion and warned cities, counties and health and welfare agencies to expect cuts.
Last month, Schwarzenegger ordered agency leaders to draft plans for across-the-board cut as high as 10 percent.
State lawmakers have been criticized in recent weeks for pushing through a raise for themselves, despite the state's fiscal troubles.
http://www.nbc11.com/news/14858065/detail.html
while at the same time ...
Let's see how fast the remaining businesses RUN to other states:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/stat ... ealth.html
Assembly to vote on plan Monday
By Bill Ainsworth
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 15, 2007
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, have reached a tentative agreement on a health care deal that would impose a fee of up to 6.5 percent of payroll on large companies that don't cover their workers.
The plan is aimed at covering as much as 70 percent of the 5.1 million people who are uninsured during any month in California, while injecting the state's ailing health care system with billions of dollars in new funds.
The Assembly plans a vote Monday.
But Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata, D-Oakland, isn't on board and has no plans to call the Senate back next week to approve the legislation.
In addition, the financing part of the proposal – including employer fees, hospital fees and a tobacco tax of up to $2 per pack of cigarettes – would have to win approval from voters in a separate ballot initiative in November.
In 2006, tobacco companies spent more than $60 million to defeat a proposed cigarette tax increase in California.
Perata said Thursday that it would be difficult to persuade voters to approve the plan when the state is facing a possible $14 billion budget deficit.
“I am not interested in going around and saying we just passed a health care bill when I know in my heart it's not going anywhere,â€