Legislature passes budget plan

June 15th, 2011, 4:04 pm
by BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento Correspondent

The Legislature has taken up, and passed, all of the pieces of the simple majority vote budget plan, except for a plan to extend a tax on Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans. Most Orange County lawmakers opposed all of the bills.

This package differed significantly from Gov. Jerry Brown‘s plan to solve the state’s remaining $9.6 billion budget deficit with a mix of cuts and revenue increases from an extension of temporary taxes. This plan, instead, relies on deferring payments to schools, cuts and accounting maneuvers, among other things.

Included in the budget was a maneuver that will result in an effective quarter-cent sales tax increase — but it did not require a two-thirds majority vote. Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Stanislaus (and at right), called it an “end run on California taxpayers.â€