After three months, the California Legislature has finally passed a budget. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria was the One Vote that the state congress needed to pass the budget. Maldonado (the State Senate's answer to John McCain perhaps?) agreed to the budget after Democrats amended the election rules to let California voters vote on open primaries. This is probably a major coup for the state Republican party. Most other Republicans, however, held firm against a budget that included tax increases.
The best news for California is that the 12 cent increase in gasoline tax was removed from the final budget - that revenue instead coming from federal bailout money. In addition, the proposed $18 billion dollar tax hike shrank to $12.5 billion - most of it in income and sales tax increases.
The rest of the budget shortfall will come from cuts in education, health care, and welfare spending.
The real question for teachers is whether school districts will cope with budget cuts by streamlining operations and cutting wasteful spending or by firing teachers. I'm going to guess the latter.
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I am SO angry over this budget deal. I know I was living in another state at the time, but wasn't Gray Davis RECALLED for tripling the car tax? And didn't Arnold "the Taxinator" Schwarzeneggar run on the platform of repealing the car tax and cutting wasteful spending?
This just makes me sick.
Recall them all.
I would normally agree with you. But, you don't fix a $41 billion dollar gap without making some sacrifices. In the end, Democrats made more sacrifices than Republicans, and for that I am happy. And, if we get to go back to open primaries, I am glad about that too - removes some of the problem with the currently gerrymandered districts.
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