Down to the wire on the California budget

Thursday March 10 is the deadline for the California state legislature to vote to put a tax extension on the June ballot, which Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed as part of his package to close the projected state's approximately $25 billion deficit for fiscal year 2011-12 starting July 1. He proposes $10 billion in cuts, $10 billion in tax extensions and $5 billion in one-time fund shifts to cover one-time expenses.

As Kevin Yamamura explains in this article, Brown's Countdown, Day 51: As deadline looms, hurdles remain Sacramento Bee 03/01/2011, March 10 isn't a hard-and-fast drop-dead date for this action. That's a goalpost based on the time it takes for the Governor to call a special election and then go through the process of actually holding the election.

The Bee has been doing a daily article in a countdown which Brown established for himself of getting a budget plan in place within the first 60 days of his term. March 10 will be day 60. The Democrats are ready for a floor vote on Wednesday, March 9, that is expected to pass Brown's plan, even the highly controversial closing down of local redevelopment agencies.

In the day 55 article, How the state budget has changed 03/05/2011, the Bee's Jack Chang explains the actual state of alleged runaway government spending (if you believe the Republicans' endless chant to that effect):

The general fund portion of the state budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown spends $5.05 per $100 of personal income earned statewide. That's the lowest amount since the 1972-73 budget year, when Ronald Reagan was governor and state spending per $100 of personal income was $5.01.

This is a dramatic and heartening contrast to the national scene, where the Democrats are falling all over them to compromise with Republicans no matter how intransigent the Republicans are. And the Democratic leadership, especially the White House right now, refuses to draw sharp contrasts with the Republicans' obstructionist wrecker tactics.

Tags: california politics, democratic party, jerry brown