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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJerry Brown: California's deficit is gone
For the first time in five years, California is not facing a deficit as Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers work to put together a spending plan for the next fiscal year.
Brown released his budget Thursday morning for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, proposing a $97.7 billion plan that is 5 percent higher than the current year's spending.
...
Budget deficits projected in the January spending proposal the past few years include:
-- Jan. 2008, $14.5 billion
-- Jan. 2009, $41.6 billion
-- Jan. 2010, $18.9 billion
-- Jan. 2011, $25.4 billion
-- Jan. 2012, $9.2 billion
-- Jan. 2013, none
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jerry-Brown-California-s-deficit-is-gone-4183371.php#ixzz2HbvkcEKZ
Republicans and baggers: next time you want to whine and moan about fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets, I'd suggest you take notes from our good governor, Jerry Brown. You can still call him Moonbeam if you want, but this moonbeam just erased our deficit. Suck it.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)now let's get to work on restoring some of the vital services, especially education and healthcare, that were gutted under Ahh-nuld and gutted further in Brown's first two years.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)See what happens? The US budget deficit growth is also projected to slow under Obama.
It's a miracle? Well....no, not really.
It's called math and the GOP fails at it.
Tempest
(14,591 posts)And during the debt ceiling talks.
Low information, low effort conservative thinkers.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)...Republicans should NEVER be allowed to handle budgets.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Believe me the State funded education has been cut to the bone in the last few years. Now Gov. Brown is going to add about 5% more to the funds. Whew! It's been really painful.
kentuck
(111,095 posts)But he did it! Now maybe the state can begin its recovery. Because as California goes, so goes the nation. His state should be a model for the whole country.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)I have a relative who just got a layoff notice from the community college where she works in Ft. Bragg. It's just a little speck compared to Berkeley, but they've been devastated too. The most striking part about this story to me is that, had Prop 30 not passed, we'd be seeing headlines about the largest deficit in state history, and even more cuts coming to education, social services, etc.
Imagine that: this is the very thing Republicans scream bloody murder about, over and over and over. There's NOTHING on the planet more important to Republicans than low taxes. As a result, we in California have had year after year of record budget shortfalls, with family-ruining layoffs, budget sleight-of-hand to make the numbers work out each year, and fewer and fewer services offered by the state. Now we've raised the sales tax by one quarter of one percent, and we raised income taxes on rich people. Poof, bang, bam, and the deficit is gone. No doubt, we still need to climb out of the hole we're in, but for the first time in recent memory, we have an easily balanced budget. What did it cost? Well, my Starbucks coffee costs about a penny more than it used to. And if I ever start grossing a quarter million dollars per year, I'll have to pay a little more in income taxes. That's it. Our budgetary problems have been mostly resolved with a tax hike that just isn't going to hurt anyone, especially the whiny rightwingers who complain about it the most.
The Republicans' worst nightmare has come true--a tax increase was enacted, the tax increase fixed almost all of our fiscal problems, and no one is worse off for it.
greytdemocrat
(3,299 posts)I'll believe it when I see the numbers, not a forecast.
REP
(21,691 posts)I love my adopted state!
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)My state: Arkansas
Governor Beebe: Democrat
Budget: Balanced
Too bad we lost our Democratic Rep but still have Democratic Senator, Mark Pryor
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)Raised taxes for starters..
Sure it sucks to pay higher takes, but you cannot have a new car for the price of a used clunker..