Julie Small
May 29, 2009
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The Schwarzenegger Administration proposed close to $3 billion in cuts to state spending today. That plus another $21 billion in cost-saving plans would plug the state's deficit and build a small cash reserve. KPCC's Julie Small reports it won't be pretty.
Julie Small: On a conference call with reporters, the state's Finance Director Mike Genest said there are just no good choices left.
Mike Genest: This is... I don't know how else to say it. This is not a surgical operation. We just went in and cut what we could cut. That's what this budget is.
Small: The governor's proposing a 5 percent pay cut to all state workers – on top of plans to enact more work furloughs. He also seeks to eliminate state-funded adult day health care and caregiver resource centers – that's in addition to a plan to end the state's Healthy Families program's medical insurance for children of low income families.
And he'd cut home care service help for all but the most severely disabled – that's on top of plans to slash the wages of those workers and reduce Medi-Cal coverage. The governor also suggested a way to shave another $700 million off education – for a total of $6 billion in cuts to kindergarten through 12th grade next fiscal year. Genest said all this may sound bad, but it's better than the alternative.
Genest: The alternative is essentially we stop paying everything. So you have no Medi-Cal at all – nothing. You have no state employees receiving a paycheck at all. That's pretty extreme reaction as well.
Small: Finance director Genest acknowledged the magnitude of the cuts – but he said the state has to find ways to cut spending or it would be unable to pay its bills starting in July. Genest said the plan would still preserve the social safety net for the state's most disadvantaged residents, keep schools open and California afloat.
