The CBS Evening News (12/13, story 5, 2:10, Tracy, 6.1M) reported that today at the Los Angeles Public Schools headquarters, about "200 students protested the latest budget cuts." However, Governor Jerry Brown urged the cuts, saying "we don't want to dig ourselves into a hole that becomes virtually impossible to climb out of."
According to the New York Times (12/14, A20, Medina, Subscription Publication, 1.23M) California's projected budget, passed in June, relied "on optimistic projections," and on Tuesday the Brown said California was "$2.2 billion short" of the predicted $88.5 billion in state revenue, meaning budget cuts were needed, "primarily to state colleges and universities as well as to healthcare." There would be $248 million less in "public school transportation" funds, and cuts would likely "increase fees" at colleges.
The Los Angeles Times (12/14) reports that Brown's cuts "slashed spending on higher education in California and eliminating funding for free school bus service but avoiding deeper cuts that many had feared. The long-anticipated cuts are due to California's tax revenue falling below the optimistic targets that Brown and legislative Democrats used when they approved the state budget in June. 'This is not the way we'd like to run California, but we have to live within our means,' Brown said at a midday press conference." The Times notes that Brown "tried to emphasize the positive. School funding was poised to be sliced by $1.5 billion," but "a burst of new tax revenue led Brown's Department of Finance to raise its projections for California's cash flow."
No comments:
Post a Comment