Brown’s dead-on-arrival budget, released early, contains a $125 mil judicial branch trigger

On the turning away, from the pained and downtrodden….

Governor Jerry Brown‘s staff accidentally posted this years budget proposal on the web five days early, causing the governor to hastily call a press conference to explain it.
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Contained in that budget are deep cuts to the social safety nets that hundreds of thousands of working families are relying upon in these trying times, further cuts to higher education and a $125 million dollar automatic trigger cut to California’s judicial branch which Brown is estimating will result in closures of California Courts for three days a month. We estimate that it will instead result in thousands of lost jobs while CCMS continues to move forward in paused mode…

About that stable funding source from the state – how’s that working out?

By most accounts, this budget may be dead-on-arrival because the cuts to social safety nets will be driving more families out into the street and democrats aren’t about to let that happen after two years of the same. Republicans in their usual fashion are embracing these cuts to social safety nets while decrying proposed tax increases because revenue is improving.  Uh-huh. Tell that to a government worker that is losing their job to improving revenues or to your grandchildren whom you expect to pay tomorrow for the fiscal insanity that is happening today.

In our mind, this is a scare everyone to death budget designed to forward the case for a tax increase in November. It doesn’t matter that it will likely backfire on the common citizen, who will be looking and asking themselves what has California government done for me lately?

Doubling my tuition over the last couple of years?

Taking away a calworks subsidy that would make work impossible short of bringing ones children to work?

A courthouse that is only open until 2PM every day?

Sky-high fines that most common people cannot afford to pay?

Crumbling schools and roadways across the state?

Building some of the world’s most expensive public buildings to house dwindling numbers of court workers?

Continuing to place trust in a company that can’t deliver a fully functional CCMS product to a single court?

Do you think that you will hear a peep from that republican appointee mini-mimi about the need for a November tax increase in the face of the threat of $125 million dollar budget cut? Of course not because ideology must prevail over common sense.  For all of the above reasons, we feel that both the proposed tax increase and Browns budget are dead upon arrival.  While the common man may agree to an increase in capital gains taxes and permanent tax increases on the wealthy, they will not agree to an increase in the state sales tax, nor will they tolerate any increase without pension reform, the elimination of boards and commissions and the functional merging of programs like OCCM and DGS.

Related articles

• Brown warns of school cuts if taxes rejected (sfgate.com)
• Jerry Brown: More cuts to welfare in new budget (sfgate.com)
• Brown Warns of School Cuts If Taxes Rejected (abcnews.go.com)
• Brown’s Budget Revealed: Big Cuts To Schools If Tax Plan Rejected (huffingtonpost.com)
• More cuts to courts under Brown’s proposed budget. (Courthouse News)