California Awaits Jerry Brown's Budget Solutions
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Senator Darrell Steinberg said Thursday everything is on the table when asked about potential budget fixes, but one policy expert has a different take on what are likely solutions, and what probably won't be cut.
Governor-Elect Jerry Brown says that what we're looking at today is much worse than we've ever seen before: a tired phase in Sacramento.
"'The worst budget', you could type that out and put it in a bubble over every governor's head over the last decade," says A.G. Block, Associate Director of the UC Center in Sacramento.
California is now in a projected $28 billion hole, and Block says any notion that cleaning up government waste and fraud will solve the problem is flat out wrong. California's government will likely stay the same size.
"The dirty little secret is that California has, as states go, a fairly efficient state government," says Block.
Solutions could range from more cuts in education to offshore oil drilling to new sales taxes on purchases over the internet.
But, Brown says he doesn't want to argue about solutions yet.
"But the reality is the arguments have become never-ending at the state capitol, where the words 'budget' and 'crisis' now go hand-in-hand," says Block.
Brown says recent budget solutions have been based on gimmicks, an accusation Governor Schwarzenegger spokesperson blames on legislators.
Jerry Brown hasn't revealed his solutions yet, but his first proposed budget is due in early January.
