Among the steps that failed to gain enough support was Governor Brown’s plan to dissolve redevelopment agencies, a key component to his budget solution. That part of the plan failed by one vote. Should the Governor successfully end California’s redevelopment agencies, it could mean as much as $1.7 billion in extra revenues for the state in the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
When the day’s session was complete, the Assembly and Senate had approved 20 pieces of legislation that enacts some of the cuts called for in the Governor’s budget. They didn’t approve the budget, that vote may come as early as today.
In the end, the two chambers approved $7.4 billion in cuts.
From the Los Angeles Times:
State lawmakers Wednesday approved billions of dollars in cuts to welfare, medical programs for the poor and in-home care for the elderly and frail, among other services, moving forward key pieces of Gov.Jerry Brown’s budget reduction package.
They also voted to sharply reduce services for the developmentally disabled and shifted hundreds of millions of dollars away from mental health and early childhood programs to use instead to reduce the deficit.
The cuts would cover only part of the state’s roughly $26-billion shortfall. But legislative leaders pushed ahead on the budget actions for which there was bipartisan support as they and the governor continued to lobby for votes for the more contentious provisions of Brown’s plan. They are still scrambling to secure GOP support for a ballot measure that would ask voters to extend billions of dollars in temporary tax increases.
Read the full article here.