Brown unveils ‘good news’ budget
By Josh Richman, Jessica Calefati and Tracy Seipel, San Jose Mercury News
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown said today that his revised budget proposal is “good news for California,” paying down $11 billion in debt while for the first time setting the state “on a plan to fully fund our teachers’ pension system.”
But saving money for harder times remains a priority, he said. Brown stood flanked by charts, one of which showed that “balanced budgets have quickly been followed by huge deficits” and the other depicting how unpredictable capital-gains tax revenue — one of the state’s most important and most volatile funding sources — can be from year to year.
“Most of that is paid by the most fortunate among us,” Brown said. “That variability has to be captured in the rainy-day fund.”
And costs of new Medi-Cal enrollment under the nation’s new health care law increased by $1 billion just from January to May, Brown noted. That, he said, is another argument for having deep reserves.
Governor Jerry Brown has really cleaned up the mess that “The Terminator” left us: Paying down our debt, rainy day fund, pension plan solvency, infrastructure improvements. How do you like them apples neigh sayers?
have to agree moonbeam is doing a great job, though if it was up to alot of members in his own party we would be spending more than we take in. The mess the terminator left was also inherited by many many prior governors, though he did not help it by any means.