Cali Budget Deal Frees Prisoners, Fingerprints the Elderly

The California legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger reached a budget agreement yesterday, with the majority of funds coming from deep spending cuts, especially in education: "the deal contains $15.6 billion in cuts, about $2.1 billion in borrowing, $3.9 billion in new revenues and about $2.7 billion in accounting maneuvers like shifting a payday into the next fiscal year...

The NYT describes this as a "compromise that few who receive government services will celebrate."  The LA Times frames it as a long-term scaling back of our social safety net:

But as outlined by lawmakers and their staffs, the proposal would reshape some aspects of government in California, significantly scaling back many services that have been offered to residents -- particularly the elderly and the poor -- for years.

I don't know what to say, except that I'm depressingly not surprised.  I wrote several months ago about the budget that included tax increases that was rejected by voters, and many Change.org readers - no fans of CA shenanigans - defended voters' decisions.  But I can't imagine they'd endorse this solution.

We get what we ask for, I guess: cuts to the state's health insurance program for kids and TANF, fingerprinting for the elderly receiving in-home services and their caregivers, the early release of prisoners due to $1B in cuts from the prison system (this may be a good thing...Matt?).

The more I read, the worse it gets: the government is basically raiding county funds to keep the state running; there will be drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara; the proposed revenues generated from certain privatization schemes are unsupported; and the on-going lack of tax receipts effectively promises more crisis in the near future.  And the icing on the cake of this mess is the pic the LA Times runs of Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass smiling proudly at one another: look at our short-term fixes with long-term impacts and creative accounting maneuvers and robbing Peter to pay Paul!  Aren't we clever leaders!

Worst is the billions of cuts to public schools, though the state is obliged to pay this money back (which it has not done in the past).  Welcome to even more overcrowded classrooms, a possible strike by state employees, and tuition increases.   And then there's this:

Lawmakers will also be given the option to greenlight a controversial plan that would give some local redevelopment agencies broad new discretion to tear down and rebuild neighborhoods under their jurisdiction for decades to come, regardless of whether those areas are blighted.

So glad we're taking this time of crisis to move away from boom-and-bust economies!  Fortunately, there's going to be a lot more single mothers kicked off welfare and kids who can't afford college who will be looking for work.

(FWIW, I hate writing these kinds of posts where I'm just ticked off and have no alternative suggestions.  But here we are; leave your solutions and protest ideas in comments.)

(Photo of the California seal by Tim Pearce, Los Gatos)