As a County Supervisor I realize what severe financial problems our state is facing. Our elected leaders at the state and local level will be forced to make some decisions that will be tough. That is why we get paid the big bucks.
When I worked in the Capitol years ago we all used to be eager to find out what was in the budget proposal put out by the Governor in January and the May Revise. Not any more. When I heard about the May Revise proposals I just shrugged my shoulders, considered it interesting, and then dismissed the release as one interesting fact among thousands of others.
These documents used to be the foundation for discussing our state financial plan for the next year. That is really not the case now. They have become the opening bid in the budget political poker game as opposed to the base for fiscal policy.
In the LA Times today Jack Dolan has an excellent piece on what the elimination of CalWorks really means. It means a reduction of funding at the state level and the inability to pull down federal money into our economy but it also does not eliminate the mandate on counties to provide the service.
It is proposals like this that have made the release of the budget and the May Revise as meaningless events that are little more than a foot note.
At one time Counties probably used the release of the Governor’s budget and the May Revise to make changes in their own budget process. I can’t speak for any of my colleagues but I can tell you that the May Revise proposals is not going to changing my thinking on the budget. The proposals are only so slightly more probable than one I could come up with by throwing darts.
A real proposal to eliminate CalWorks would have also proposed the end of the mandate on counties to provide the service. That wasn’t in there so I am considering this to be nothing but talk.