In advance of tomorrow’s picking up of the Senate Budget dance, State Senator Tom McClintock has posted up a fairly lengthy list of suggested places where the State of California could inhale, and then tighten up the belt a little bit. Below is the Senator’s blog post from his Citizens for the California Republican website (lifted with permission) and at the bottom of his comments is a link over to the CFCR website where he has posted up a letter from McClintock to Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, with 40 suggested reforms for the California budget.
THE NEXT STEP
By Senator Tom McClintock
The next step in the budget battle begins tomorrow morning, when Senate Republicans begin offering amendments to attempt to bring the state budget into balance and to bring state spending under control. Democratic leaders have falsely charged that Republicans have offered no alternatives to the state’s out-of-control spending, when in fact every cost containment bill offered by Republicans has been killed on party-line votes in various legislative committees throughout the past year.
In my judgment, $2.9 billion in spending reductions – about 3 percent — must be made to bring the budget into actual balance and to provide a sufficient reserve to address some very questionable assumptions. Sacramento’s spending lobby will call that Draconian, but consider this: $2.9 billion in spending cuts would produce a budget of right around $100 billion. That is still $8.3 billion more than we spent in 2005-2006 – and $21.7 billion more than we spent the year we recalled Gray Davis. Click here for my full analysis – and for 40 specific reforms that can reach that level. As you read through the reforms, remember this is your tax money.