Zev rails about budget mess

L.A. County is taking a potentially huge hit from all the cutbacks being contemplated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - as well as the legislature - and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is ticked off about it. Many of the county's social service programs get funded by the state - all stuff that's aimed at the poor, sick and elderly. (It's too bad that much of the electorate has little interest in such cuts because, well, they're not poor, sick or old). Zev is especially worried about the possible elimination of the welfare-to-work program called CalWorks. Appearing this morning at Emma Schafer's Current Affairs Forum, he talked about how much damage has been done by the two-thirds requirement to pass the state budget. The more immediate issue is how to close the $24 billion budget gap - and on that Yaroslavsky called for some combination of cutbacks and tax revenue hikes. What I continue to wonder about is whether any of this is getting through. In the elevator after the breakfast a guy mused that eliminating the two-thirds budget requirement would just result in his having to shell out more in taxes.