Brown pulls trigger on education funding; could have been worse

The governor is slashing $1 billion for higher education, school buses, MediCal, and services for the disabled. The cuts were necessitated when revenue for the first half of this year fell $2.2 billion short of projections. But the shortfall is below earlier estimates, which is why K-12 is being largely spared. From Bay Area News Group:

School district officials across the state breathed a sign of relief at the news. Although they'll face a $248 million hit for school bus funding, it will be colleges, MediCal, child care, counties, local libraries and services for the mentally and physically disabled that will be hardest hit. The University of California, already jolted by previous cuts, plans to dip into reserves to absorb a $100 million cut.

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Brown and fellow Democrats in the Legislature had hoped for a $4 billion increase in tax revenue through the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. The budget they passed last summer without Republican support was based on those rosy revenue projections, a variety of spending cuts and fee hikes. Some Democrats have said they plan to push for new taxes in January to offset the "trigger" cuts. But they're unlikely to be successful because they would need GOP votes to reach the two-thirds vote threshold for new taxes -- and Republicans have resisted any new taxes.

Brown is proposing a ballot initiative next November that would raise $7 billion for schools through increases in the state sales tax and personal income taxes on California's highest-earners.

From AP:

The Democratic governor said that following through on the cuts is a sign of California's improving fiscal health. "California has very sound finances. We're on the road to recovery. And the trigger cuts, which are pulled today, are part of that fiscal discipline," he said in a news conference at the state Capitol. "This is not the way we'd like to run California. But we have to live within our means," he said. Brown also warned of further cuts when he releases his proposed 2012-13 budget in January, but he declined to say how deep they would be.