The Los Angeles Times reports that the budget deal is dead. If you recall, California has a massive $27 billion deficit and Gov. Jerry Brown had promised to plug the hole with budget cuts and tax hikes. There was just one glitch, he needed to get the state assembly to agree to the plan so that his tax increases could then be voted on by all Californians for approval. But none of it came to pass.
“It’s a more complicated task, now that Brown’s proposal for a June ballot measure is defunct. But if the governor talked more specifically about the cuts that would otherwise have to be made — including at least $2 billion in spending on K-12 education and 20,000 teachers’ jobs — perhaps lawmakers would see that it isn’t a real alternative,” editorializes The Times.
As we wrote back in December, the plan was destined to fail. But we tried to be helpful. “Why not just go with cuts and then more cuts instead of talking taxes at all?” We hate to be repetitive but Brown ought to just get out his scissors and have at it.