State Budget Follow-Up

We noted yesterday that budget proposals are based on projections of revenues and expenditures. What actually occurs can be known for sure only after the fact. Even Gov. Brown's estimates for the current fiscal year include forecasts, since there are over 5 months to go before the fiscal year ends.

Not surprisingly, legislative leaders were not happy with the austere tone of the governor's proposal yesterday and prefer to base their budgeting on more optimistic figures on revenue offered by the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) last November. (Of course, LAO had two month's less information on which to base its estimates.)

It might be noted that one program that was on Brown's chopping block was the middle class scholarship program which was the pride of now-Regent John Pérez.

You can read about legislative reactions at:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/23aaaf53e09d4a68a61ce30fddd6dd8f/governor-pitches-1225b-california-budget-warns-deficit