Brown cuts and cuts some more

APPROPRIATELY SIGNED behind closed doors without a formal ceremony and coming fast on the heels of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's veto of a bill to give state agricultural workers the right to unionize through card check, the latest California budget is a toxic mix of shallow hopes in economic recovery and the evisceration of services and programs essential to working-class Californians.

Having surrendered to Republican opposition to his plan to extend regressive taxes to cover part of the state budget shortfall, Brown moved ahead with an all-cuts proposal, including numerous measures to reduce spending that have already been passed into law.

Other than forcing online retailers to pay sales tax, Brown's budget relies entirely on spending reductions--$15 billion in cuts overall, with additional reductions of $2.5 billion to be triggered if hoped-for additional revenue from improvements in the economy fails to materialize.

A testament to Brown's ideological commitment to austerity is the pride with which the Office of the Governor's official website declares as positive the fact that "California's General Fund spending--as a share of the economy--is now at its lowest level since 1972-73."

BROWN'S BUDGET relies on a shaky economic projection of an additional $4 billion in state income tax revenue generated by a hoped-for surge in income among California taxpayers, particularly the wealthiest.

Mostly though, Brown's program depends on an assault on the services that California's poor and working people desperately need.

California's low-income public health insurance program will take a big hit. Participants will face higher co-pays and be limited to seven doctor's visits a year, an impossibly low limit for those with chronic conditions or ongoing medical problems. Around one-quarter of the $1.8 billion in cuts to the program--and an additional $103 million in cuts to California's health insurance program for children, teens and pregnant mothers--haven't been specified, and so the full consequences of Brown's budget aren't yet known.

The state's welfare program, CalWORKs, has been gutted in the latest round of cuts. Grants for participants have been slashed by 8 percent to an average of $460 a month for a family of three, less than 30 percent of the federal government's already low poverty line for a family of three--and this in a state with one of the country's highest costs of living.

In addition, the lifetime limit for this meager cash assistance has been cut from five years to four, and the program's employment services and child care components have been slashed.

While the state continues to pour hundreds of millions into maintaining the death penalty and billions into the prison-industrial complex as a whole, prisoners themselves--who endure inhumane levels of overcrowding--will face further cuts to their already inadequate health care. A $350 million funding cut for the state trial courts will likely grind the system to a halt.

California college students have faced unprecedented fee hikes in the last few years. Under Brown's budget, they'll suffer again--the state will cut $1.7 billion from higher education, including reductions of $650 million each to the University of California and California State University systems. California community colleges, which are supposed to be a low-cost alternative to four-year institution, face a $400 billion cut--which will cause a 38 percent fee hike, reduced course offerings and fewer student admissions.

And if the hoped-for additional revenue doesn't materialize, community colleges will face another $30 million cut, and the UC and CSU systems will lose $100 million each.

The state's K-12 public schools, battered by years of underfunding and neglect, will have $2.1 billion "borrowed" from their budget for the year. If sufficient additional revenue doesn't appear, that would trigger a $1.5 billion funding cut for K-12 schools--which would mean taking seven classroom days away from the 168-day school year. Another cut triggered by insufficient revenues--school bus transportation would be ended for a savings of $248 million, a measure that would have a disproportionate effect on poorer students.

In addition to these major cuts, Brown's budget is riddled with less-publicized reductions that will affect the quality of life for all but the wealthiest Californians. Some 70 state parks are slated to be closed, cutting off many people's access to California's stunning natural beauty. State funding for public libraries has been cut in half--and if the hoped-for additional revenue doesn't materialize, the library budget will be zeroed out.

The In-Home Supportive Services program and the Department of Developmental Services are slated to be cut by $100 million each if further reductions are triggered--potentially robbing from California's disabled and elderly once again while the corporations keep their tax breaks. Another reduction that would be triggered by low revenue: $15 million from California's Emergency Management Agency, in a state that is overdue for another major earthquake.

An 11 percent cut in state funding for preschool and child care programs will cut off access for an estimated 25,500 children. Brown went out of his way to attack public transportation, using his line-item veto authority to ax $234.6 Million in state funding for mass transit--which millions of poor Californians rely on to get to work and school, unlike the governor and his friends.

A new lower-cost health plan for state workers will reduce spending by $80 million, according to budget estimates, and overall compensation for state workers is expected to be cut by $308 million.

As he signed the bill, Brown declared that it "really does put our fiscal house into much better shape, but we're not finished." The governor is right about that--the likelihood of increased revenues falling short of the $4 billion level is high, which means the trigger cuts would go into effect.

Plus, Brown set the terms for austerity budgets to come--during negotiations with Republicans, he offered up public-sector pensions for even larger cuts in exchange for bipartisan cooperation. The Republicans rejected Brown's offer, but his willingness to propose such reductions shows that California workers can expect worse to come under this Democratic administration.

The tragedy is that these cuts are entirely unnecessary--if Brown and the Democrats who control the state legislature would take on the Republican minority and push through tax increases on some of the wealthiest businesses and individuals in the world.

According to the California Labor Federation, the total price tag for tax waivers and loopholes for corporations and the wealthy is more than $50 billion--nearly three times the size of the state budget deficit.

But California politicians, whether they call themselves Democrats or Republicans, are united in their determination to make the state's workers and poor pay the price.