This story was reported for the San Diego News Network on March 9, 2010.
As California lawmakers have often said, “everything is on the table.”
So, sorry inmates, but tough times call for tough measures. Be prepared for some changes.
Here’s your California Budget Crisis Diaries roundup.
Prison cut: California’s inmates looking to seek help through the state’s rehab program may find it impossible this fiscal year.
According to The Sacramento Bee, “Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is slashing $250 million — almost 45 percent — of the $560 million it was to spend on rehabilitation this fiscal year.” But the move hurts inmates seeking a reduced sentence, too.
“California prison officials began touting a new public safety reform in January that would encourage inmates to complete a rehabilitation course and earn six weeks per year off a sentence.
Inside Folsom State Prison, though, inmates and instructors leading such courses are skeptical it will work.
In reality, they say, budget cuts approved by legislators last year, needed to cope with an unprecedented fiscal crisis, are devastating programs that are the basis for the new credit and for helping inmates stay straight once free”
The Bee reports that vocational and substance abuse programs are also taking a cut.
Prison veto: There is one sector of California’s prison system that won’t see a cut. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have slashed $2 billion in budget spending with $811 million in prison health care costs.
According to The San Jose Mercury News, Schwarzenegger made the move Monday evening.
“Rejecting a key piece of last month’s push to trim California’s deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger late Monday vetoed a bill that called for more than $2 billion in spending reductions starting this summer.
In his veto message, Schwarzenegger wrote that the bill, ABX82, ‘does not actually implement spending reductions’ to help close the state’s $19.9 billion budget gap over the next 18 months. Among the bill’s major provisions: slicing prison health care by $811 million and the state’s payroll by $450 million.”
The Mercury reporter states that there are two possible reasons for the swift move that took lawmakers weeks to pass.
“The decision was based, in part, on a technicality. The governor’s staff argued that the reductions were cast as intended cuts to 2010-11 budget proposals that have yet to be crafted, rather than spending appropriations.
But perhaps more important to the governor was the fact that the bill failed to address the deeper cuts to social services he laid out when calling an emergency budget session in January.”
Tax-free bonds: In an attempt to help solve California’s fiscal crisis, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer is selling tax-free obligation bonds.
According to The Los Angeles Times, he’ll be spending some state cash first, to make some cash for the state. Gotta spend money to make money.
“California, still the state with the weakest credit rating in the Union, is hoping individual investors will see opportunity in trouble as Treasurer Bill Lockyer tries to sell $2 billion in tax-free general obligation bonds this week.
As he has in the past, Lockyer is spending money on an ad campaign to lure investors to the bonds. Strong demand from individuals would mean fewer bonds left for institutional investors such as mutual funds. If that means the big players have to compete more aggressively for the remainder of the deal the state might be able to pay a lower overall interest rate to borrow, saving taxpayers cash.”
The bonds will be up for sell Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.