Former Governor Says Fee Increase Won´t Fly

Former Governor Jerry Brown is predicting that the state Senate will reject the Assembly´s attempt to boost vehicle license fees to head off local government budget cuts. But Brown´s former chief of staff, Governor Davis, says cities and counties are in no immediate danger of losing four billion dollars in state money that´s preventing those cuts. Their comments topped off a day of lobbying by seven big city mayors who want the state to either raise vehicle license fees or continue to provide enough funding to make up for the revenue the fee increases would provide.

Davis has proposed eliminating those local government back-fill payments to help erase a state budget deficit that his administration pegs at nearly $35 billion and the legislative analyst says totals just over $26 billion.