Trigger Cuts For California

Sacramento, CA– California needs to make about $1 billion in midyear cuts to schools and social services. That’s according to Governor Jerry Brown who said today that trigger cuts are going into effect.

“You can’t provide money you don’t have,” said Brown. “You either cut or you tax. There’s no third way, there’s no alternative. As the governor of California, I’m sensitive to what these cutbacks do to real people. But I’m also aware that over time California does have to balance its budget. We have to exercise fiscal discipline and as long as I’m around here, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

The governor says that because state revenues have fallen $2.2 billion below projections, cuts are necessary to public schools, universities and colleges, Medi-Cal, and in-home support for seniors and the disabled.

“These cuts, they’re not good,” said Brown. “This is not the way we’d like to run California, but we have to live within our means.”

The reductions are below previous projections, allowing California to avoid deeper cuts to public schools that could have included reducing the school year by up to seven days.

Brown and other Democrats in the Legislature had hoped for a $4 billion increase in tax revenue through the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. The budget they passed last summer without Republican support, was based on a combination of spending cuts, fee hikes and optimistic revenue projections.