Schwarzenegger after-school program ties up budget - San Jose Mercury News:
"SACRAMENTO, Calif.—With California facing another mammoth budget deficit, the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst says voters should reconsider some of the billions of dollars tied up in ballot measures they have approved in recent years.
Among the suggestions from Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor is an after-school measure that costs $550 million a year and helped launch Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career. It is one of many programs contributing to the 'autopilot spending' that the Republican governor and fiscal watchdogs often complain about because the plans were approved by voters without specific funding sources."
Taylor's office this week said California will face a $21 billion deficit over the next year and a half, and $20 billion budget shortfalls each of the next several years.
The office has repeatedly recommended scaling back or repealing Schwarzenegger's after-school initiative, Proposition 49, as the state's fiscal crisis has deepened.
The governor so far has not supported a repeal. Last year, he vetoed a bill that would have placed a measure on the ballot allowing lawmakers to adjust funding for the program, which provides students in kindergarten through ninth grade with after-school tutoring, music, art and physical education. Instead, Schwarzenegger included in his budget proposal an offer to ask voters to cut it by 10 percent.
"SACRAMENTO, Calif.—With California facing another mammoth budget deficit, the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst says voters should reconsider some of the billions of dollars tied up in ballot measures they have approved in recent years.
Among the suggestions from Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor is an after-school measure that costs $550 million a year and helped launch Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career. It is one of many programs contributing to the 'autopilot spending' that the Republican governor and fiscal watchdogs often complain about because the plans were approved by voters without specific funding sources."
Taylor's office this week said California will face a $21 billion deficit over the next year and a half, and $20 billion budget shortfalls each of the next several years.
The office has repeatedly recommended scaling back or repealing Schwarzenegger's after-school initiative, Proposition 49, as the state's fiscal crisis has deepened.
The governor so far has not supported a repeal. Last year, he vetoed a bill that would have placed a measure on the ballot allowing lawmakers to adjust funding for the program, which provides students in kindergarten through ninth grade with after-school tutoring, music, art and physical education. Instead, Schwarzenegger included in his budget proposal an offer to ask voters to cut it by 10 percent.