SACRAMENTO — With even well-managed counties, cities and schools finding themselves in the same budget hole that has swallowed state government, California now confronts a financial crisis that may be unrivaled — though it is also maddeningly difficult to quantify.
In fact, the problem is so expansive that several experts contacted by the Mercury News wouldn't even hazard a guess. So just how broke is California?
A quick, unscientific look around the Golden State suggests that California's collective deficit may be double the state government's $20 billion budget gap. San Francisco must trim $522 million from its budget. San Jose's upcoming balance sheet is $116.2 million in the red. The Los Angeles Unified School District is staring at a $640 million shortfall. Even tiny Dorris, a few miles from the Oregon border (and home to the tallest flagpole this side of the Mississippi!) is contemplating cuts.
Now consider that California has 58 counties, 480 or so cities and nearly 1,000 school districts — plus dozens more special districts, like transit agencies and water boards. Amid California's harshest slump since the Great Depression, officials from one end of the state to another are preparing to close parks, fire teachers and police officers, and heave Hail Mary plans for tax hikes.
"2010-11 will be the worst year we've seen," warns Terry Anderson of the education policy advocate School Services of California. "That
part is clear."So why, exactly, have budgets gone so sour in so many places?
The simple answer is that local governments have been just as susceptible as state government to the ravages of the recession.
