Last June 22, California’s Capitol presented a comparison created by Michael Hulsizer, head of legislative affairs for the office of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, of the state’s general fund revenue growth and public school spending from July 1, 1998 through the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2011.
That comparison was based on the revenue estimates used by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his revised May budget proposal.
Hulsizer has created a new comparison using the numbers contained in the final budget signed October 8 – a record 100 days late.
As Hulsizer notes, the tallies change, in some areas “quite significantly.”
In large measure, this is because lawmakers rejected some $5 billion in general fund spending cuts the GOP governor called for in May budget plan.
Another reason is because lawmakers elected to use higher revenue estimates by the Legislative Analyst boosting the expected amount of general revenue this year by $1.4 billion.
However, again to quote Hulsizer, public schools and community colleges continue to “to experience disproportionate levels of ongoing spending cuts.”
Since the February 2009 mid-year budget
