Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Rethinking Budget Trigger Unlikely, Says Speaker | Capital Notes -- From KQED's John Myers

Rethinking Budget Trigger Unlikely, Says Speaker | Capital Notes -- From KQED's John Myers:

Rethinking Budget Trigger Unlikely, Says Speaker

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Pool/Hector Amezcua

Assembly Speaker John Perez isn't ruling it out -- never say never, one supposes -- but nonetheless says that talk of the Legislature stopping, or even just rejiggering, the budget's automatic spending cuts isn't likely to go anywhere.

"I don’t know of another approach that has greater support than the triggers that we already voted on," said Perez in comments to reporters after today's long and contentious meeting of the regents of the University of California.

The exact depth of the so-called "trigger" cuts won't be known for another two weeks, when Governor Jerry Brown's budget team releases its state economic and revenue forecast. You'll remember that the budget Brown signed into law in late June contained language that identified almost $2.5 billion in new spending cuts if revenue predictions dropped by more than $2 billion.

The prediction of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office -- which, along with the governor's team, make