Lawmakers: Governor Needs to Make 'Tough Decisions' to Fix Budget

RIVERSIDE - The state's ballooning budget deficit is a result of fiscal irresponsibility, and the state's finances won't improve until there are ''tough decisions'' made about spending and regulatory changes, two Republican state lawmakers from Riverside County said today.

Reacting to Gov. Jerry Brown's May budget revise, which showed the state budget deficit increasing to $15.7 billion from an estimated $9.2 billion in January, Sen. Bill Emmerson, R-Lake Elsinore, and Assemblyman Paul Cook, R- Beaumont, both stressed the need for spending reductions without tax increases.

''Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised to hear about this massive new deficit,'' Cook said. ''Last June's majority-vote budget played the same games that politicians have been playing for years by assuming that billions of dollars in new revenue will come in above and beyond current projections.

''Rather than reforms to jumpstart the economy and a real cap on state spending, we got gimmicks ... and an imaginary $4 billion in revenue that never actually materialized.''

Emmerson said Californians cannot afford for the governor and his allies in the Legislature to repeat last year's approach and base appropriations on ''phony revenue projections.''

''The reality is that state spending has increased by $20 billion since the recession began,'' Emmerson said. ''Despite this fact, the majority party continues to ask Californians to raise their taxes even though they are unwilling to enact crucial government reforms and improve our state's tough business climate.''

During a news briefing in Sacramento today, Brown said he had incorporated billions of dollars in cuts in his 2012-13 budget blueprint, including a proposed four-day work week for some state employees that would reduce them to 38 hours and allow some offices to be closed once a week. There are also proposed cuts in home-care funding and Medi-Cal payments.

''This budget reflects the fact that the nation's economic recovery is proceeding more slowly than anticipated,'' Brown said. ''Lower tax revenues, coupled with federal government obstructions that blocked billions in necessary cuts, have created a deeper budget hole. More painful reductions will be necessary as a result, but education and public safety must be protected.''

Funding for the state's two major university systems will remain a question, however, until the November election. The governor is backing a measure that asks voters to bump the state's 7.25 percent sales tax rate to 7.5 percent, and to increase the income tax rates on people earning more than $250,000 a year.

If the proposals fail, another $6 billion in cuts will take effect Jan. 1, including a $250 million cut to both the CSU and University of California systems, possibly triggering more tuition hikes.

''We very much appreciate the governor's hard work to avoid further direct cuts to higher education despite the steep growth in the size of the state deficit,'' CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said. ''Nevertheless, all Californians should be concerned about the serious long-term damage to student access to the California State University that is posed by the $250 million trigger cut.

''Combined with last year's $750 million cut, no easy options remain. It will be extremely difficult to avoid impacts to program quality at our 23 campuses or impacts to access for students and the ability to serve them, with long-term consequences for workforce development and job growth in the state.''

Steve Montiel, spokesman for the UC president's office, also said officials there appreciate Brown's effort to maintain funding for the system, but the financial picture for the universities will remain in doubt until November.

Cook said the only way California will ever have a balanced budget ''is if we make the tough decisions right now to bring spending under control and get the state off the back of taxpayers.''

''Unfortunately, the governor's talk about waiting until after the November elections to make real cuts is just another case of kicking the can down the road,'' he said.