SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman John J. Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes) today issued the following statement in response to Governor Schwarzenegger´s May budget revisions:
"There are a number of commendable decisions that the Governor made in his budget revisions, as we all work hard to tackle a now-$17.2 billion budget deficit. First, rejecting the proposal of thousands of early prisoner releases merits praise, as California families will not need to worry about endangering their safety to make budget savings. Second, the Governor found savings that allow for the full funding of education at Proposition 98 levels and saving 48 state parks from closure, including Riverside´s own California Citrus State Historic Park. Finally, this budget reduces spending in one of the fastest, unrestrained areas of the budget, Health and Human Services, namely cost-of-living adjustments and pay increases for those on welfare.
"However, there are a number of areas that provoke major concern. If the sale of the State Lottery fails, a 1-cent sales tax is triggered, which would cost taxpayers $6 billion per year until 2011. This literally puts the balanced budget in a gamble, leaving Californians at too great a risk of a massive tax increase. I think there are other ways we can continue cutting spending and making real structural changes to our programs so we don´t raise taxes on hard-working Californians.
"The Governor is on the right track when he considers that future budgets, in good times, need to limit spending and tuck away savings to cushion for fiscal emergencies like the one we´re currently facing. I look forward to working with the Governor to introduce a real spending cap, which if put in place at the last fiscal crisis, would have kept us with a budget surplus."
"There are a number of commendable decisions that the Governor made in his budget revisions, as we all work hard to tackle a now-$17.2 billion budget deficit. First, rejecting the proposal of thousands of early prisoner releases merits praise, as California families will not need to worry about endangering their safety to make budget savings. Second, the Governor found savings that allow for the full funding of education at Proposition 98 levels and saving 48 state parks from closure, including Riverside´s own California Citrus State Historic Park. Finally, this budget reduces spending in one of the fastest, unrestrained areas of the budget, Health and Human Services, namely cost-of-living adjustments and pay increases for those on welfare.
"However, there are a number of areas that provoke major concern. If the sale of the State Lottery fails, a 1-cent sales tax is triggered, which would cost taxpayers $6 billion per year until 2011. This literally puts the balanced budget in a gamble, leaving Californians at too great a risk of a massive tax increase. I think there are other ways we can continue cutting spending and making real structural changes to our programs so we don´t raise taxes on hard-working Californians.
"The Governor is on the right track when he considers that future budgets, in good times, need to limit spending and tuck away savings to cushion for fiscal emergencies like the one we´re currently facing. I look forward to working with the Governor to introduce a real spending cap, which if put in place at the last fiscal crisis, would have kept us with a budget surplus."
