Few surprises in state budget Few surprises in state budget (January 14, 2005)

As expected, city will lose $3.3 million

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his state budget proposal Monday, and at least as far as the city of Mountain View was concerned, it contained few of the landmines characteristic of past budget cycles.

The passage of Proposition 1A in November means the city will pay $3.3 million to the state this year as part of a deal designed to prevent the state from taking local funds in the future. About $1.8 million of that total will come from the Shoreline redevelopment district.

Changes to two grant programs will cost the city about $200,000, according to city finance director Bob Locke. One program provides funding for supplemental law enforcement, and the other reimburses cities for booking fees paid at county jails. The state dedicated a combined $318 million for those programs this fiscal year and will reduce that number by half under the proposal.

Local education officials said they had not determined the budget's impacts on their schools. But on Tuesday, education groups such as the California Teachers Association and the state PTA were jumping on the governor for breaking a 1-year-old deal in which he promised not to make cuts to education spending after last year.

A press release put out by the Education Coalition, a consortium of California education organizations, called the proposed budget "unconscionable."

State Assembly member Sally Lieber said the legislature had a lot of work to do refining the budget.

"We ought to be prioritizing the needs of our local schools over the needs of people who buy yachts and don't want to pay taxes," said Lieber.
-- Jon Wiener

E-mail a friend a link to this story.