The California Budget Project “Quick and Dirty” Summary of Key Provisions of the May Revision is our site of the day

Late last night, the California Budget Project (CBP) released an 8 page report: “Governor’s May Revision Borrows Against Future Lottery Revenues--Makes Deep Cuts to Health and Human Services", that they describe as an update provides a "quick and dirty" summary of key provisions of the May Revision.

This is probably the best short and concise document to get a handle on not only the budget cuts being proposed in yesterday’s proposals from the Governor but also an overview of revenues the state expects, and the larger picture of the budget.

For instance, in one paragraph, “Adding Up the Numbers,” the shifting sets of numbers—all with the word “billion” in them—are described so that one is able to get a “macro” perspective that can be lost in the welter of budget facts and figures:

“The May Revision identifies a $22.3 billion gap between revenues and expenditures in the current (2007-08) and budget (2008-09) years. The Governor increases the identified shortfall by $2 billion in order provide a modest budget reserve and proposes $24.3 billion of “solutions” to fill the gap. The Governor proposes to cut spending by $12.6 billion and proposes $11.7 billion in other solutions, including $3.3 billion from the sale of additional deficit financing bonds, $1.9 billion from an accounting shift, $5.1 billion from the sale of bonds backed by lottery proceeds, and $1.4 billion from “other initiatives.””

You’ll learn that there is a $15.4 gap in the budget for 2008-09 identified by the Governor with an additional $2 billion for a reserve proposed—and that’s where the $17.4 billion figure used by many comes from.

There’s a lot more here:

• The assumptions made in the Governor’s revise that there will be a big drop in 2008-09 revenues and what this is attributable to.
• The major changes in deep human services and health cuts and borrowing against future lottery proceeds
• A one page bulleted list of cuts in Medi-Cal and other health programs
• A one page bulleted list of cuts in programs to children including the CalWORKS program and the elimination of cash grants for nearly 200,000 children
• Suspension of cost of living increases for Californians living on Supplemental Security Income payments, part of the Social Security program
• Reductions in In-home supportive services in terms of the hours the state provides to the disabled, increased share of costs, and a cap on the state’s contribution to IHSS workers to the minimum wage
• A one page bulleted list on K-12 education including increases to the January budget proposed by the Governor and reductions after those are considered and a discussion of Proposition 98 funding
• Short descriptions of funding for higher education
• Bullets on funding of the correctional system, transportation, and other areas
• A one paragraph description of the Emergency Response Initiative proposed by the Governor, formerly known as the Wildland Firefighting Initiative—a surcharge on residential and commercial property

All this in 8 pages!

CBP promises to provide additional reports on major proposals in the budget and analyses on these in the days to come. You may want to bookmark their site or subscribe to their RSS feed to keep abreast of budget news.

In the meanwhile, if you want to read more on the budget, you can go to the Department of Finance web site on the revised budget and review the details of what is contained in it as well.

John Laird’s report as Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, Highlights of Governor’s Proposed May Revision 2008-09 State Budget is surprisingly readable and detailed in its 46 pages and has an overview, as well as sections on major parts of the budget.