Schwarzenegger Will ‘Declare Fiscal Emergency’ In Weeks
December 15th, 2007Debt payments are wiping out the state. Look for the Governator to increase taxes and slash services in order to transfer more wealth to his banker buddies.
Via: NBC:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he will declare a “fiscal emergency” in January to give him and the Legislature more power to deal with the state’s growing deficit.
Schwarzenegger made the announcement Friday after meeting with lawmakers and interest groups this week to tell them California’s budget deficit is worse — far worse — than economists predicted just a few weeks ago.
The shortfall is not $10 billion, but more than $14 billion — a 40 percent jump that would put it in orbit with some of the state’s worst fiscal crisis, those who have met with him said.
A fiscal emergency would trigger a special session and force lawmakers and the governor to begin addressing the shortfall within 45 days.
“What we have to do is fix the budget system. The system itself needs to be fixed, and I think that this is a good year, this coming year, to fix it,” Schwarzenegger said in Long Beach, where he was promoting his plan for health care reform.
California is struggling with shrinking state tax revenue from the meltdown of the subprime housing market and the credit crunch on Wall Street.
State spending also has increased by more than 40 percent since Schwarzenegger took office after the 2003 recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis.
Schwarzenegger in August signed a $145.5 billion budget that increased spending 11 percent due largely to the increased cost of bond repayments and special funds. General fund spending for day-to-day operations increased less than 1 percent, from $101.7 to $102.3 billion for the budget year that began July 1.
