California Governor Brown held a press conference yesterday to announce current year automatic funding cuts and to promote his tax initiative for the November ballot. According to a new survey, he has strong support among Californians.
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) is dedicated to informing and improving public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research on major economic, social, and political issues. The institute was established in 1994 with an endowment from William R. Hewlett. As a private operating foundation, PPIC does not take or support positions on any ballot measure or on any local, state, or federal legislation, nor does it endorse, support, or oppose any political parties or candidates for public office.
In a continuing series of California surveys, PPIC asked Californians about the Governor’s tax plan.
The findings are based on telephone interviews with 1,012 adults taken from December 2–5, 2011, PPIC said in a written statement.
The sampling error, taking design effects from weighting into consideration, is ±5 percent.
“The governor’s plan includes some of the most popular ideas for raising taxes—higher taxes on the wealthy and more money for schools,” says Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO. “At the same time, the major challenges in asking Californians to pass state tax increases are the low approval ratings of state elected officials and high levels of distrust in government.”
Governor Brown’s proposal would temporarily increase the state sales tax and the income taxes of high earners.
“Sixty-five percent of all adults and 60 percent of likely voters favor the proposal,” PPIC said in a statement accompanying the release of the survey. “28 percent of adults and 36 percent of likely voters oppose it. The survey offers an early look at Californians’ views of the plan the governor hopes to put before voters in November to help close the budget deficit. It would raise $7 billion a year by increasing the sales tax a half-cent for four years and the income taxes of individuals earning more than $250,000 for five years.”
Yesterday, Governor Brown said “You can’t provide money you don’t have. You either cut, or you tax. There’s no third way.”
These taxes are scheduled for the November 2012 general election. If passed, they will benefit the next fiscal year, but will not do anything to help with the current fiscal year’s budget shortfall.
After taking into account actual results for the first four months of the fiscal year, The Los Alamitos Unified School District is projecting a spending deficit this year of $2.4 million. When the fiscal year ends on June 30, 2012, this would leave the District with a fund balance of $31.4 million. But, those numbers do not include current year automatic budget cuts which will take place because the state’s receipts are now expected to be lower than budgeted.
The District has designated $3 million of the fund balance to cover the automatic cuts from the state. The latest information, which was not available when the District produced their mid year financial update, indicates the cuts will be less than the amount set aside by the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
“We are very fortunate that at least we got half the revenue,” said Governor Brown yesterday. “Therefore, the trigger cuts are under a billion, instead of almost $2.5 billion. We hoped for more and we got more, but not quite as much as we wanted.”
The $3 million designated by the school district for these cuts is the full amount, thus, based on Brown’s remarks, it appears the actual reduction to the Los Alamitos District’s reserves will be less than half the $3 million. As of yesterday, the District had not received the details of exactly how much their cut will be.
The Los Alamitos Unified School District serves nearly 10,000 students in Seal Beach, Rossmoor, and Los Alamitos. The district includes Los Alamitos High School, a full service high school, Laurel High School, a continuation high school, McAuliffe Middle School, Oak Middle School, and six elementary schools. Mrs. Karen Russell is the current President of the Board of Education. Dr. Sherry Kropp is the Superintendant of the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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