California Budget Q&A
By Steve Wiegand - Updated: Tuesday, June 23 2009 - 5:49 pm
Who came up with this budget-balancing plan?
It was sort of a group effort. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered up his version in May, after state finance officials put together a new forecast of how much revenue the state could expect to collect in the coming fiscal year, and what bills it might incur.
Here are answers to frequently asked questions.
Why does California seem to struggle with its budget every year? Is state spending really out of line, as Republicans suggest, or are Democrats right when they say we need more revenue? In this overview, Bee Columnist Dan Walters walks you through some mileposts on the road to this year's state budget stalemate.
Before 1978, fashioning a state budget each year was a fairly routine task. But the passage of Proposition 13 in June 1978 began a radical budgeting makeover. The measure slashed local property taxes, and state general fund spending jumped as the state assumed greater responsibility for schools and local services.
In 1988, even more pressure was put on the general fund when voters adopted Proposition 98, which sought to reserve a guaranteed portion -- 40 percent or more -- of the state's revenues for schools.
California weathered a severe recession in the early 1990's, but at the turn of the century the surging dot.com industry flooded state coffers. (See state spending in relation to personal income.) Revenues -- mostly income taxes -- skyrocketed to $75.7 billion in 2000-01. Under GOP Gov. Pete Wilson and then Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, state spending for schools and health care for the poor jumped sharply.
Source: California Department of Finance, Legislative Analyst's Office, Bee research by Dan Walters
More on the state budget
- 2009-2010 California State Budget
- Historic Budget Documents
- Executive Order S-09-08 Additional Current Year Savings
- Legislative Analyst's Office Budget Overview
- California Assembly Republicans - 2009/2010 Budget Update
- California Assembly Democrats - California's Fiscal Emergency
- California State Senate - Budget and Fiscal Review
- California State Assembly - Committee on Budget
- California Budget Challenge Game









