Capitol Alert: Governor proposes eliminating CalWORKS

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Capitol Alert

The latest on California politics and government

May 26, 2009

Governor proposes eliminating CalWORKS

The Schwarzenegger administration today proposed $5.6 billion in additional spending reductions to narrow the state budget deficit in lieu of floating additional short-term loans, including elimination of the state's welfare-to-work program known as CalWORKS.

Dropping CalWORKS would save an estimated $1.3 billion next year and is the largest single piece of a 25-item list of additional spending cuts given to a two-house committee working on the budget deficit.

The deficit has been pegged at $24.3 billion by the Legislature's budget analyst and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had wanted to cover part of it with some loans known as "revenue anticipation warrants" or RAWs, but abandoned that strategy last week after learning that the federal government wouldn't back the loans. Without those guarantees, obtaining financing from private lenders was uncertain.

Whacking the state prison budget by an additional $788.5 million is the second largest item on the list. The complete list may be found here.

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