The credit crunch is hitting the state, the LA Times via a letter they obtained addressed to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "The state of California is the biggest of several governments nationwide that are being locked out of the bond market by the global credit crunch. If the state is unable to access the cash, administration officials say, payments to schools and other government entities could quickly be suspended and......

Photo by corndog_au via Flickr Although Republican Assemblyman Bill Maze of Visalia introduced a bill that would fine people driving with animals on their laps $35, the Governor is giving it the ol' veto. Maze says it's "distracting" to operate a motor vehicle with a dog or another pet in your lap, and took his cue to put the bill in motion after "seeing a woman driving with three dogs on her lap," reports......

"The budget will cut $33 million from Medi-Cal, $8 million from probation camps, $10 million from mental health and $6 million from alcohol and drug programs, according to a memo by county Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka... The state budget will also cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about $133 million this year"......

Gov. Schwarzenegger is skipping the press conference thing and replacing it with a big whoop-de-doo on the east steps of the Capitol when he finally signs the state's budget plan, a whole 85 days late, later this morning (this means the state can finally pay its bills that have been piling up). But the shindig isn't just about the budget, he will be rounding up support for Proposition 11, a redistricting plan that will be......

We all get behind in paying bills every once in awhile. But can you imagine around 80,000 unpaid bills laying around the house? That's what California has because the state budget has still not been finished. Tomorrow, day 85 into the fiscal year, Gov. Schwarzenegger will sign the budget putting to rest the madness that has occurred since July 1. The state will spend about $3.6 billion paying some of those bills within two days......

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted three things to be in this morning's state budget that finally passed a record breaking 78 days later into the fiscal year. All three regarded provisions over the rainy day fund to be used in fiscal trouble and one of them were not included. Therefore, he " is expected to announce this afternoon that he will veto the state budget passed by the Legislature early this morning, setting the stage for......

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, yawns during the late night debate over the state budget at the Capitol in Sacramento(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) It only took 77 days into the new fiscal year for California lawmakers to make a deal and pass the state's budget but when all was said and done, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatened to veto it. They debated early into the morning but made a plan that reportedly would solve the......

The LA Times has been running a great daily feature that is minimalist but lovely: "Late state budget: Day 71. California can't pay its bills. The fiscal year began July 1." This is the longest in state history that the budget has been this late. Due to the drama of this late budget, state prison guards threatened to recall Governor Schwarzenegger. The late budget is affecting individuals all around the state.......

As the state tries to figure out this year's budget (already two months in), cities are concerned about legislators patching the state's red ink with funding that usually goes towards city services such as public safety and redevelopment funds. Addressing that could-be problem, the state's nine largest cities are sending letters to Gov. Schwarzenegger and the respective Democratic and Republican leaders. Simply said, "Stop balancing the state budget on the backs of cities!" Here's the......

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a piece of legislation on Monday that changes the language in Proposition 1, the high speed rail bond. Now it will be Proposition 1a, but there's a problem: the voter guides have already been printed with Prop 1 language, not Prop 1a's. Therefore, an additional voter guide will have to be printed at the cost of approximately $4 million, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Schwarzenegger, who is big......

Metro has their half-cent sales tax increase proposal working its way through the capitol, but Schwarzenegger has his own sales tax increase he officially announced yesterday within a large budget compromise. Here's one part of his plan to fix the $15 plus billion budget: "A temporary 1-cent sales tax increase for three years (excluding diesel, gasoline and jet fuel) followed by a permanent 1¼-cent reduction beginning in year 4. The additional ¼-cent reduction would be......

Mark Paul, former deputy treasurer of California, among other things, has a good point about all the money-spending initiatives on this November's ballot. "In a little-noticed report, Treasurer Bill Lockyer projected last year that, at current tax levels, California will not be able to pay for its existing programs and its debt service at any time in the next two decades if voters keep approving bonds at the same rate as they have over the......

Long Beach is facing a $16.9 million budget deficit and has proposed shutting down their downtown library. "Tell City Hall NO to the threatened closure! Long Beach residents and children deserve nothing less than access to a downtown library with ready access to books and programs to help them achieve their goals and aspirations," wrote author Ray Bradbury in a letter printed last week in the Press-Telegram. The LA Times takes a look at the......

If it wasn't enough for Long Beach to lose Acres of Books, the city is facing a $16.9 million budget deficit and one of the better-known victims of that may be their Main Library. To help ease that closure is "extending hours at 11 branch libraries and opening a downtown satellite location," says the Long Beach Press-Telegram. They report the closure will not go without a fight. However, in an earlier report, it was said......

Short waits at the DMV are once again a thing of the past | Photo by SteveLyon via Flickr Governor Schwarzenegger's budget has called for many job losses and service cuts, and the Department of Motor Vehicles has been one of the most prominent in recent days to be on the chopping block. With many DMV employees already out of work and reduced hours announced at several locations statewide comes the news that there......

Forget the LA County Board of Supervisors for a moment and listen to this: Gov. Schwarzenegger just made an ultimatum with state legislators: "Until the Legislature passes a budget that I can sign, I will not sign any bills that reach my desk," he said in a press conference this afternoon. What does that mean for a struggling bill called AB2321, which would allow a measure to go on the ballot in November asking residents......

LA County residents have been hearing all about a half-cent sales tax increase that we could be voting on in November at the ballot. It's a big could, depending on a state committee, but if it goes through and passed by voters, Metro would get an extra $30 to $40 billion over the next 30 years for transportation projects ("Subway to the Sea" being one of them). But today, to fix the state deficit, Gov.......

How do you fix the state budget? You take away money from two of the most important and already-lacking services in the state: transit and early education programs via voter approved set aside money for those type of projects. Not only that, money for local governments could be taken away too (that means less money to do the dirty work of the city and county such as hospitals). Of course, within his first hour of......

They keep piling on. Today, "the governor placed a $900 million bond measure on the ballot to provide low-interest home loans to returning veterans of current and recent wars," reports John Myers at KQED's Capitol Notes. And there could be more to come, he says. Three of them could be a water bond, a budget reform proposal and a reform of the lottery initiative to raise money for the state budget. Now that's fifteen props......

Of all airports in the nation, LAX has earned the number one spot for airports that make the most money when it comes to coins left at security, usually left in the gray buckets and sometimes purposefully left behind if travelers are headed to a foreign country. About $30,000 a year is collected at LAX, according to the Transportation Security Administration, per KNBC. Where does the money go? LAX officials told LAist they don't see......

To help balance Los Angeles' massive budget for the next Fiscal Year, parking fines are to be increased $5 across the board. The move begins July and will raise an additional $6.6 million towards filling the $406 million gap in the budget, according to the Daily News. Originally, City Council looked into increasing the fines $10 to $15, raising up to $20 million extra, but had worries it would lead to voter anger and violence......

Notice I didn't write "Governator." It's important to start off on the right foot here, meaning the correct one, not the opposite of left. Anyway, as a former substitute teacher in the nation's second largest school district, a parent, and a concerned Angeleno, I would like to pose a simple question to you. What the fuck are you doing? Your plan to cut $350 million from the LAUSD budget is appauling, and you should......

Photo by r_neches via Flickr Yesterday, parents his the streets of downtown Los Angeles to protest decisions made by the Los Angeles Unified School District who denied space for charter schools, which are still public schools, but are run differently. The LA Times explains: Charter schools are public campuses that are typically authorized by local school districts but run independently. There are more than 100 authorized by the Los Angeles Unified School District, and......

LAUSD officials trying to stop tomorrow's massive one-hour teacher strike has failed -- a judge struck down the request for a restraining order and the Public Employee Relations Board decided not to file an injunction against the action earlier this week. Union teachers will protest during the first hour of school across the city because of Gov. Schwarzengegger’s plan to cut $3.8 billion from public education, which is expected to affect $350 million of LAUSD's......

Photo by r_neches via Flickr "As parents, we are ready to fight this. We are ready to have protests and boycotts and do whatever is necessary to ensure adequate funding for our schools and for social services that affect children and their families," states a petition released by a group calling themselves Parents for Full Funding. Ron Kaye, ex-editor of the Daily News, sees this as a movement that's the seed beginnings of civil......

After a month of study and protest, City Council put some closure on the budget for fiscal year 2008-2009. With a $406 million deficit, the biggest the city has ever seen, tough choices were made, but some of what was threatened was saved -- line items such as library hours, film festivals, the city's television Channel 36, homeless shelter beds and calligraphers to decorate city proclamations, according to the Daily News. And to save programs......

Members of a Los Angeles City Council committee took 50 hours to deliberate, but finally put their stamp of approval on a $7 billion budget for the city. In the past weeks, news of proposed cuts to services and the elimination of several jobs have rippled through the city, causing anger and apprehension about what life would be like for some Angelenos under the new plan. However, some of the proposed cuts were reversed in......

In light of ongoing news about the city's budget crisis (a predicted $295 million dollar deficit), information about the number of people employed by the city who earn more than $100,000 is not sitting well with some. As reported in the Daily News, the newspaper conducted research and compiled a "review of salary data [that] shows more than 21,000 city workers take home $70,000 or more a year and more than 6,000 take home more......

The city of Los Angeles is struggling over a $406 million dollar shortfall, forcing them to look at ways to cut costs and increase revenue. One obvious idea on the revenue side of things: parking tickets. It was mentioned two weeks ago that the city could raise an extra $20 million by adding 8,600 miles to the street sweeping schedule, therefore allowing more opportunity for parking enforcement. But the Daily News' most recent coverage of......

Mayor Villaraigosa addressed his third State of the City at the LAPD's Parker Center last night, focusing in on gangs and the city budget, but also with some other talking points that were worth noting: On public transit: "Our national leaders must rethink the balance of our spending on highways vs. subways. It's time to recognize that the only true solution to long-term to gridlock in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the country is......