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Lawmakers React to Brown's Budget Revision

Creative Commons licensed from Flickr user Glenngould
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Republicans at the State Capitol are pleased Governor Jerry Brown is taking a more moderate approach to spending California’s budget surplus. But they still have some criticisms. Katie Orr reports from Sacramento.

No formal rainy day fund, no acknowledgement of possible union pay raises, high taxes that hurt business. State Republicans listed those as among their top concerns with the Governor’s May budget revision.

Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell is vice chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. He likes the idea of giving schools more control over how they spend their money. But he says Brown’s weighted funding formula doesn’t make sense.

“A number of us, on a bi-partisan level, are looking at some alternative formulas that may make more sense to all schools rather than just favor about 50 percent of the schools that would benefit by his formula,” says Gorell.

Democrats in the state legislature were generally supportive of Brown’s budget revisions. The governor called for fiscal moderation in the coming year.  Assembly Speaker John Perez says the Assembly will pass a budget on time and without sliding back into a deficit.

“We believe that there is a lot to like in the governor’s revise. I don’t believe that there are any major areas of disagreements between the Assembly and the Governor that cannot be resolved in short order,” says Perez.

Democratic Senate President pro Tem Darrel Steinberg was a bit more measured in his response. In a statement, he says it’s nice the state doesn’t have to make cuts. But he’s disappointed Brown doesn’t propose restoring previous cuts made to the courts and health and human services.

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