Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing the elimination of some California welfare programs to help fill a growing multi-billion dollar budget gap. And as Marianne Russ reports from Sacramento, more proposals to cut spending are on the way.
Governor Schwarzenegger is calling for an additional five and a half billion dollars in cuts. They include the elimination of Cal Works, which provides welfare-to-work assistance and Healthy Families, which provides health insurance for kids. The Governor also wants to phase out Cal Grants and cut state park funding. The ideas didn't go over well with Democratic Assemblymember and Budget Chair Noreen Evans.
"We're looking at a California where we neglect our elderly, our disabled, our women and our children. This used to be the golden state. Now it's a sorry state. And this is not my California," Evans says.
Schwarzenegger is calling for the new cuts instead of borrowing from Wall Street, as he'd originally proposed. The Governor is expected to call for an additional three billion in cuts by the end of the week. That's because the non-partisan legislative analyst puts the deficit at $24 billion, rather than the $21 billion the Governor's budget estimated.
Lawmakers say they're working to balance the budget by the end of June. The state faces a cash shortage in July.
