California Governor Jerry Brown wants to use money from a national housing settlement to help balance the state budget and some groups aren’t happy about it.
Pedro Morillas is with the California Public Interest Research Group, or CALPIRG. He says the $410 million California is getting from the settlement should be going to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes. “In the long-run, putting this money toward mitigating the foreclosure crisis will serve California better than putting it towards plugging a budget hole just for one year.”
Governor Brown’s latest budget proposal includes nearly $300 million from the housing settlement. Most of that would go to pay down bond debt related to low-income housing. The other roughly $100 million would be set aside for the following budget year.
The state’s non-partisan legislative analyst says the Governor’s proposal makes sense, given the state’s multi-billion dollar deficit.
But Attorney General Kamala Harris says the funds should be used to help Californians stay in their homes.
