California lawmakers are responding with some relief to Governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposal and announcement that the state has no more budget deficit.
Democratic lawmakers – who hold a supermajority in both chambers – said whatever differences they have with the budget are small.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg agreed with the Governor that the state should pay down its “wall of debt”, reserve money in a rainy day fund, and reinvest in education.
“He’s right when he says that fiscal discipline is not the enemy of Democratic governance, I would add a little addendum to that which is fiscal discipline is not the enemy of governance by California Democrats either," said Steinberg. "We are in this position in part because together we stepped up and made the difficult decisions.”
Republican lawmakers said they believe Democrats are going to have a hard time saiding “no” to new spending.
They said they’re disappointed that only an additional two-point-seven billion dollars of the more than six-billion provided by Proposition 30 will go to fund K-12 education and community colleges.
