California's Budget Crisis

California’s Budget Crisis

With the Legislature working hard to reach agreement on a balanced budget plan for California, Assembly Republicans have put together this website to keep you informed of the latest news in the budget debate. As you click through our site, you can read about Republican reforms to grow the economy and prevent future deficits and learn what we’re doing to protect Californians from higher taxes. Thank you visiting our site, and please check back soon as the information will be updated often.

Democrats at the State Capitol are now pushing a budget plan that contains $9 billion in higher taxes on hard-working Californians and actually increases state spending by $1.6 billion next year. Here’s what the Democrat budget plan would mean for you and your family:

Democrat budget plan ignores California’s $15 billion budget deficit and rejects many ideas put forward by Republicans to find budget savings. Instead, their plan increases spending year-over-year by $1.6 billion, including a 6.6 percent increase in spending for state health and welfare programs.

The Democrat budget would increase taxes by $9 billion, including eliminating the child dependent tax credit for thousands of Californians and increasing higher income tax brackets for many Californians. Raising taxes will hurt working families struggling to make ends especially hard. Imposing higher taxes on businesses will make the costs of doing business in California even more expensive, leading to more downsizing and more job losses.

The only real cuts Democrats propose in their plan are to local public safety programs. This will result in the loss of over 1,000 front-line police officers and deputy sheriffs who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities. Also on the budget chopping block are funds for rural sheriffs, community policing, the war on meth and forensic services for local police such as fingerprinting and DNA analysis.

The Democrat budget includes a dangerous direct discharge parole plan that would let thousands of serious criminals go unsupervised without having to check in with their parole officer. Under this approach, law enforcement would have no idea where these former inmates are living or if they are returning to a life of crime. We wouldn’t know if they are abusing illegal drugs and alcohol, or worse, owning a dangerous firearm – putting our families at risk.