We May Have a Budget, DBW AND Parks
As you’ve all heard, the great state of California now has a budget. Well, almost. The "kick the can down the road" budget — so called because it just postpones rather than solves the state’s inherent financial problems — still has to be approved by the state legislature tomorrow, and that’s no sure thing. For example, Assembly GOP leader Sam Blakeslee fumes that the early release of 27,000 prisoners wasn’t part of the deal, and if it is, it will kill the deal. It remains to be seen if this is just posturing or if he and the rest of his party will follow through with the threat. On the Democratic side, one local of the Service Employees International Union has mailed out strike authorization ballots to its 95,000 members, and many cities and counties, which will suffer devastating losses, are threatening to sue.
But assuming that the budget passes, there is at least a little bit of good news. First, the threatened mass closure of state parks isn’t going to happen. Yes, $8 million of the state funding to the parks will be cut, but that means Parks’ budget will only be cut by 12%. A lot of private companies, and employees of those companies, would love to have only had to take such a small hit. In any event, it looks likely that you’ll be able to enjoy Angel Island and most other parks as before.
While we haven’t been able to confirm it, it also appears that the California Department of Boating and Waterways will survive as a separate agency. There had been threats to combine it with two other state agencies to save money. Everyone in the state always licks their chops when looking at Cal Boating because it’s one of the few state agencies that actually funds itself.
As bad as everyone is willing to admit the budget is, it can’t be forgotten that it’s based on what are generally considered to be overly optimistic expectations of an economic recovery. California faces years of bashing to weather — and legislators may need to come up with another new budget in as little as six months. But hey, it looks like a great weekend to go sailing.