The Budget Conference Committee is meeting on child care and higher education as this is being posted. Tomorrow the Committee is scheduled to hear health issues but rumors persist that this will be cancelled. If it is cancelled, the health issues are likely to go on Monday and human services would be moved to Tuesday. Obviously all of this is fluid. Check back here for updates.

The Committee is taking few actions as they discuss the various proposals put forward by the Administration and the Legislative Analyst. While there has been significant press attention on several high profile elimination of agencies and boards, these actions barely scratch the surface of the budget problem. The big cuts that are being discussed but no actions taken.

In general it appears that the Committee process is slowing down. At its current pace, it will not have a product finished by June 15th as had been promised. Instead it appears that the real deadline is June 30th. That is the date the Controller says the Legislature and Governor must act so that the state can borrow funds for cash flow purposes.

This week there has been growing disucssion of realignment of health and human service programs to counties. The idea is to give counties a greater share of cost in some programs so that they will have an incentive to manage them efficiently. If counties take on more of the cost of the program, the state saves money. Counties, however, are very unwilling to take on new programs without additional revenue. One proposal under consideration would allow counties to raise parcel taxes with a 55% vote rather than by a two-thirds vote. While lowering vote thresholds for taxes has merit, it could result in uneven levels of public services from one county to another. A wealthy county might increase the tax and have a robust foster care or CalWORKs program for example, but another county might not have the same political will and have a low level of benefits. It might be difficult to get approval for tax increases if the underlying program is not popular with the public. Advocates are very concerned that any realignment be done carefully and with full protection of all program participants. We should not create a Serrano approach to providing public service.

We have gotten a very strong response to our sign-on letter and phone calls are continuing to pour into offices. Next week we need the pressure to increase. We will soon be rolling out an expanded and sharper response to the Governor's budget proposals. In the meantime have a nice weekend, get some rest and let's get back at it Monday morning.