Ca. Gov's Austerity Budget Revealed

Call him the state program Terminator: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget will eliminate the state’s welfare-to-work program, child-care for the poor, freeze funding for schools, cut state workers’ pay, eliminate narcotics treatment, and take away 60 percent of the state money used in local mental-health programs. The $83.4 billion budget does not raise taxes; instead it relies heavily on the $3.4 billion bailout from Washington to close the state’s $19.1 billion budget gap. The budget also refrains from cutting funds for state parks or the higher education system, whose students protested heavily late last year. Elimination of the state’s welfare-to-work program will save an estimated $1.6 billion, but will take away $500 a month for 1.3 million people—including 1 million children—and will make California the only state without such a program.