Governor Brown introduces new budget proposal

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders announced Monday that they reached an agreement on a majority-vote budget plan which will likely be voted on today or Wednesday.

The proposal is basically identical to the one the Governor vetoed earlier this month, except that it assumes that the state will bring in an additional $4 billion in revenues in the upcoming fiscal year, based in part on higher-than-expected revenue figures in recent months. If those revenues fail to materialize by January 2012, additional cuts to programs will be triggered, possibly including cuts to IHSS.

The governor, who has been working for months to secure Republican votes needed to hold a statewide election on expiring higher tax rates, told the Sacramento Bee that without a deal on his original proposal, leaders will have to “look very seriously” at using the initiative process to qualify a measure to secure future revenues. More detail, Sacramento Bee »