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Calif. budget still in discussion, State Legislature deadlock continues

The stalemate continues in the State Legislature over a budget proposal that would raise taxes and cut state spending by the billions, including large cuts to spending for education.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the current budget proposal “was negotiated almost entirely in secret” last week and includes an $890 million cut to state funding of colleges and universities, although that figure is subject to change.

The changes would affect the state budget for the next 17 months, according to Ted Kadowaki, the associate vice president of budget and university services. This is because the budget will apply to the last six months of the current budget, which lasts until the end of June, and would then continue to apply to the next 12 months thereafter.

The CSU’s 2009-2010 budget asks for $3.5 billion from the state general fund. Teresa Ruiz, a Cal State University public affairs communications specialist, said it is not yet clear how the cut would be divided between the University of California and CSU systems. She said the CSU does not wish to comment on the proposal’s implications for the CSU system until a final vote is made.

The state budget proposal calls for approximately $14 billion in tax increases, approximately $15 billion in spending cuts and approximately $11 billion in borrowing. It was composed amid projections of a soon-to-be $42 billion state deficit.

The tax increases include raising the state sales tax statewide by 1 percent, heightening the gasoline tax and doubling the price of vehicle licensing fees.

State education spending as a whole would be curtailed by $8 billion.

As of Monday afternoon, the Legislature was only one vote shy of the two-thirds majority vote required to pass the budget, according to the Sacramento Bee.

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