Brown's End To Budget Talks Leaves More Questions Than Answers

After Governor Jerry Brown decided to end all budget talks with the legislature, the news left most much in the state as they had been before – waiting for answers.

School districts, probably the extensions, are now left wondering if their budgets are as grave as they anticipated, or perhaps even worse.

“Yesterday, I stopped the discussions that I had been conducting with various members of the Republican party regarding our state's massive deficit," Brown said in a statement released Tuesday. "The budget plan that I put forth is balanced between deep cuts and extensions of currently existing taxes and I believe it is in the best interest of California… Each and every Republican legislator I’ve spoken to believes that voters should not have this right to vote unless I agree to an ever changing list of collateral demands."

Glendora Unified School District projected a loss of $349 in ADA funding per pupil – a total loss of about $2.5 million – without the proposed tax extensions.

Marc Chaldu, assistant superintendent, said the district anticipates drastic cuts, but concrete details of how those cuts would take shape remains to be seen.

“Basically, we’re still in a waiting game,” said Chaldu. “There’s speculation everywhere of what we can expect. We drafted a budget based on the worst case scenario, but there are even talks that the situation is even worse that the worst case scenario.”

Chaldu said there had been reports of least another $4 billion reduction on top of the proposed cuts to California school budgets, but like much of the state budget, these numbers are still not certain.

While the district has already handed out layoff notices to about 30 district employees this month, Chaldu did not rule out further layoffs of classified employees in August. However, that is dependent on whether the district can put together a budget in June or July, among many other factors, Chaldu said.

Even with Brown pushing to put the tax extension initiatives on the November ballot, Chaldu said he remained skeptical of the chances of those initiatives succeeding.

“At that point, we will be reinstating taxes rather then extending it,” said Chaldu. “It will be harder to ask people to put in money that they had been used to having in their pocket.”

Although school districts are bearing the brunt of the failed initiatives, redevelopment agencies appear to be in the clear – for now.

Still, planning director Jeff Kugel said the city remains in reactive mode.

“We’re still going to wait and see what Sacramento comes up with in terms of the budget,” said Kugel.

With Brown back to the drawing board, the California Redevelopment Association (CRA) and the California League of Cities have drafted a proposed alternative to Brown’s plan to eliminate redevelopment agencies, one they say will comply with Proposition 22.  According to the proposal, redevelopment agencies will voluntarily contribute to school districts in exchange for extensions to the life of redevelopments agencies. This will create revenue of $2.7 billion, more than the estimated $1.7 billion the elimination of redevelopment agencies would generate, according to the proposal.

“I think this would be a better alternative over total elimination of redevelopment agencies,” said Kugel.

Brown has yet to respond to the alternative proposal.