Link: San Luis Obispo County’s website | 03/26/2008 | Governor tells SLO County that ’nothing is sacred’ when it comes to budget cuts.

Local officials hoping to see area state parks protected from budget cuts were informed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning that nothing is sacred as he has proposed 10 percent across-the-board cuts to make up a growing state deficit. …

Thousands of layoff notices have been sent to teachers across the state, including some in San Luis Obispo County, in anticipation of the state budget cuts. And seven local state parks have been proposed for closure. …

But his conversation grew immediately serious as he stated repeatedly that “California doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem.”

What was expected to be a $10 billion shortfall in December has grown to a $16.5 billion budget shortfall, according to the state’s non-partisan budget analyst. Some estimates are that it could be a $20 billion deficit between revenues and planned expenditures by May, the governor said.

“We really don’t know where it is going to end up,” Schwarzenegger said.

He said that some areas are preoccupied with cuts in education, while large metropolitan efforts want to see no cuts in law enforcement as they deal with gangs and other problems.

“I don’t want to promise you that yes we are going to take care of schools, yes we are going to take care of parks, yes we are going to take care of law enforcement,” he said, stressing that cuts just have to be made to balance this year’s budget. “The State of California has to live within its means.”

He stressed that adopting budget reform would lead to protecting the state in future years, although it would not stop steep cuts this year.

Some critics of the California budget process have noted that Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that reduced property taxes to 1 percent of a its assessed value, has been a leading contributor to the state’s ongoing financial uncertainties.

But Schwarzenegger said that Proposition 13 is not the problem, spending is the problem.

“It does not have anything to do with changing Proposition 13 or anything like that,” he said.

The Governor, you might want to know, years ago invested a portion of his movie-star earnings in commercial real estate in California. He has profited hugely from the run up of land values in California. His own children, most likely, attend private schools, and will have no difficulty affording private colleges.