SACRAMENTO –Speaker John A. Pérez delivered the following Budget update at a joint media availability with Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg this morning.
"Good morning.
Yesterday, the Budget Committees of both houses reviewed the framework that will be the foundation of the budget that will be taken up by both houses on Friday.
This budget not only closes the deficit for this year, it erases the 20 billion dollar structural deficit California was facing 18 months ago, and turns it into a 2 billion dollar reserve by fiscal year 2015/16.
This budget protects and invests in public education this year, and increases Proposition 98 funding by 17 billion dollars over the next four years.
We make the tough choices necessary to eliminate the structural deficit, and we end the year with a reserve of approximately 550 million dollars.
But let's be clear about one thing: both the proposals put forward by the Governor and by the Legislature reflect the core issue driving our continued budget instability: cuts alone will not solve this problem.
New revenues are essential to stabilizing our budget and bringing it into long-term balance.
I strongly believe that the differences between the Governor's proposal and our proposal are bridgeable. Quite frankly, we're not only on the same page, we're in the same paragraph.
It's time California's chronic budget problems come to an end.
Every Democratic member of the Senate and Assembly is committed to accomplishing that important goal, and we will move forward with a budget proposal that does exactly that on Friday."
Opening remarks from Speaker Pérez (1:45)
Speaker Pérez says the plan constructed by the Legislature will solve the budget equation (:18)
Speaker Pérez says this year’s budget plan builds on last year’s difficult budget decisions to reduce the structural deficit (:24)
Speaker Pérez says too much attention is being paid to the difference between the Legislature and the Governor and not enough attention is focused on the common ground (:27)
Website of Speaker John A. Pérez: www.asmdc.org/speaker
CONTACT: John Vigna (916) 319-2408
