Just ran across this story from the Sacramento Bee on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement today that he’ll declare a “fiscal emergency” in January to speed up budget cuts in efforts to soften the $14 billion expected budget shortfall, more than 12 percent of the state’s annual budget.
We pointed you last month to a story in the L.A. Times about the budget shortfall stemming from the housing sector slowdown, then estimated to be $10 billion.
Back to the Bee. I found this bit of context interesting:
It will mark the first time Schwarzenegger has used the “fiscal emergency” authority that he asked voters to create by passing Proposition 58 in 2004. The provision allows the governor to declare an emergency when revenues are “substantially below” what was anticipated when the budget was signed. Such an emergency would summon the Legislature into special session.
Governments all over the state face sobering downward adjustments in their revenue projections from property taxes, sales taxes and other sources tied to the housing market. The trouble has been magnified in Chula Vista, where foreclosures and slumping sales are driving down prices and casting a shadow over some of the city’s expenditures and promises made when the market was booming.