CA gov Brown calls for more spending, $7 billion in new taxes

◼ Mr. Brown’s budget was supposed to be released next Tuesday. But the state’s Department of Finance inadvertently posted the budget on its Web site on Thursday afternoon, sending Mr. Brown’s office scrambling to get his budget out. - Adam Nagourney/New York Times

Even if voters approve the taxes Mr. Brown proposed as part of the $92 billion budget for 2012 — which is far from certain — this budget still contains a new round of $4.2 billion in cuts, mainly to welfare and home health care. Last year, the state imposed over $5 billion in spending cuts.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Mr. Brown said at a news conference that served as a reminder of the extent to which budget problems have dominated his first year in office. “What I’ve laid out is going to be very hard to digest.”

◼ California: Governor Brown thinks we’re stupid - Sister Toldja

A little background: under Proposition 98, passed in 1988, funds for K-12 education in California must increase every year (4*); it’s required by the state constitution. As you’ll see in the summary charts for the budget (PDF, via Moe Lane), Brown’s budget includes a $4.8 billion increase in K-12 funding. Look familiar? It should; that’s the same amount cited as a “slash” in funding in the above quote. In other words, the “cut in education funding” is really the elimination of a proposed increase, not a genuine cut at all.

And that’s the lie: the “cut” the Democrats are shrieking about would really be just holding education spending at it’s already-generous level.

*(4) The law can be suspended for a year by a 2/3rds vote of the legislature. (which may) have to happen if the voters reject the tax increase.

◼ NEW: Gov. Brown’s Budget ‘Holds Kids Hostage’ - Katy GrimesCalWatchDog

◼ Brown’s Proposed Budget Increases Spending, and Creates a False Choice - Jon Fleischman/Flash Report