Depending on whom you talk to, the impending Facebook initial public offering may either provide a considerable financial windfall for the cash-strapped state, or be a drop in the bucket that may not amount to much. The IPO is projected to generate about $500 million in tax revenue from capital gains, an amount that could go to any number of pared back programs or services.
While not an insignificant amount of funding, the state must still somehow find a way to contend with an intractable $9.2 billion budget deficit. So it is no surprise that along with all the headlines trumpeting the benefits the social media’s IPO may have on the state’s coffers, news of ongoing budget negotiations continue to provide a sobering counter effect.
As news emanating from Sacramento continues to offer a bleak picture of what may lie ahead, what little good news trickles our way is all the more appreciated. While it may be just the latest in a series of Band-Aid solutions that the Legislature has continually been forced to fall back on in recent times, Thursday’s decision to send the governor a bill that allows the state controller to borrow $865 million from various internal accounts to ensure the state can continue to operate is another small reprieve.
Also, in a move that prevented $248 million in school transportation funding from being axed as part of trigger cuts, lawmakers approved a bill that alters a midyear budget cut to education that was approved in last year’s budget. Locally, the cut would have amounted to a loss of about $1.3 million over the next two school years, county officials estimated.
While the transportation funding will benefit many of the state’s rural students as well as those who attend overcrowded districts, one Democratic lawmaker was quick to call it a “Band-Aid” on a much bigger problem,
Although every single voter would argue they deserve more from their legislators, it seems these days it is the best we can hope for.
While not an insignificant amount of funding, the state must still somehow find a way to contend with an intractable $9.2 billion budget deficit. So it is no surprise that along with all the headlines trumpeting the benefits the social media’s IPO may have on the state’s coffers, news of ongoing budget negotiations continue to provide a sobering counter effect.
As news emanating from Sacramento continues to offer a bleak picture of what may lie ahead, what little good news trickles our way is all the more appreciated. While it may be just the latest in a series of Band-Aid solutions that the Legislature has continually been forced to fall back on in recent times, Thursday’s decision to send the governor a bill that allows the state controller to borrow $865 million from various internal accounts to ensure the state can continue to operate is another small reprieve.
Also, in a move that prevented $248 million in school transportation funding from being axed as part of trigger cuts, lawmakers approved a bill that alters a midyear budget cut to education that was approved in last year’s budget. Locally, the cut would have amounted to a loss of about $1.3 million over the next two school years, county officials estimated.
While the transportation funding will benefit many of the state’s rural students as well as those who attend overcrowded districts, one Democratic lawmaker was quick to call it a “Band-Aid” on a much bigger problem,
Although every single voter would argue they deserve more from their legislators, it seems these days it is the best we can hope for.
