Budgeting

Gov. Jerry Brown has been in office for only about a month, and it's way too early to make a call about his effectiveness. But his decision this week to cancel his predecessor's wrongheaded plans to sell off 11 state-owned office buildings to help balance the budget is a sign that at long last, California may have a leader who puts the state's long-term interests first. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to sell the buildings and then lease the office space back from private owners always struck us as self-destructive, a move we likened in October to a homeowner who sells his appliances, furniture and clothes to pay the mortgage; eventually, with all his assets gone, the bank will foreclose anyway.

SACRAMENTO - California's financial picture is much brighter than Gov. Jerry Brown suggested in his latest spending plan, according to the Legislature's top budget advisor, who said the state will have $3.2 billion more at its disposal than the governor estimated. Improvements on Wall Street and in the state's housing market will mean about $4.4 billion in extra cash through the next budget year, rather than the $1.2 billion the governor has projected, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said in a report Friday.

From Sacramento California's magnificent state parks are falling apart fast. The budgeting system for state government is in shambles and practically dysfunctional. Proposition 21 on the November ballot would fix the parks. But it would pound another kink into budgeting for the rest of government. Or maybe not. This one is tough. And as with most tough policy issues, simplistic rhetoric doesn't get to the real crux of the matter. Yes, we all love parks -- some of us more than others, but no one wants to see them continue to deteriorate.

In a reminder of the boom years of the late 1990s, California's fiscal picture brightened in the first few months of 2013, leaving the state unexpectedly flush with cash. But when Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his revised budget proposal Tuesday for fiscal 2013-14, he did something much more reminiscent of the "era of limits" in the 1970s: He laid out a cautious and moderate course. Specifically, he called on the Legislature to increase spending by less than 1% while doubling the amount held in reserve.

Re "A better direct democracy," editorial, Nov. 17 One of the problems with our initiative process is "budgeting by the ballot box." We like to say nasty things about our Legislature and our governor not being able to produce good budgets, but the citizens themselves are responsible for much of this mess. We vote for propositions that often direct funds to certain projects without any thought as to how they affect the budget, leaving it to the Legislature and the governor to find the funding somewhere.

The reason that the United States is now the world's largest debtor nation is because we don't employ zero-based budgeting, in which every dollar spent must be justified every fiscal year. If Congress, as collector and distributor of the nation's financial resources, accepted the responsibility of justifying where, how and how much of the taxpayer's money is spent each year, its members would be forced to face the hard questions of leadership that we ostensively elect and pay them to face.

Re "A lesson in adaptation," Feb. 11 This also lowers the quality of education for English-speaking students -- not to mention overcrowding and financial budgeting strain. Why should anyone breaking the law be entitled to any taxpayer-supported programs? ED SKEBE Manhattan Beach

The Times describes the Democratic National Convention as "funded solely by private money" and then adds that the "only" cost to the city will be for "security and traffic assistance" (Aug. 14). This is apparently contradicted by the mayor's recent announcement that he is budgeting about $9 million (almost 25% of the convention's full cost) in overtime costs for these matters. There is no reason for us to kid ourselves that we are getting something for nothing when we are not. MAX STRAUSS Los Angeles

Orange County CEO Bill Popejoy is right when he argues that there is no reasonable alternative to Measure R, the proposed sales tax increase on the June 27 ballot. The county ought to embrace "R for Recovery," as Popejoy puts it--but also three other R's: Restructuring, Results-based budgeting and Reform. Restructuring involves reorganizing work into self-managing teams that eliminate superfluous mid-level supervisors. Accomplishing it is no small task. The key problems are envisioning new ways of organizing work and overcoming resistance both from those whose supervisorial jobs are at risk and from those who can't or won't adopt the new thinking.

If the additional floating tax that you advocate is put into effect, the windfall in federal revenues would only serve to have Congress sidestep the question of realistic budgeting and cost control of operating our government--it would just perpetuate spending. You point out that Congress is agonizing on how to cut $40 billion from the budget to satisfy the Gramm-Rudman Act. Gasoline prices are not a large concern for people who earn $50,000-plus per year and who may be given a car allowance by their employers; but ask the families who are barely making ends meet how important 25 cents a gallon is to them.

SACRAMENTO - Dynamics have shifted dramatically in California's Capitol since Gov. Jerry Brown returned two years ago - both fiscal and political dynamics. The two are intertwined. And Brown is the beneficiary. In short, because the state's fiscal health is being restored - in no small part because of Brown - he is in a much stronger position to deal with the Legislature. Essentially, the governor now needs the Legislature much less than it needs him. Brown referred to this ground-shifting in a comment toward the end of his budget news conference Tuesday.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown is taking another stab at largely eliminating a state $700-million tax break for "enterprise zones" aimed at creating jobs in economically strapped localities. The governor failed in his efforts in 2011 to eliminate these politically popular quarter-century-old zones, located in the legislative districts of about three out of every four lawmakers. In his revised budget Tuesday, Brown proposed that 40 enterprise zones be replaced by a sales tax credit for companies that purchase manufacturing or biotech research and development equipment.

WASHINGTON - The federal deficit is shrinking more quickly than expected, and the government's long-term debt has largely stabilized for the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a report that could strengthen the Obama administration's hand in the budget battles with congressional Republicans. The budget office continues to say the federal government faces a long-range budget problem - mostly caused by the costs of an aging population - but its new forecast pushes the crunch point for that problem off into a considerably more distant future: well after the 2020 presidential election.

SACRAMENTO - California may finally be free of deficits, but Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a cautious budget Tuesday, saying the state's financial condition remains treacherously unstable. Brown put lawmakers on notice that he had no desire to ratchet up spending despite a multibillion-dollar windfall of tax receipts in recent months. Saying there is no evidence that the surge will last, he reduced his revenue estimates for the budget year that begins July 1. Only schools would get a substantial boost beyond what the governor proposed in January, before state income spiked.

All he asks, Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich frequently says, is that voters judge him on his record. As he wages an uphill battle to hang onto to his job in the May 21 election, Trutanich rattles off a list of reasons he should be "rehired" to head one of the nation's largest municipal law firms. He cites a substantially reduced reliance on costly outside attorneys, favorable outcomes in lawsuits that he says have saved taxpayers more than $300 million and a crackdown on illegal billboards that activists called scourges on their neighborhoods.

WASHINGTON - The drought that caused record wildfires in California and other Western states last year is expected to persist through the summer, but fewer firefighters will battle this year's blazes in other regions because of federal budget cuts, top federal officials said Monday. The U.S. Forest Service will hire 500 fewer firefighters this year, the result of "line by line" budget reductions required by Congress, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a conference call with reporters.

Re "Valley Busway to Subway Is Studied," Jan. 11. It was interesting to read about Supervisor Yaroslavsky's comments on the proposed high-speed bus lane to feed commuters to the new North Hollywood Metro Red Line station. So he doesn't think that it is "rocket science" about the need for such a bus route. However it must be rocket science as officials propose that the first segment of this route be between Woodman and Balboa. Why would anyone start a project like this in the middle?

Eight years ago, California was the world's fifth-largest economy and surging. Today, we're the eighth largest and falling. What has caused this decline? Simply put, California is being held hostage by partisan gridlock and a state Constitution that is the third longest in the world. The solution is straightforward: Make fundamental changes to our Constitution to streamline government so that California can compete more effectively. Let's face it -- government reform is not a sexy issue.

The teenager showed up in a panic on Thursday, cradling a wounded puppy in arms spattered with blood. A stray dog had attacked his 2-month-old pit bull on a walk near their South Los Angeles home. The city animal shelter nearby was the only place he knew to go. He ran over to Amanda Casarez, pleading for help. She took one look at the puppy's bloody gash and pulled out her cellphone. Within hours the pup was in surgery, the vet bill guaranteed by strangers from a pool of volunteers working with Downtown Dog Rescue, which sponsors an intervention program at the shelter.

Had the rain lingered a bit longer in central Alabama, Bob Jenkins and his Front Row Motorsports team might still be looking for their first win in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. Instead, they're now the little NASCAR team that could. Front Row's David Ragan, exploiting a push from teammate David Gilliland, won Sunday's race in near darkness at Talladega Superspeedway after a 31/2-hour rain delay. Gilliland, who grew up in Riverside, finished second. It was the first time in nine years of trying that Jenkins' team, which operates on a shoestring compared with powerhouse teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing, reached Victory Lane in a Cup race.