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New Sacramento Math

By Senator Tom Harman

What can be said about the Governor's proposed state budget for 2008-2009?

What has been widely reported is the effort of his administration to impose "across the board" cuts of ten percent to all government agencies. It is clear when you actually look at each department in the budget that this is not necessarily the case.

Many agencies are not subjected to the reduction, and the ten percent in many cases is based on their 2007-2008 expected expenditures, which actually result in a net increase in expenditures for the new budget year.

As demonstrated in Chart 1 below, the actual change in General Fund expenditures from Current Year (2007-08) to Budget Year (2008-09) is a reduction of only 2.3 percent and some state agencies actually experienced a net increase. It should also be noted that the 2007-08 proposed expenditures of $1034 billion are in fact $1.1 billion higher than the $102.3 billion level approved in the 2007-08 Budget Act. So, the Current Year spending "reduction" is actually an increase of $1.1 billion.

Furthermore, (see Chart 2) looking back over the past five years it is clear that even if the Governor's proposed budget-balancing reductions are approved, total state General Fund expenditures will have increased by nearly $25 billion (over 32%).

It is difficult to understand how a five-year spending increase of nearly $25 billion has been decried as "draconian" spending cuts. This must be some new kind of "Sacramento math."

Spending Increases by Agency
Current Year vs. Proposed Budget
(Dollars in millions)
Revised 2007-08
to 2008-09
AGENCY 2007-08 2008-09 Change % Change
Legislative, Judicial, Executive $3,914 3,787 $127 -3.2%
State and Consumer Services $597 $608 $11 .8%
Business, Transportation & Housing $1,526 $1,679 $153 10.0%
Resources $1,804 $1,657 -$147 -8.1%
Environmental Protection $91 $86 -$5 -5.5%
Health and Human Services $29,577 $29,298 -$279 -0.9%
Corrections and Rehabilitation $10,096 $10,268 $172 .7%
K-12 Education $42,045 $39,411 -$2,634 -6.3%
Higher Education $11,803 $11,699 -$04 -0.9%
Labor and Workforce Development $104 $98 -$6 -5.8%
General Government $1,816 $2,407 $591 32.5%
TOTALS $103,373 $100,998 -$2,375 -2.3%

Spending Increases by Agency
Over the Past Five Years
(Dollars in millions)
2003-04 to 2008-09
AGENCY 2003-04 2008-09 Change % Change
Legislative, Judicial, Executive $2,544 $3,787 $1,243 48.9%
State and Consumer Services $462 $608 $146 31.6%
Business, Transportation & Housing $499 $1,679 $1,180 236.5%
Resources $950 $1,657 $707 .4%
Environmental Protection $81 $86 6.2%
Health and Human Services $22,762 298 $6,536 28.7%
Corrections and Rehabilitation $5,389 $10,268 $4,879 0.5%
K-12 Education $32,457 $39,411 $6,954 21.4%
Higher Education $8,780 $11,699 $2,919 33.2%
Labor and Workforce Development $113 $98 -$15 -13.3%
General Government $2,290 $2,407 $117 5.1%
TOTALS $76,327 $100,998 $24,671 32.3%

Senator Tom Harman serves in California's 35th District.