LAO: May Revise "Makes Sense"
The initial analysis of the governor's revised budget is out from Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill and her researchers.
Headline: the revised budget's tendency toward spending one-time money on one-time costs is good.
Digging a little deeper:
*The LAO still thinks long-term revenues will be a little higher than Schwarzenegger. She also thinks the administration has overestimated tax receipts in the 2004-05 year.
* Hill continues to raise doubts about some of the governor's budget assumptions-- namely, negotiating $408 million in state employee contract savings; shifting $469 million in teacher retirement costs to local school districts; and paying $525 million in pension obligations by selling bonds.
You can find the full report here.
POST-NEWS CONFERENCE UPDATE: Two other items that will no doubt remain on the radar-- Hill now estimates the structural deficit reappearing in 2006-07 at $5 billion, up from $4 billion in her February analysis... and the much disputed "did he promise to pay or didn't he" amount for K-12 education, Hill says, is now roughly $3 billion.
