Doom, de doom doom

California schools move closer to doomsday (Kathryn Baron; TOP-ed)

     On Tuesday Gov. Jerry Brown called off negotiations with Republican lawmakers that were aimed at putting the tax extension up for a statewide vote in June. This move pretty much crushes any chances of sparing public schools from even deeper cuts for the next school year.
     “Each and every Republican legislator I’ve spoken to believes that voters should not have this right to vote unless I agree to an ever changing list of collateral demands,” Brown said in a statement posted on his website….
. . .
     “Much is at stake, and in the coming weeks I will focus my efforts on speaking directly to Californians and coming up with honest and real solutions to our budget crisis,” said Brown in his statement. His communications staff wouldn’t elaborate on what that means; however, one idea under discussion is gathering signatures to put the tax extension on the November ballot. But that may be too late to help schools that will have already laid off teachers and implemented their “Plan B” austerity measures. It also poses a thorny political dilemma. The current tax increases expire at midnight on June 30. Any vote after that is no longer an extension of the current taxes; it becomes a new tax increase, and that’s a much harder sell to voters.

     In late January, we excerpted from an article by (CCLC’s) Scott Lay in which Lay proclaimed:

     As if Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to slash $400 million from community colleges' budget was not bad enough, it looks like it could get worse. ¶ "If its an all-cuts budget with no revenues, we estimate it will be $900 million cut from colleges," said Scott Lay, a president and chief executive officer of the Community College League of California.
. . .
     Brown's spending plan, which assumes voters approve a $12 billion extension of existing temporary taxes in a June election, would eliminate funding for 67,856 full-time students across California…. ¶ If the tax revenues are taken off the table, community colleges would need to cut an additional $500 million in each of the next five years, according to the league….

SEE ALSO State budget talks collapse, no June ballot measure (Total Buzz)

     Among the Republican leaders who have brought us to this difficult situation is SOCCCD's own "Dandy" Don Wagner, who, these days, is squawking and peeving and poking at the State Capitol. Like so many Republicans, Don seems to have essentially one message: we hate taxes.