Amador County – The Governor’s budget proposal last week included a plan to reorganize 12 state agencies into 10, and eliminate 39 state entities, and 9 programs.

Gov. Jerry Brown in the transcript said $15 billion dollars in cuts to the state budget last year eliminated 15,000 positions in 2011-2012. The proposed 2012-13 budget cuts would have the Department of Finance conduct “department-by-department review to identify additional positions for elimination and permanently reduced positions to reflect the smaller size of state government.”

Brown said the budget “keeps the cuts made last year and adds new ones” and “without some new taxes, damaging cuts to schools, universities, public safety and only our courts will increase. That is why I will ask the voters to approve a temporary tax increase on the wealthy, a modest temporary increase in the sales tax and to guarantee that the new revenues be spent only on education.”

He also asked “that the voters guarantee ongoing funding for local public safety programs” in a ballot measure, which “will not solve all of our fiscal problems, but it will stop further cuts to education and public safety and halt the trend of double-digit tuition increases.”

Brown’s proposals include eliminating California Emergency Management Agency and making it an office reporting directly to the governor. Agency restructuring would creating one “Transportation Agency,” combining Caltrans, DMV, the “High Speed Rail Authority,” CHP, the California Transportation Commission and the Board of Pilot Commissioners.

Another reorganization would create the “Government Operations Agency,” combining departments of General Services, Human Resources, Technology, Administrative Law, Public Employees Retirement System, State Teachers Retirement System, State Personnel Board, and Government Claims Board, with a newly restructured “Department of Revenue.”

Brown’s budget would create a “Business and Consumer Services Agency,” made up of departments of Consumer Affairs, Housing and Community Development, Fair Employment and Housing, Alcoholic Beverage Control, and a new Department of Business Oversight.

The budget would transfer Infrastructure Bank, Film and Tourism commissions, Small Business Centers, and the Small Business Guarantee Loan Program into a new Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

The budget would eliminate the Departments of Mental Health and alcohol and drug programs, dividing those responsibilities among departments of health services, public health, social services, education, and health planning and development, and the Mental Health Services and Oversight Accountability Commission.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.