Assembly Member Anna Caballero, the Salinas Democrat who represents San Benito County, issued the following statement in response to the passage of the state budget:
“I’m disappointed that last-minute negotiations allowed a single lawmaker to pursue his agenda without public input. However, most of us in the Legislature understood the gravity of the situation and knew we couldn’t wait even one more day.
“Lay-off notices were set to go out today to 20,000 state workers. An additional 374 construction projects and the nearly 90,000 jobs that go with them were on the brink of cancellation. This is in addition to the 2,000 construction projects that were halted last December. And funds from the federal stimulus package were at risk of disappearing if we didn’t act.
“The result is a budget that is a mixed bag of pain and relief for our state. Cuts to education, transportation, and critical health and social services will mean real, hard sacrifices for the poor, disabled and seniors, children and college students.
“We nearly balanced cuts with new revenues and spread the costs as broadly as possible, which have been my objectives from the start of this economic meltdown. With funds from the federal stimulus package, we hope to jump start the state’s economic recovery and put hard-working Californians back to work.
“The good news is that now, finally, we can move forward. We can resume state payments and construction projects that have been on hold, we can access the bond market to start up new infrastructure projects, we can pursue efforts to create jobs and invest in California, and we can get back to delivering critical services for our citizens.
“As always, I remain committed to working with all of my colleagues to prevent another budget delay like this one to help our state regain its economic health as quickly as possible.”
