Governor Brown and the legislature balanced next year's budget based on projections of how much revenue will be coming in. If those projections are off by a billion dollars, massive cuts will be automatically triggered in higher education, healthcare and other services. State Controller John Chiang says revenues for July were off by $539 million, more than half way to trigger point.
Chiang has also issued a blistering critique of the Los Angeles Community College District, which he points out is the biggest thing of its kind in the nation with 250,000 students on campuses in 36 cities. He accuses the district of "shoddy fiscal management" of such magnitude it "will undermine the public's trust and threaten billions of public dollars." What's the worst of it?