noooo...we're not in the black and the person who wrote that article obviously doesn't live here. He read a press release or heard the rah-rah story that was on NPR this week about it.
What's happened over the last couple years is a shell game. There are several moving pieces.
1. Since we've been living under severe deficits for at least 5 years, everything that can be cut and them some, has been.
Our school years are a couple weeks shorter (unpaid furlough days for the staff), 1/3 of our courthouses have been closed (leading to a boom in the arbitration business since no one can get a day in court) and police and fire have been cut back....significantly in some places.
2. The state shifted tens of thousands of "non-violant" offenders from state prisons to county jails (not funding or severely underfunding this move) which, as you probably can guess has pissed off counties and cities because now *they're* the ones in the red.
3. Prop 30...since this is a leftist paradise, the voters passed a proposition in November that imposes across the board tax increases along with the tired and expected "soak the rich" adjusted brackets.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_30,_Sales_and_Income_Tax_Increase_(2012)
It's allegedly a temporary increase, but I've been alive too long to believe that bullshit.
Essentially, when prop 30 passed, the budget hole was filled.
But with the budget gap filled, we still have our debt and we're still running with austerity imposed on public institutions.
Noticeable changes? Yeah.
I pay more in taxes for fewer services.
Funny how that works.
Edit: I should add, I've been a critic of Jerry Brown for a couple decades. However...He's been pretty pragmatic and more of a centrist the last couple years, still, I'd gladly loan his services to another state.
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