S IGNA L T R IBU N E Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
VOL. XXXIX NO. 3
January13, 2017
State of LB is ‘strong,’ mayor says At yearly address, Garcia detailed Measure A, public safety and infrastructure. Denny Cristales Editorial Assistant
As President Barack Obama delivered his farewell address to the American people the evening of Jan. 10 in his hometown of Chicago, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia concurrently had some remarks of his own for his State of the City address that Tuesday night inside the Terrace Theater at the Long Beach Convention Center. Although the two elected officials have different responsibilities, they both share one thing– an optimistic view of the future. Garcia was firm in his belief that Long Beach– with the passage of Measure A this past November, infrastructure and public-safety improvements and the see CITY page 15
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Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia discussed many items, including the Long Beach College Promise as it relates to local education, at his State of the City Address at the Long Beach Convention Center in the Terrace Theater on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
Governor releases budget facing $2-billion deficit Brown’s proposal urges corrective action in light of uncertain financial future. Cory Bilicko Managing Editor
Source: State of California Infographic by Denny Cristales | Signal Tribune
Since 2000, balanced budgets in the state have been quickly followed by huge deficits, according to the governor’s office.
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Look for Sweetheart Sweepstakes Soon in the Signal Tribune! February 3-10
Gov. Edmund G. Brown released his budget this week, calling it the “most difficult” one the state has faced since 2012. In his introduction to the proposed budget, Brown said that the “surging tide” of revenue increases in recent years appears to have turned, and the state is now facing a budget deficit of $2 billion. “While this amount pales in comparison to the $27-billion deficit we faced in 2011, it demands our attention,” Brown wrote. “Small deficits can quickly mushroom into large ones if not promptly eliminated. While rolling back some planned spending increases, my proposed budget protects our most important achievements– more money for education, an earned income tax credit for working families, the
rising minimum wage, the extension of health care to millions and the paydown of our long‑term liabilities.” The governor added that, in all likelihood, even worse financial news is coming, either from the start of the next inevitable recession or from changes at the federal level. “This uncertainty about the future makes acting responsibly now even more important,” Brown wrote. According to the budget proposal, as the state’s economy has recovered from the last recession, the past four budgets have greatly expanded government spending and California has paid down its budgetary borrowing and addressed some long‑standing problems, such as implementing plans to restore fiscal health to its retirement benefit plans and improving the state’s water system. State revenues that had surged during several years of recovery are now starting to lag expectations, and, therefore, the budget, which had remained barely balanced even in the best revenue years, is now facing a multi-billion-dollar deficit
unless action is taken. The budget proposes a number of fixes to regain balance for 2017‑18 and future years based on current projections. According to Brown, it prioritizes the protection of the most significant achievements of the last four years: steady growth for education, the creation of the state’s first earned income tax credit, a minimum wage that will responsibly increase to $15 per hour and the expansion of healthcare coverage to millions of Californians. “To protect these priorities, the budget proposes to pull back on a variety of one‑time spending commitments made in last year’s budget and temper anticipated spending increases,” states the proposal’s introduction. “While rebalancing the budget is the immediate task at hand, the state must continue to plan for and save for the next recession. By the time the budget is enacted in June, the economy will have finished its eighth year of expansion, three years longer than the average recovery. The best way to protect against future cuts see BUDGET page 11