News

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Spending Freeze Effective Immediately

A message from Deputy Superintendent Eric D. Smith

On December 31, Governor Schwarzenegger released his 2009-10 education budget proposal. Faced with a two-year deficit of $41.6 billion, the governor is calling for draconian cuts to K-12 education, the largest in history. While we can hope that state legislators will not accept the governor’s budget as presented, we must take the proposal seriously and prepare ourselves for another round of substantial expenditure reductions. Given what we know at this time, the governor’s proposal would mean the loss of over $3.8 million in revenue in the current year (i.e. mid-year cuts) and an additional $2.6 million loss of revenue on top of the $3.8 million loss for the next school year. Needles to say, this is a very grim situation.

Since every dollar saved this year will help our budget situation next year, the following measures are now in effect:

• A budget freeze on general fund expenditures is being imposed immediately. This freeze does apply to categorical funding from the State of California.
• Vacant positions may not be filled immediately and will be evaluated by the Superintendent’s Cabinet on a position-by-position basis.

It is important to remember that any expenditure reduction made in current year reduces the impact of the ongoing operating deficit in the subsequent two years. To that end, we are not only developing a budget plan for next year but also identifying any cost savings measures that can be implemented in the current year. Even though we continue to be confronted with challenging times, we will continue to plan, and not panic, as we watch the state’s budgetary process unfold.