Assemblymember Lloyd Levine's Response to Governor's May Revise and California's Schools

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (D-Woodland Hills; Los Angeles Co.) today released the following response to the Governor’s May Revise on the state’s 2008-2009 budget. 

“It is a zero sum game. The lower the revenues, the more we have to cut. Without new revenues, protecting any one part of the budget it is just a shell game,” Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (D-Woodland Hills; Los Angeles Co) said.

“We are still 46th in the country in per pupil funding. New York still spends 75 percent more on education than California. By protecting or restoring education funding at the current level we are still going to be under funding education,” Assemblymember Levine said.

“Since it is a zero sum game, in order to make up for the restoration of education, deeper cuts need to be made elsewhere in the budget. While we may be protecting education, it’s going to take kids longer to get to school because we will have to make deeper cuts to transportation. While we may be protecting education, children in schools may be sicker because of deeper cuts to health care including Healthy Families,” Assemblymember Levine said.