1st District Assemblyman Brian Dahle issued the following statement Friday in response to the release of Governor Brown’s 2016-17 ‘May Revise’ budget proposal:
“This week, the State Controller’s Office reported that tax revenues for the key month of April were more than a billion dollars below projections at the beginning of the year. We’ve seen before that healthy state budgets can fall into deep deficits almost overnight, and I fear that it will happen again with the next economic slowdown. Our tax system relies too much on taxing 1 percent of the population and needs restructuring to promote stability.
“I appreciate the Governor’s focus on paying down debts and adding to the state’s rainy-day fund before committing to any new programs. The hard work of repairing California’s finances, especially getting a handle on the state’s massive unfunded retirement liabilities, is far from finished and needs to be a priority.
“The Governor should also consider we will have the worst wildfire season ever because of decades of horrible environmental policy that has left millions of dead trees with no infrastructure to harvest them. He should immediately fund the steps outlined in his Tree Mortality Executive Order or fire suppression costs will be much higher than listed in the May revise.”
