Brown May Cut Aid, Ask Voters to Extend Tax Increases
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Jerry Brown returns as California governor today after an absence of almost three decades, facing a “day of reckoning” over a $28 billion budget gap that promises battles with lawmakers, unions and investors threatening to shun the bonds of the most-indebted state.
Brown, 72, a Democrat who served two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983, has pledged an austerity budget, due Jan. 10, that will be free from gimmicks and that will skirt the gridlock that forced the state to pay bills with IOUs two years ago. He’s told Californians they’ll face painful choices to restore fiscal health. Whether that will mean higher taxes, he hasn’t said.