{"id":296894,"date":"2026-05-02T18:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/296894\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T18:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:26:08","slug":"agencies-discuss-what-to-cut-as-state-deals-with-35-billion-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/296894\/","title":{"rendered":"Agencies discuss what to cut as state deals with $35 billion deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story originally appeared in The Center Square<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the face of\u00a0California\u2019s $35 billion-a-year<\/a>\u00a0budget deficit starting in the 2026-27 fiscal year,\u00a0lawmakers and state agency heads are continuing discussions about budget cuts.<\/p>\n

The California Department of Parks and Recreation wrote to The Center Square on Friday to say that the department\u2019s budget cut proposal involves eliminating currently vacant positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn determining which positions to eliminate, State Parks made every effort to spread reductions throughout the state to minimize impact,\u201d Marty Greenstein, deputy director of communications and marketing for California State Parks and Recreation, told The Center Square in an email. \u201cCareful consideration was given to maintaining core operations, with a particular focus on protecting the health and safety of visitors. State Parks continues to maintain vacant positions that remain available to be filled, allowing flexibility to address operational needs as resources permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those vacant positions that could be on the chopping block were discussed in a recent Assembly Budget Subcommittee meeting, where one legislator pushed back on the proposed cuts department officials suggested, saying that the relatively minimal cost savings aren\u2019t worth the loss of programs and services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that the general fund savings are trivial and the policy cost is enormous,\u201d Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, said at the meeting. \u201cIt seems to be to be penny-wise, pound-foolish. I don\u2019t think the fiscal justification holds up as we more closely inspect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only about $4.6 million in cost-cutting efforts were suggested by the budget reduction proposals from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Petrie-Norris told committee members. She also was concerned that officials from that agency said they are only meeting about 40% of its permitting and environmental protection mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that feels like we need to be doing more, not less,\u201d Petrie-Norris said. \u201cI certainly appreciate the need to tighten our belts, identify opportunities for savings, but particularly, with the [California Department of Fish and Wildlife] cuts, I really do not think this is the right decision, and I agree with the [Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office] recommendation that we reject those proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials with the California Department of Finance told The Center Square that Gov. Gavin Newsom and his staff are still working on a revised draft of the governor\u2019s budget, a version of which was released in January. Revisions to the governor\u2019s proposal will be reflected in the May version of the Newsom\u2019s\u00a0budget<\/a>,\u00a0which state officials often refer to as \u201cthe May revise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t landed yet on what decisions beyond January may be necessary in order to close a shortfall,\u201d H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs for the California Department of Finance, told The Center Square. \u201cIt will mean it does change relative to what we projected in January. People may be talking about potential scenarios, options, things of that sort, and I\u2019m not going to get into what the governor may or may not be considering at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, the Governor\u2019s Office projected only a $3 billion budget shortfall next year, well under the Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office projections of an $18 billion shortfall in its budget\u00a0released in November 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since that time, the conflict in Iran and an $8.6 billion increase in tax revenues have improved the budget outlook, but increasing costs in Medi-Cal spending has complicated the revenue picture, Palmer said. He noted nothing is final in the next version of the governor\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Newsom made it clear in January that he is attempting to solve the budget problems not only in 2026-27, but the following fiscal year as well, Palmer told The Center Square.<\/p>\n

The Center Square<\/a> provides high-quality statehouse and statewide news across the United States with a focus on government accountability and economic reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story originally appeared in The Center Square. In the face of\u00a0California\u2019s $35 billion-a-year\u00a0budget deficit starting in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2076,7,24906,457,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-296894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-budget","tag-california","tag-deficit","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}