By Brittany Hanson/Garden Grove Journal
A public hearing to accept the Garden Grove Unified School District’s budget for 2012-13 was held and the spending plan went unchallenged at Tuesday night’s board meeting.
The budget for this year holds a $26 million reduction from last year’s budget.
According to Alan Trudell, GGUSD’s public information officer, there is still a chance that future cuts may have to be made if the economy in California does not pick up and yield more state budget to education.
According to the budget report, the latest deficit for the budget is at 22 percent.
The total estimated revenue fund is $353,769,426, last year was $377,904,784.73.
The total estimated expenditures for this school year are $430,197,427.00, last year was $379,385,117.33.
Even with five years of no one getting raises, cuts being made and furloughs being implemented, it is still hard to close the gap without additional state funding.
Although the governor has a tax increase up for a vote in November, GGUSD is planning its resources as though it doesn’t exist.
“It wouldn’t be responsible fiscally to plan without the money in hand,” said Dr. Sue McCann, GGUSD assistant superintendent for business services. “We plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 would:
• increase the state sales tax from 7.25 to 7.5 percent;
• create three new high-income tax brackets for taxpayers earning over $250,000, $300,000 and $500,000. The income sales tax increase would be in effect for seven years.
The new tax brackets would impose a 10.3 percent state income tax on those earning between $250,000 and $300,000; 11.3 percent for those earning $300,000 to $500,000 and 12.3 percent for those earning over $500,000. Those in the latter group would see their state tax liability rise by 24.39 percent.
The additional income tax would affect the top 3 percent of California taxpayers. It’s estimated the revenue raised from the sales and income tax increases would be between $6.8 billion and $9 billion.
