Budget Act of 2008: revisions.

The Budget Act of 2008 (Chapters 268 and 269 of the Statutes of 2008) made appropriations for the support of state government during the 2008–09 fiscal year. This bill would amend the Budget Act of 2008 to make adjustments to certain items of appropriations and would authorize the Director of Finance to allocate necessary reductions in employee compensation from General Fund items in the amount of $240,000,000 and from items relating to other funds in the amount of $149,000,000. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that reductions in employee compensation will result in General Fund savings of $417,000,000 and other fund savings of $255,000,000 in the 2009–10 fiscal year. The Budget Act of 2003 (Chapter 157 of the Statutes of 2003) makes appropriations for the support of state government during the 2003–04 fiscal year and, among other things, authorizes transfers to the General Fund from certain special funds to be repaid to those funds during the 2nd half of the 2008–09 fiscal year. This bill would amend the Budget Act of 2003 to extend the time for repayment of those transfers to the 2nd half of the 2010–11 fiscal year. The bill would become operative only if SB 1 of the 2009–10 First Extraordinary Session is enacted. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 1, 2008. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 1, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.