The report was done by UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor, Research and Education. It was paid for by the state’s largest public employee union, S-E-I-U. Ken Jacobs worked on the study. He says their analysis showed the Governor’s plan to cut social programs would mean a loss of 330-thousand full-time jobs and increase the unemployment rate by one-point-eight points:
Cut :15 “A cuts only solution that focuses on cutting health and human service programs that bring in federal matching dollars will have a very negative effect on unemployment and have a significant impact on the economy.”
Jacobs says the researchers found that a plan which includes a mix of tax increases and cuts would be better for the economy. Governor Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, Aaron McLear says the study is questionable:
“They take money from state employee unions to put our studies that agree with state employee unions. I think they lost their credibility long ago and I don’t think anybody is going to take this study seriously.”
Berkeley’s Ken Jacobs says they used established methodology and the study’s results were in no way influenced by the union.
