Governor Jerry Brown spoke of the ongoing effort to whittle down California's multi-billion dollar budget deficit during a wide-ranging end- of-the-year news conference.
"This coming year, that will again dominate certainly the first six months. The cuts I am going to propose are going to be very difficult. They will assume a tax increase voted by the voters. Pulling it all together will be probably just as hard as last year."
Brown says the state's 26-billion dollar deficit has been cut in half-and he's begun talks with different interests to gather support for his proposed tax increases. The Governor must present a budget proposal by January tenth to the state legislature. He'll likely give his annual State of the State address later this month.