Some Budget Numbers

A nice piece in the Capitol Weekly this morning gives some numbers I've been looking for. In particular, it looks like I was right in saying both state revenue and spending on education has increased over the last few years. At least I think he's saying that:

In fact, new revenue estimates released by the Department of Finance this week place the state’s general fund revenues at $85.9 billion – nearly $4 billion higher than they were just five years ago.

and

In the 2004-05 budget year, spending on K-12 schools was $30.3 billion. In 2009, it was $39.4 billion. But during that same period, K-12 enrollment stayed flat. In 2003-04, there were 6.3 million students in public schools. In 2007-08, there were 6.28 million students, according to stats from the state Department of Education.

It certainly begs the question of the disconnect between local schools and Sacramento as Hank Sims writes about in the North Coast Journal this week. But, as the Capitol Weekly points out, the process of distributing the money is rather confusing.

MediCal is also pointed out as another major cost increase. I've mentioned before that I find this both fascinating and scary. MediCal probably has the lowest reimbursement rates in the country. I believe they pay less than 14 cents on the dollar and more and more doctors are refusing MediCal patients. Think how much higher state expenses would be if MediCal reimbursed at more conventional rates?

Over that last five years, prison spending has increased around 45%. I'm not sure there's much we can do about that. Even releasing prisoners will still leave a cost heavy infrastructure to pay for.

Overall, though, I found the article somewhat comforting if only it makes me feel the budget situation isn't as bad as it's being made out to be. Or, is it?