Friday, May 15, 2009

Arnold Schwarzenegger to sell off San Quentin, Memorial Coliseum to ease budget crisis

Great.
California has been reduced to throwing the world's biggest garage sale.
From the Times of London:

Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning to sell San Quentin prison and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in an attempt to raise money to ease California's huge budget crisis.

The 157-year-old prison, which houses more than 5,000 inmates - including more than 600 on death row - sits on prime real estate overlooking San Francisco Bay and is surrounded by some of the most expensive properties in the state. The Coliseum is the only stadium in the world to host the Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984, and has been declared a historic national landmark.

The proposal to sell state assets is part of the California Governor's revised budget plan. The state faces a projected deficit of $15.4 billion (£10.2 billion) - or more if voters reject a series of cuts in a ballot next week. If, as polls indicate is likely, they do, California will face a deficit of $21.3 billion up to mid-2010, according to Mr Schwarzenegger.

The state, home to 37 million people, has seen income plunge, thanks largely to a calamitous decline in tax revenues caused by the housing crisis and recession. California had a budget of $131 billion in 2008....MORE

An in-depth story from the Mercury-News

As California budget mess deepens, Schwarzenegger proposes huge new cuts

So sad.

I'm going to listen to the Ramones do California Sun.