California budget crisis

According to a new report from Pew Center for the States, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada are  among the nine state governments most likely to go into a California-like financial meltdown. The sobering report, called "Beyond California" identifies nine states likely to Californicate based on their poor fiscal health. The Oregonian has a quick take on the issue if you don't have time to read through the entire 65-page report.

-- Daniel Lathrop

California isn't the only state trying to trim its budget with the early release of prisoners. Colorado's Gov. Bill Ritter is proposing to do the same, with the early release of 1,000 prisoners a year to save an immediate $19 million, the Denver Post reports. The plan also calls for reducing parole supervision for some inmates already out of prison. Experts warn of new crimes and layoffs from a privately run prison.

California, facing a $1.2 billion budget shortfall, is considering the early release of 27,000 prisoners. Overcrowded conditions are  believed to have contributed to this month's prison riots at the state prison in Chino, Calif., which is at almost double its capacity.

California's nearly 3 million illegal residents add between $4 billion and $6 billion in incarceration, education and medical costs, according to state estimates. 

But they also pay local sales taxes -- and often have Social Security and federal income taxes withheld from their paychecks.   Across the U.S., illegal residents pumped $12 billion into the Social Security system in 2007, according to that agency's estimates.

That money goes to federal rather than local governments, whose short-term costs related to illegal immigrants may be larger than the revenues, according to most experts.

So what to do during a budget crisis? Bar hospital doors to illegal residents? Kick them out of schools?  Toughen up the border?  Maintain the status quo?

Anti-illegal immigration activists are campaigning for an initiative to cut off welfare payments to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, even though those children are eligible because they are U.S. citizens.  Doing so would save $640 million per year, according to the state.

To find out the options being considered in California, read the report by Anna Gorman and Teresa Watanabe of the Los Angeles Times.