Government: Debt Deal Could Devastate California Budget

California gets $79 billion a year from the federal government - nearly 40% of what it spends. The money goes to everything from highways to universities.

So when the federal government sneezes, California catches a cold.

[Emphasis added].

"If we reduce the deficit at the federal level, it's going to increase deficits at the state level," said Vin Weber, a former Republican member of Congress and GOP consultant. "That's not the objective of people, but it's going to happen, and they all know it."

"The state relies heavily on federal funding, for everything from building roads to paying unemployment insurance benefits."

About a third of all [Federal] spending on domestic discretionary programs comes as grants to states, ....

California receives billions of dollars in block grants for education, child care, social services, aging programs and the like ....

For more, see Debt Deal Could Devastate California Budget by Carolyn Lochhead, July 30, 2011 at SFGate.