La Cañada Flintridge families annually contribute $2 million for La Cañada Unified School District schools, and fund the La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation’s endowment fund of $4 million. The families’ contributions are compensation for claimed state budget shortfalls.
Gov. Jerry Brown claims the state’s $16-billion budget deficit leaves no option other than austerity. But this is similar to claiming there is no money in a checking account to pay for our children’s schools while having 35 times that amount in savings. Here is game-changing data from California’s 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), available online from the State Controller’s Office; search “CAFR summary: if $600B” for page numbers:
California holds $600 billion in taxpayer cash and investments ($50,000 per household).
$460 billion are investments characterized as funding pensions, but the financial report shows that these investments had only $1 billion in net income for the state’s $27-billion pension costs. Meanwhile, Californians were taxed $19 billion, and plan members contributed $7 billion.