California Democrats Warn Campuses Could Close

California Democrats have floated the idea of closing some University of California campuses, shortening the school year, and laying off law enforcement officers as desperate means of dealing with the state’s mammoth budget deficit, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The proposals were voiced at a hearing examining ways to deal with the deficit entirely through spending cuts.

Democrats would rather not do that, but wanted to make clear what would be lost if they do. “This is not conjecture, this is reality,” said the chair of the state Senate’s budget committee. Gov. Jerry Brown is on a tour of the state trying to pressure Republicans into letting voters weigh in on whether they’d be OK with tax increases to address the deficit. Republicans are on their own tour against raising taxes. (More California legislature stories.)