More severe cuts in services coming from county for homeless programs. Jobs program passes in Senate.

News of the day relating to homelessness in Sacramento is mixed. There's some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that Sacramento County's budget problems continue and that services that affect poor people continue to be prime targets for cutting.

A Bee story today, "Sacramento County supervisors weigh $14 million in cuts, 111 layoffs," tells us $2 million may be cut from the Department of Human Services' budget for homeless services, a 10 percent reduction. Other cuts are likely to come from the budgets of Child Protective Services, the Probation Department, the Sheriff's Department, and the District Attorney's Office.

The cuts are necessary for this fiscal year [from July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010] due to a $10 million shortfall in anticipated property and sales taxes, and a $3.8 million fix to shore-up reserves and aright interfund transfers.

Good news of the day is Senate passage of a $15 billion jobs-creation measure put forward by the Democrats. Five Republicans, including newly seated Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown broke ranks with their party to make passage of the bill possible.

According to a NYTimes article, this jobs bill, if enacted, would "give companies who hire unemployed Americans an exemption from paying payroll taxes on those workers through the end of this year. It also provides a $1,000 tax credit to employers who keep new workers on the payroll for at least for 52 weeks."

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Sex, Lies and Exegesis

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Loaves & Fishes implicates Buddhism and Jack Kornfield in its June Donations Plea.

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In an act of Collective Punishment, Loaves & Fishes closes its park in the morning on New Year’s Day

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