AS OUR beleaguered state legislators continue to grapple with California's dismal 2009-10 budget and its $24 billion projected deficit, there is more grim news on the horizon.
The 2010-11 fiscal year figures to be more of the same. Estimates vary, but there is every indication that the red ink won't stop flowing any time soon.
The reasons are many: too much past borrowing to finance ongoing operations; massive unfunded public retiree costs; growing numbers of poor and needy citizens and noncitizens; an almost genetic inability to trim expenses significantly (and keep them cut); and an economy that isn't expected to bounce back dramatically.
The notion that federal stimulus dollars would ease the budget crisis is illusory. Why? Because that money is one-time-only cash.
Using it — assuming it shows up on the balance sheets at all — would simply postpone the pain by a year or so.
City and school district financial officers have been sounding the alarm on that score for weeks.
The Sacramento pols know this is true too but, generally speaking, they can't resist the lure of free lucre, regardless of the source.
This is going to be a long and difficult ride well into the future.
HOWARD GUREVITZ: The recent passing of Dr. Howard Gurevitz at the age of 79 merited just a single, short paragraph in the local media last week.
His
memory most certainly deserves more than that.
Gurevitz, a longtime Peninsula psychiatrist, created and directed the first San Mateo County community mental health center as part of his considerable duties as a key administrator in the Department of Health and Welfare in the 1960s and 1970s.
Later, in the 1990s, he was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame. He also maintained a private psychiatric practice in that town.
Gurevitz will be remembered for his caring management style and for his devotion to the well-being of his many patients through the decades here.
A celebration of his productive and full life will be held July 25 in Burlingame. To attend the event, visit the family's Web site at www.drhowardgurevitz.com.
SPORTS LORE: San Francisco International Airport is becoming a notable, and somewhat surprising, repository of sports memorabilia and athletic lore.
Not only are plaques from the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame located there, but a new exhibit of a past era of minor league baseball has also opened.
Nearly 300 historic objects from the Pacific Coast League (1903 to 1957) are now on display in the main hall of the International Terminal.
The items, including complete uniforms from all the league's historic franchises — let's hear it for the Seattle Rainiers and the Hollywood Stars — will be available for public viewing through Oct. 30.
You can get in touch with John Horgan by e-mail at jhorg@hotmail.com or by regular snail mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.
