Deukmejian and State Budget

I am amazed at Deukmejian’s selections of state programs from which $663 million are to be cut. Those programs are the very ones that should have been awarded increases rather than reductions, if the governor were in touch with the wants and needs of his constituents, the residents of California.

Who would have believed that as deaths from AIDS steadily climb from the thousands towards the hundreds of thousands, that money for AIDS prevention would have been cut; that in this time of rising concern on the part of parents and educators about our inadequate school systems in California, that increased spending for education would be vetoed; that in a time of increased concern about health and safety that money for trauma centers, for health care for the poor and for fighting Alzheimer’s disease would be cut; and Cal-OSHA, the agency responsible for protecting worker safety, eliminated entirely?

How did the governor ever get so out of touch with the needs of our state?

ALAN VITERBI

West Hollywood