In Budget Crisis, Brown’s Math Doesn’t Add Up

In the midst of California’s budget crisis, state Treasurer Kathleen Brown and her staff are apparently having troubles with their math.

In a press release on the state’s use of IOUs, Brown says that the $3 million in interest that the state must pay to banks this week is “enough to pay the salaries of some 600 California teachers for an entire school year.”

Brown made a similar statement during an earlier news conference.

Using simple division, and Brown’s figures, the annual salary of each teacher would amount to $5,000.

Brown spokeswoman Jennifer Openshaw, who checked on the discrepancy at the request of California Dateline, blamed it on “a staff error.”

The state treasurer personally has no trouble with math, Openshaw insisted. “She’s an excellent counter.”

MORE MONEY WOES

State budget blues: Just how massive is California’s fiscal mess?

In 1990, the annual budgets of 33 states were smaller than California’s $10.7-billion budget shortfall.

A Grape State

Grapes are crushed not just to make wine, but for a list of products including juice, concentrate, vinegar and brandy. Below are the top seven grape varieties ranked by tons crushed in 1991.

VARIETY TONS CRUSHED IN 1991 French Colombard 608,364 Chenin Blanc 253,220 Thompson Seedless 243,938 Zinfandel 221,661 Chardonnay 216,890 Cabernet Sauvignon 134,142 Grenache 98,625 All Other Varieties 791,721

Source: California Agricultural Statistics Service, Sacramento

Compiled by Times researcher Tracy Thomas

DISASTERS DEPARTMENT

Crossing into the red: Are Californians calamitied out?

The American Red Cross estimates that it will spend $1.8 million to aid victims of the Landers and Big Bear earthquakes.

But thus far, the disaster relief organization has received only $71,000 in donations to pay for the effort.

“Let’s face it,” said Red Cross spokeswoman Elizabeth Quirk, “in just a few months we’ve had floods in Los Angeles, the Humboldt County quake, the riots in Los Angeles and now this one.”

“Maybe people are getting tired,” she added. “But we need to emphasize the fact that if the public wants the Red Cross to be there for the next disaster, we desperately need their help now.”

Out of the frying pan: Speaking of disasters, forestry officials are keeping their fingers crossed that wildfires don’t rage out of control this summer.

Already this year, 4,150 fires have consumed 34,262 acres. That’s 11,000 more acres than burned in all of 1991, according to Karen Terrill of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“We had a mild fire season last year because of the weather being cool,” Terrill said. “This year, we have more fire-inducing kind of weather--it’s hotter and drier.”

TALES OF BERKELEY

“New World” order: On the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ voyage, Berkeley city officials have decided once and for all to keep Columbus out of what used to be Columbus Day.

Berkeley’s iconoclastic City Council voted last fall to change the name of the Oct. 12 holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, in tribute to cultures they say suffered from Columbus’ arrival. In a last-ditch attempt at compromise, two council members recently suggested saluting both sides of the argument on the same holiday.

The proposal failed to win majority support and was withdrawn after council members met with a group of American Indians.

Hot under the collar: Berkeley officials are also steeped in controversy over their decision to force churches to obtain business licenses and pay a 60-cent tax for every $1,000 received in donations. Clergymen have responded by calling the fees, which apply to all nonprofit organizations operating in the Bay Area community, “absurd” and “unbelievable.” The council, in reaction, has formed a subcommittee to study the issue and report back next month.

Still unclear is whether the tax applies to the First Church of The Doors, a somewhat less-than-orthodox sect that meets annually at a Berkeley pizza parlor to memorialize Jim Morrison, the late lead singer of the ‘60s rock group.

EXIT LINE

“The real Baghdad, which we bombed ‘back to the pre-industrial age’ (so saith the Pentagoniffs) is already 70% rebuilt and all the bridges across the Tigris are in service again, whereas we have yet to repair the freeways damaged in the ’89 quake (and) fix up City Hall.”

--San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, comparing the capital of Iraq to his city, which he often refers to as Baghdad by the Bay.

California Dateline appears every other Monday.