Governor Jerry Brown took a knife to the state’s budget Monday advocating slashing $8.3 billion in state funding to stave off a growing deficit that jumped from the January projection of $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion.

Brown’s budget plan spared higher education for the most part but gave somber news for the K-12 system that now faces a potential loss of $5.2 billion if his proposed tax measure isn’t passed by Californians this November.

“We have to cut deeper, but cutting alone just won’t do it,” said Brown. “That is why I am linking these serious budget reductions with real budget austerity with a plea to the voters to increase taxes temporarily on the most affluent and a quarter cent on sales tax.”

Due to deep cuts made by legislature already, the projected budget deficit for 2011-12 was reduced to a total of $4.4 billion rather than the staggering $17.2 billion. The projection over the next four years hovers between $7 and $8 billion due to Brown’s cuts and potential tax revenues rather than a budget deficit of $21.5 billion.

The projected revenues for the year have fallen short of what was hoped for thus deepening the deficit to nearly $16 billion. Brown adds further blame to federal judges and administrators who blocked cuts to health care for the poor.

“It has taken a long time to get into this mess, more than a decade,” said Brown, “but we are getting there, it won’t take two years or even three but we are making progress.”

Brown takes aim at courts by delaying court construction for a savings of $240 million and increase retirement contributions for state court employees. The General Fund support will be reduced by $300 million on a one-time basis and “requiring each trial court to use their available reserve.”

The revised budget also includes a 5 percent cut to state employee compensation costs to which Brown said he will engage in negotiation with on a variety ways to meet.

“State employees have come up with some imaginative ideas and have step up to the plate even though they represent some people who are not paid very much,” said Brown.

The budget plan also plans to provide existing assistance to homeowners and consumers affected by the mortgage crises with proceeds funded by the National Mortgage Settlement which will save $292 million in the General Fund.

State rehabilitation and corrections spending is also reduced by ending federal oversight to which the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expects to save $1 billion from 2012 to 2013.

The K-12 threat of over $5 billion in cuts could be returned in state funding if the tax proposal is passed, according to Brown on Monday.

The revised budget could increase funding for K-12 schools and community colleges by 3.8 billion but only if his tax proposal is passed.

Polls show Californian voters are likely to pass the vote but the campaign for the tax proposal has not gone underway yet.

If not passed, 15 days could be cut from the school year for K-12, a potential incident that Hayward School District Trustee Jesus Armas says would be devastating.

“It would harm public education throughout California and very specifically in our community. To have 15 fewer days in school, that is unfathomable in a period where most developed countries are providing more school days, not less,” said Armas.

Luis Reynoso, a Hayward School Board Trustee and Republican candidate for the Assembly District 20, gives a rather different perspective, stating that the government could save money by eradicating county offices of education in areas of California that they would not be needed. He expressed their potential necessity in rural areas. For Reynoso it is about eradicating government waste.

Republicans in the state legislature added further criticisms, calling on Brown’s inability to “make tough budget choices.”

“The Governor’s revised budget unfortunately sets the stage for the passage of another phony majority vote budget that kicks the can down the road so Democrats can avoid making tough budget choices,” said minority Assembly leader Connie Conway in a press statement released Monday.

Conway states Brown’s plan is more about politics than it is about presenting an honest budget.

“We believe this updated proposal is part of the Governor’s strategy to try and fool Californians into accepting a costly tax increase as a necessary step,” added Conway.

John Vigna, press secretary for Majority Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, pushed back against Republican denouncement of Brown’s tax proposal.

“Their response is always that taxes are bad,” said Vigna with an unsurprising tone.

“The governor spent months last year with Republicans to put the vote on the ballot for voters. He’s been working with various groups to put a plan on the ballot and it may be difficult but we are confident that it will go through in November.”

According to Vigna, it’s not about the “options we like but the options that we have.”

Brown was also asked about his potential support for Speaker Pérez’s Middle Class Scholarship plan, to which the governor said he would support it if it made it to his desk. The scholarship looks to close the single sales factor tax to generate revenue for scholarships for middle class college attendees.

The deadline for the Legislature to pass Brown’s revised budget is June 15.