Immigrant health care on Senate’s wish list

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Democrats in the California Senate said Wednesday they want to spend the state’s projected multi-billion dollar budget surplus on things such as making college debt-free for students, paying for the health care of some older, low-income adults living in the country illegally and partnering with first-time homebuyers in the state’s expensive market.

The proposal from Senate Democrats, who hold 31 of the chamber’s 40 seats, stands as a rough draft of how the budget might look later this year once negotiations are complete.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, outlined his spending proposal in January. But since then, California’s coffers have swelled due to better-than-expected tax collections and $26 billion in federal coronavirus aid for the state.

When the number crunchers sort everything out, California could have more than $45 billion in new money to spend this year, giving lawmakers financial whiplash following last year’s budget that cut spending and raised taxes to cover a projected $54.3 billion deficit stemming from the pandemic.

Newsom will update his budget proposal next month. Senate Democrats revealed their own proposal Monday, with the Senate leader calling it “probably more ambitious than any legislative budget proposal in memory.”

“We have a once in a generation opportunity to make transformative change for California,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego.

California home prices, among the highest in the nation, have jumped more than 20% during the pandemic, putting the median price of a single-family home at nearly $700,000 in January. The Senate’s proposal would set aside an unspecified amount in a fund dedicated to helping firsttime homebuyers.

In one example offered by Senate leaders, if a house cost $400,000, the fund could cover $180,000 of it so the buyer would only have to pay $220,000. This would make the fund a minority owner of the house. The state would sell shares of the fund to investors who would earn money based on the value of the homes, with the capital gains exempt from state taxes.