State budgets more for schools
Unresolved issues for Brown and legislators include how best to spend $1.3 billion in tobacco tax funds
K-12 spending gets a boost in the proposal being considered by Gov. Jerry Brown.
SACRAMENTO — The effort to craft a new state budget before next week’s deadline advanced late Thursday night, although a few hotly debated items — including how to spend new tobacco tax dollars — remained in limbo as the weekend began.
The Legislature’s budget conference committee signed off on both the framework and several detailed proposals of a spending plan that’s likely to exceed $180 billion. Lawmakers must have the agreements drafted and available for public review at least 72 hours before final passage next week, as required under transparency rules approved by voters in November.
The budget plan boosts K-12 school funding and provides money for more in-state students attending the University of California and California State University systems. It preserves the state’s Middle Class Scholarship program — a concession made by Gov. Jerry Brown, who wanted to phase it out.
Lawmakers agreed to expand access to California’s new earned income tax credit for low-income citizens. And they approved $111 million for flood control projects, made urgent to some lawmakers in the wake of the winter crumbling of the Oroville Dam spillway.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wanted an additional $100 million every year to fortify levees along the Sacramento, Feather and Yuba rivers, among other projects. The funding would have come out of the general fund, but the request was rejected by the budget conference committee.
“The failure to prioritize our state’s infrastructure is incomprehensible,” state Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) said in a statement. “Millions of Californians depend on water that passes through these critical water conveyance systems.”
Repairs to the Oroville Dam are be-
ing funded separately using bank loans, and there are plans to sell bonds at some point to pay the bills.
Not all items had a clear nexus to next year’s state spending.
Thursday’s action included approval of orientation meetings for new government workers, at which the benefits of public employee union membership could be promoted. Unions began lobbying for the idea after a lawsuit challenged the state’s rules for union dues. The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked on the lawsuit in 2016.
A proposal to spend $400 million that was left over from last year’s budget negotiations to finance lowincome housing development was rejected.
Brown had agreed to spend the money if the Legislature passed new rules to make it easier to build homes — an effort to cut costs and spur supply. But lawmakers balked at the governor’s proposal last summer.
No unresolved item loomed larger than how to spend $1.3 billion in proceeds from Proposition 56, which increased the state’s cigarette tax by $2 a pack.
Lawmakers have insisted the money must be used to increase payments made to doctors and dentists who treat patients enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s healthcare program for the poor. Brown, however, has said the state needs the money for existing Medi-Cal commitments.
“We’re trying to balance that with the fiscal prudence that we think is required,” Amy Costa, the governor’s deputy budget director, said during testimony at Thursday night’s hearing.
The Brown administration and legislators agreed to keep negotiating on how to spend the tobacco taxes.
They also left unresolved the issue of whether the budget will include an extension of California’s cap-andtrade program, which limits carbon emissions and forces companies to pay for pollution allowances that exceed the cap. The program is now set to expire in 2020.
The California Constitution requires legislators send Brown a budget plan on June 15 or forfeit their salary until the work is complete. The state’s new fiscal year begins July 1.