Lawmakers urge Brown to increase spending
Legislature expected to approve budget before it’s finished
SACRAMENTO — The Democraticcontrolled Legislature is expected to pass the state budget on Monday with one caveat: It’s not done.
The Senate and Assembly ironed out their differences in priorities and settled on a $117.5 billion spending plan for the 2015-16 year that begins July 1 — more than the $115.3 billion spending plan Gov. Jerry Brown proposed. At this point, the budget is supposed to go to the governor and his veto pen. But legislative leaders plan instead to continue their negotiations with the gover- nor over the next two weeks.
Their hope is that Brown will find a way to let them have $750 million for the programs they want to fund in child care, health care and other help for the poor.
The vote Monday allows lawmakers to meet their constitutional requirement of passing a budget by June 15 to avoid forfeiting their pay — even though their work is incomplete.
Brown used more conservative revenue projections to build his $115.3 billion budget proposal, while the Legislature used the Legislative Analyst’s Office’s forecast that pegged revenue at about $3 billion more than the administration estimated.
“The biggest question left to be re
“The biggest question left to be resolved is whose revenue projections we’ll be using.” Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco
solved is whose revenue projections we’ll be using,” said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairman of the Senate’s budget committee.
Leno said historically the Legislature has taken the governor’s conservative revenue numbers and found ways within those estimates to free up $300 million to $700 million in the budget for lawmakers’ top priorities.
The budget the Legislature plans to pass Monday would pump an additional $760 million into the state’s rainy-day fund, $760 million toward paying down debt, $700 million to schools under the state’s constitutional funding guarantee and $749 million in additional spending out of the state’s general fund.
Advocates for the poor have praised the legislative budget and are calling on Brown to keep the spending in place. Republican lawmakers, whose votes are not needed to pass the state budget on Monday, cautioned Democrats to limit spending.
“I am afraid legislative Democrats want to spend money that may not exist and that once again will push our state into budget deficits down the road,” Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, of Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County), said in a statement.
The legislative budget increases child care and preschool spending by $408 million, most of which would come from the general fund, to create an additional 27,000 preschool and day care spots and increase provider rates. The costs of the changes would be $577 million each year thereafter.
Brown’s budget pro- posal called for a more modest increase — 2,500 more preschool slots that give priority to special needs children as well as a rate increase for providers at a total cost of $18 million.
The state currently funds 148,000 part-day and full-day preschool spots and on Monday will offer an additional 4,000 spots that were approved as part of last year’s budget deal.
“We’re really happy with this significant investment in our youngest learners,” said Deborah Kong, president of Early Edge California, an advocacy group for early education that favors the Legislature’s budget. “We hope the governor will realize the importance.”
Democratic lawmakers budgeted $228 million to restore a 7 percent cut to the hours of in-home care providers, a reduction made during the recession. They also allocated $103 million to restore a CalWORKS’ grant that had been reduced during the reces- sion to prevent increases in state aid to parents who give birth while already receiving welfare benefits.
Lawmakers set aside $40 million for a bill making its way through the Legislature that would allow children who are undocumented immigrants and whose families are low-income to qualify for Medicare benefits. SB4, by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), passed the Senate last week.
The legislative budget also restores cuts to Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, including dental services.
“These are investments that will make major impacts on peo- ple’s lives and improve the health care system as a whole,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, the statewide health care consumer advocacy group.
Lawmakers want to increase funding for California State University by $70 million more than Brown proposed and give an additional $25 million to the University of California, on the condition that the system increases enrollment of in-state students by 5,000 over the next two years and limits enrollment and financial aid given to out-of-state students.
UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said the “conditions for that funding, and the mandate to enroll 5,000 new students in 2016-17, are unworkable.”
Brown and legislative leaders opted to remove one point of contention from the budget process — how to spend capand-trade revenue. Instead, the issue will be taken up once the budget is wrapped up, said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance.
“This will ensure that there’s ample time to put in place a thoughtful expenditure plan,” Palmer said in a statement.
“I am afraid legislative Democrats want to spend money that may not exist.” State Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County)