California’s values-based budget
Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic leadership of the state Legislature have come to an agreement about the next year’s budget, and the contrast between California and the Trump administration could not be clearer. While horror stories continue to trickle out of the migrant camps President Trump has erected along our nation’s southern border, California will become the first state in the union to pay for some undocumented immigrants to have full health care benefits.
Sacramento’s agreement will extend Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for low-income adults, to lowincome undocumented immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25. Approximately 90,000 people will receive coverage, at an estimated cost of $98 million annually.
As dramatic as this is, many in Sacramento wanted to go further. Newsom rightly resisted a proposal to open Medi-Cal to all undocumented adults living in California. The price tag for such largesse could have been as great as $3.4 billion.
While President Trump and congressional Republicans remain mum on their promised plans for improving the Affordable Care Act, California is also leading the way on expanding health care access for legal residents.
With this budget agreement, the state will become the first in the country to subsidize health insurance premiums for middle-income families. Families of four making as much as six times the federal poverty level — that’s more than $150,000 a year — will be eligible for about $100 a month.
To pay for the change, California’s bringing back a much-contested element of the Affordable Care Act: the individual mandate penalty. President Trump eliminated the federal mandate as part of the 2017 tax cuts.
By restoring the mandate, California is declaring its determination to press forward on expanding individual access to health care — regardless of what’s happening in Washington. The two health care decisions are also a big win for Newsom, who proposed both of them.
Not all of this year’s most important budget compromises were forged in reaction to the Trump administration.
Lawmakers rejected Newsom’s proposal to raise fees on water customers and agricultural interests to fund badly needed improvements to the state’s water infrastructure. Some 1 million Californians don’t have dependable access to safe drinking water, and millions more rely on water providers who have failed state standards in recent years.
Both Newsom and former Gov. Jerry Brown sought to remedy this shameful situation with water fees. Both have now found themselves stymied by fee-fearful lawmakers.
State lawmakers’ solution — they’re going to raid the state’s cap-and-trade auction fund for up to $130 million a year — is convenient but irresponsible.
The cap-and-trade program is meant to fund programs that reduce long-term greenhouse gas emissions. Water infrastructure is a separate priority, and it deserves a separate revenue mechanism.
Finally, Sacramento expects to end the fiscal year with more than $20 billion in the state’s reserve fund. It’s a whopping number, but it should be a sobering one. As state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, noted, California is only now paying off its last debts from the recession of 2008-09.
The boom times never last forever. Sacramento must remain fiscally disciplined and continue preparations for far harder budget times right now.