Brown OKs ‘decisive’ state budget — $125 billion
SACRAMENTO >> Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California’s budget bill for the coming fiscal year and related legislation that does everything from dismantle a troubled tax agency to regulate the state’s newly legalized marijuana industry.
The governor did not wield his line-item veto power for the second straight year, which means the $125 billion general-fund budget passed this month by the Legislature remains intact.
“California is taking decisive
of Finance released in March found troubling practices in the agency, including routine interference by board members in the agency’s operations.
— Basic regulations for a multi-billion-dollar industry that voters in November voted to legalize: the recreational marijuana industry. That bill enjoyed bipartisan support in the Legislature.
— A highly partisan bill to change the rules for recall elections, provisions added to a budget bill just days before the vote. Republicans were outraged about the maneuver. They argued that Democrats were sidestepping the typical process for vetting policy changes in order to fast-track changes to help a Southern California colleague, Sen. Josh Newman, who is facing a recall election for supporting a hike in the gas tax.
—A $6 billion pension loan from the state’s Surplus Money Investment Fund, a complicated deal that the Legislative Analyst’s Office cautioned shouldn’t be rushed. Brown, who persuaded the Legislature to include the loan in the budget, cites estimates that it will save the state $11 billion over the next 20 years and stabilize the state’s contributions to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, even though it will cost $1 billion in interest over time.
More details, including a lengthy budget summary, are posted on the governor’s budget website: http:// ebudget.ca.gov. action by enacting a balanced state budget,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday. “This budget provides money to repair our roads and bridges, pay down debt, invest in schools, fund the earned income tax credit and provide Medi-Cal health care for millions of Californians.”
Among the more popular additions to the budget is the expansion of a state tax credit for low-wage workers — a change that could make a million more households eligible for the benefit. The budget also gives $3 billion more to schools and steps up support for state-subsidized child care, increasing reimbursement rates for providers and updating income requirements for participating families.
Some parents lost their eligibility when minimumwage increases took effect this year.
“Thanks to this new budget, California is a true trailblazer in America when it comes to affordable, quality child care for lower-income families,” said Kim Kruckel, executive director of the San Francisco-based Child Care Law Center.
The bills Brown signed Tuesday included:
— Legislation that would strip the elected Board of Equalization of most powers, starting July 1, and create a new tax agency in its place — the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration — whose director reports to the governor. An audit the Department