Top California Democrats push Newsom to spend more on health, citing rosy tax projections
Top Democratic lawmakers announced Tuesday they want to rely on high tax revenue estimates to spend more on public health, undocumented immigrant health care, early learning and child care than Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed.
The plan budget committee chairs Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, unveiled aligns in many ways with the governor’s $268 billion spendng proposal.
But lawmakers and Newsom will need to haggle over some key differences between the two plans ahead of a June 15 deadline.
To craft their plan, lawmakers are relying on higher tax revenue projections than Newsom used to shape the plan he released last month.
Lawmakers want to use more money to pay down school debts than Newsom has proposed. They also want to spend $1 billion more than Newsom slated for state-funded child care and preschool providers.
Newsom drew heat from some lawmakers after he didn’t agree to fund an ongoing $200 million increase to public health budgets that local health officials had requested. In their plan, lawmakers are pushing an even larger $400 million expansion for public health.
They also want to provide health care for more undocumented people. Newsom proposed expanding eligibility for the state’s Medi-Cal program to undocumented people over age 60. Lawmakers’ proposal would drop that threshold to 50.
In other ways, Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, said the lawmakers’ budget plan aligns pretty closely to the governor’s in most areas, including by increasing funding for education and housing.
“The budgets really reflect pretty much the same priorities and values,” Skinner said.
Lawmakers say they agree with much of what Newsom proposed in his plan to provide tax rebate checks to families earning less than $75,000 and $1.5 billion in grants for small businesses and nonprofits hurt by COVID-19. They also support spending increases he’s proposed for homeless housing and creating a new transitional kindergarten grade.
Democrats, who hold supermajorities in the Legislature, won’t need Republican support to pass their budget plan. But they do need buy-in from Newsom, who could veto their proposal if they don’t reach a deal with him.
H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Newsom’s Department of Finance, said the administration is concerned about using the Legislature’s rosier revenue projection given the high amount of economic uncertainty as the country emerges from the COVID-19 downturn. Newsom and lawmakers will continue to negotiate, Palmer said.
Newsom “is optimistic that we will reach an agreement in the coming weeks to ensure that California comes roaring back from the pandemic while maintaining a strong fiscal foundation that does not overcommit the state to long-term spending it cannot afford,” spokeswoman Erin Mellon said in a statement.
Lawmakers must pass a budget framework by June 15 to continue getting paid, although they’ll be able to make changes to that plan even after the 2021-22 fiscal year starts on July 1.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Top California Democrats push Newsom to spend more on health, citing rosy tax projections."