California lawmakers fleshed out some budget items, but left others murky, approving a 2021 state budget Monday after reaching agreement with Gov. Gavin Newsom on most key issues.
Lawmakers approved a
The $262.6 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 has repeatedly been referred to as “expansive” and “generational” by Democrats and creates some programs, including universal pre-kindergarten, expands the free school lunch program and makes undocumented workers over age 50 eligible for MediCal, the state’s healthcare program for low-income earners.
“This budget offers the chance to make transformational change,” California Senate President Pro Tem Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, said. “This budget doesn’t just check boxes, it will change lives.”
A $76 billion state surplus and $27 billion in federal aid gave lawmakers the opportunity to create programs they say help tackle longstanding economic and racial inequities, while creating what Senate Budget & Finance Chair Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, called a responsible budget.
“I am proud that this budget bill prioritizes responsible spending,” Skinner said. “We have $22.5 billion in reserves and we fully pay off last year’s education deferrals; and it maintains all of the governor’s and Legislature’s priorities.”
But while lawmakers fleshed out social programs, funding for K-12 and new university programs, and those they say will counteract racial and economic inequities exposed by the pandemic, they were opaque on sections of the budget related to infrastructure like the $6 billion
Newsom had included the $4.2 billion voters approved with 2008’s Proposition 1A in his budget, but lawmakers deferred “action on all proposals related to high-speed rail,” according to floor report on the 2021-22 budget.
“Two weeks ago the Legislature passed a budget framework. This bill has 280 amendments, but it still lacks specifics,” said Assemblymember Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, who is vice chair of the Assembly’s budget committee.
In both the Senate and Assembly budget hearings, Republicans unleashed a flurry of last-minute amendments, all of which failed.
“This bill, like the June 15 framework bill, fails to deal with the basics. It doesn’t fix EDD (California’s Employment Development Department), a system marred by fraud with a growing backlog,” Fong said. “It doesn’t pay off the unemployment debt — and even more concerning is the insufficient funding to fight wildfires.”
Republicans in both the Senate and House proposed floor amendments that would place a one-year freeze on the state’s gas tax, asked the state to pay down the unemployment insurance debt and criticized the level of funding for wildfire prevention.
But ever since voters approved a 2010 majority-vote budget initiative, Republicans, in the minority, have had little power to influence the state’s budget process.
“This budget is historic in the opportunities we lost,” said Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita. “We Republicans offered fixes — reforming EDD, bringing accountability to wildfires — and we were shutdown. We get picked on, because there are only 9 of us in the Senate, but we represent 1 million people.”
While Republicans bemoaned lost opportunities, Democrats celebrated what Sen. Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, described as an economic justice budget.
“There is $300 million for public hospitals, $500 million for institutions of health, law and policy, so we can make in roads and funding for mobile crisis units (that will pair social workers with police on some calls),” said Kamlager. “I see this as an economic justice budget. We are righting some ships that have been sinking for a very long time.”
Hitting the same tone as Kamlager, Assembylmember Wendy Carillo, D-Los Angeles said: “People are saying we need to put more money into the rainy day fund; well guess what, it’s been raining for a lot of people for a long time.”
