The California Legislature on Wednesday evening approved most of the bills that are part of the $298 billion budget deal with the governor. Gavin Newsom to close a deficit of about $47 billion.
The final budget — which Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders announced Saturday — includes many of Democrats’ spending priorities, including money for homelessness grants, social safety net services, public health initiatives and affordable housing programs.
The governor on Wednesday signed the temporary budget that the Legislature passed on June 13 to meet the June 15 deadline they had to meet to receive their paychecks.
The bills lawmakers passed Wednesday add specific elements to their agreement with Newsom that were not in the spending plan.
He is likely to sign the budget bills passed Wednesday after returning from Atlanta, where he is on his way to support President Joe Biden in the debate against former President Donald Trump.
The spending deal between legislative leaders and Newsom provides funding for a sixth round of local homelessness grants, in-home supportive services for undocumented immigrants and pay increases for health care providers who serve patients enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s version of federal Medicaid. program.
To offset the spending, lawmakers and the governor plan to cut California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spending by $750 million. They will also dip into reserves, scale back state operations by nearly 8% and delay the minimum wage for health care workers, which was set to take effect this summer.
However, the budget battle is not over yet. Lawmakers are still working on two bond measures that will ask voters in November to allow California to borrow even more money for school facilities and programs related to climate change.
Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuireD-Healdsburg, D-Healdsburg, confirmed Monday that lawmakers will seek to extend the deadline for adding measures to the November ballot from June 27 to July 3.
“We have been working very hard on the bond issuance,” McGuire said in a statement. “We are in the home phase.”
Bond negotiations continue
Bonds have played an important role in the budget process.
Lawmakers have cut budgets for climate change and school facilities. This is an indication that they hope to close these gaps using bond money.
The spending plan agreement includes hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to water storage projects, climate resilience initiatives and dam safety, as well as a handful of other related cuts. The budget report on the Assembly floor explicitly stated that the Legislature and Newsom had cut $875 million from general fund money for the school facilities program “in anticipation of a School Bond initiative in November 2024.”
The negotiations are likely to include efforts to combine at least two school facilities bonds and a handful of climate bonds.
McGuire mentioned these two priorities when asked about bond negotiations. He said ensuring good classrooms and campuses for students is close to his heart. On the climate side, he mentioned wildfire prevention and drinking water as two important potential binding elements.
Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, wrote a $14 billion bond fund to finance preschool construction and modernization projects through community college facilities. Another bill from Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, calls for $15 billion for the same type of improvements, but his legislation also includes the campuses of the University of California and California State University.
Muratsuchi and Glazer declined to comment on their bonds, citing ongoing negotiations.
Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, and Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, have climate bonds, both seeking more than $15 billion for water quality and conservation, wildfire prevention, coastal conservation, clean energy projects and more.
“We are working on it and we are getting very close,” Allen said of the negotiations.
Housing is a priority that is unlikely to receive a bond measure, although the governor and lawmakers have chosen to include budget funding for homelessness grants, loans to help developers build affordable rental housing and a program to boost local government housing planning to support.
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, has pushed for a $10 billion housing bond, though she said earlier this month she wouldn’t be deterred if her bond didn’t advance, especially in light of budget dollars.
“This would give us the ability to fund housing as much as possible in the current environment we’re in and go back to the ballot in two years if we need to,” she said of the budget money.
