California Senate balks at Newsom’s ‘draconian’ budget cuts, proposes more borrowing instead
Dentist appointments for low-income Californians.
A black infant health program.
Housing for California’s foster youth.
These are among the services California lawmakers want to protect from $14 billion in cuts proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to plug a $54 billion deficit caused by the coronavirus.
To achieve their goal, state senators instead unveiled Thursday a separate budget plan during a committee hearing that would stave off what they called “draconian cuts” to safety net programs and K-14 schools.
It’s a strategy sure to tee up a fight with the administration on how best to guide California through a deep recession.
Newsom said earlier this month that COVID-19 would make it necessary to scale back a $222 billion proposal he introduced in January. The governor introduced on May 14 a modified $203 billion blueprint that, among other cuts, shaves billions in public education funding and pulls more than $50 million from adult Medi-Cal services, including diabetes prevention programs and eye appointments.
Lawmakers have since complained that Newsom’s plan disadvantages low-income Californians, many of whom have already faced devastating financial repercussions during the pandemic.
Instead, the Senate Budget Committee is proposing to maintain funding for a laundry list of support services for the homeless, seniors and sexual assault victims, health care services, immigrants and child care for working families.
Sen. Holly Mitchell, a Los Angeles Democrat and chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said her house’s plan “uses the governor’s framework,” but adds a “couple of key differences” she believes would safeguard support systems for California’s most vulnerable residents.
“This is the beginnnig of the process. We are clear that this public health and economic pandemic has catapulted California into a recession,” Mitchell said, following a six-hour hearing. “And the Senate today has taken its first steps toward stabilizing the state’s economy.”
The plan more modestly prunes certain programs using a model that first assumes the federal government comes through with an additional $14 billion in aid that Newsom’s plan does not rely on. Newsom has said some of his cuts won’t be necessary if federal aid comes through.
The Senate’s plan also relies on another $8 billion in reserves, and defers, transfers or borrows an additional $9 billion. The model also anticipates $3.6 billion in savings, assuming that the state’s health and human services caseload won’t be as large as Newsom predicts.
It rejects Newsom’s proposed $8 billion cut to public schools and reduces by half Newsom’s $800 million total blow in funding for the University of California and the California State University.
The proposal also preserves Medi-Cal benefits such as optometry and audiology services and physical and speech therapies. It dismisses the administration’s plan to pull funding generated by a tobacco tax to pay Medi-Cal providers, and rejects cuts to services such as senior nutrition programs and child welfare services.
“We put a little more empathy in the Senate plan than the governor had,” said Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose. “It’s time to learn that we have to protect those most vulnerable populations, which I don’t think the governor’s plan recognizes fully. Empathy has to be part of this process right now with all these people suffering all over the state.”
Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Tehama, cautioned his colleagues against delay tactics to instead review “structural changes” required to reshape the economy.
“I would admonish us to keep in mind, to not just kick the can down the road, but (address) the structural changes that are going to be required for us to get back on sound footing,” Nielsen said.
Democratic Assembly members similarly have been reluctant to make the cuts Newsom has said are necessary. They spent much of Tuesday during a special committee process criticizing his proposed cuts to classrooms, wildfire recovery programs and undocumented immigrant support systems.
The most direct rebuke came from Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Santa Rosa, who has spent weeks scolding the administration for a lack of transparency and raising concern over cuts to medical services for sick Californians.
“It’s clear this administration does not understand prevention,” he said. “This is nuts. This budget eliminates a lot of programs, eliminates them. Going away. No pause. This is wrong.”
While the Legislature and the governor are required to reach a budget deal by June 15, the Senate’s proposal builds in wiggle room through September for Congress to approve more money for states. Should federal assistance fall through, the Senate’s plan provides $13 billion in “trigger solutions” that would kick in by October 1, 2020.
The backup plan includes deferring $5.3 billion in funding for schools and would approve cuts to a more narrow set of services. The back-up strategy would also delay $1 billion in payments by one day — from June 30 to July 1 — through a strategy used in 2011 and 2012 during the last fiscal crisis to push spending into the next budget year.
The committee late Thursday evening approved the plan as a whole, with Republicans voting against some elements.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 8:01 PM with the headline "California Senate balks at Newsom’s ‘draconian’ budget cuts, proposes more borrowing instead."