Will California gut a medical aid program created in an age of compassionate care?
Proposition 35 was meant to attract doctors to care for low-income Californians. Instead, it’s looking like a cash cow for Sacramento.
A new landscape of scarcity is threatening even the state’s food basket regions.
Advocates say significant cuts to mental health and employment services highlight a failure to inform CalWorks recipients about available services.
Some key state programs will be maintained, but those without legal status remain ineligible for other anti-poverty programs.
Despite reductions to housing and antipoverty programs, Gov. Gavin Newsom maintains Medi-Cal funding.
Foregone revenues add up to more than double the amount of the expected deficit.
The California surplus is available to some, but for 61 local public health department workers there’s little but tough love.
Questions over DTSC competency complicate taxpayer-funded plans to rehabilitate polluted properties.
Despite record job losses during the pandemic, the 1% have left the state flush with cash.
Low-wage workers face big unpaid bills from the pandemic.
California’s public schools, underfunded since the 2008 recession, face further cuts under Gov. Newsom’s proposed budget.
Gov. Newsom’s revised budget puts programs aimed at addressing disparities in access to vital services on the chopping block.
In a Capital & Main interview, State Controller Betty Yee casts doubt about the prospects for Prop. 13 reform and other initiatives.
Still pending in a follow-up budget bill is language that would limit the ability of charter schools to cherry-pick enrollment.
Among other things, the ballot measure could endanger the bullet train, one of Governor Jerry Brown’s favorite projects, by giving Republicans a say over how cap-and-trade money is spent.
The last time California enacted comprehensive tax reform, FDR was president, Babe Ruth was still playing baseball and the Golden State was five years away from seeing its first freeway open.
As the June 15th deadline for a California budget approaches, Kevin McCarty finds himself a power broker in a fight over billions of dollars of funding for the University of California.
On Tuesday a coalition of faculty, legislators, staff and students (pictured above) marched to Governor Jerry Brown’s office in support of greatly increased funding for the California State University system. Governor Brown’s budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year includes $142.2 million for the beleaguered CSU system, a five percent increase in its budget. Kevin Wehr, a sociology professor at CSU Sacramento and one of the marchers, said that “the governor’s proposal is welcome but it’s not nearly enough. [The cuts to the CSU budget] were massive, deep and really hurt the ability to deliver a quality public education.”
During the recession, many state programs were hit hard by budget cuts. However, the economic downturn took a particularly devastating toll on the state university system. More than a billion dollars was slashed from its budget as California dealt with the recession. Only a small fraction has since been restored.
The CSU system faces numerous problems.
Twice a year Sacramento goes into a frenzy analyzing the state budget. First, in January, the Governor releases his proposed budget, then the “May Revise” appears as the Governor adjusts projections and heeds advice from Senators and Assembly members. The budget, however, is more than a long economic document. It becomes part of the Governor’s legacy, it’s a statement of his priorities, how he will want to be remembered and what he believes will be best for Californians.
Governor Jerry Brown is shaping a legacy based on fiscal responsibility. He wants to be remembered as the Governor who solved the debt crisis and bequeathed fiscal stability to California. Unlike his predecessor, Governor Brown has invested in education, by creating a solvent K-12 system and reinvesting, albeit modestly, in public higher education. However, he is missing some crucial elements that will undermine this success: namely, an investment in low-income families. The Governor forgot that it is working families who most need fiscal solvency.
» Read more about: Working Families Need a Better May Revise »