Dems Vote on CA Budget, Ignore Brown’s Objections

On Monday, the California legislature, dominated by Democrats, is voting on a $117.5 billion budget. However, Governor Jerry Brown has not indicated he favors the amount of increased spending, which includes billions more in funding for public schools, and would implement a new tax credit for lower economic class.

The budget includes $749 million more spending on child-care, health care and welfare, as well as $70 million more than Brown offered in his own budget for the California State University system. Members of the legislature have more than the usual self-interest in rushing through the budget; they must pass it by midnight or their salaries will be temporarily cut off.

Brown has offered his own $155 billion budget, according to the Daily News, which reported that Brown’s deputy finance director Keely Bosler argued that increasing social programs for the poor would make the next economic plunge more difficult to deal with. Bosler told the Daily News, “We really do not want to return to the boom-and-bust times that have really plagued the state over this past decade.”

The Los Angeles Times noted that Democratic legislators created their budget based on revenue projections higher than those used by the Brown administration. The Times reported that the legislature’s budget includes $40 million so children who are illegal immigrants have access to healthcare, increasing funding for child-care from $261 million in the next budget to $388 million every following year, and $45 million for dental benefits for adults enrolled in public healthcare.