The California Legislature passed a spending plan for the 2017-2018 fiscal year on Thursday, June 15th, meeting the state's budget approval deadline with a $183.2 billion package that raises school funding, expands a tax credit for the working poor, and gives the Capitol more influence over University of California finances. The main budget bill passed the Senate 28-10 and the Assembly 59-20. The votes come a week after the Democrat-controlled Legislature's budget-writing committee forwarded a plan reflecting agreement with the Brown Administration on a number of key policy issues.
A final agreement followed a few days later when legislators and Governor Jerry Brown came to terms on how to spend revenue from a 2016 ballot measure that raised tobacco taxes. Republicans criticized the contents of the budget, but there was one notable member of the minority party that voted for the package. Senator Anthony Cannella (R - Ceres) voted in favor because of his support for its transportation project related funding. Senate Republican Leader Patricia Bates (R - Laguna Niguel) criticized the budget as the biggest in California's history.

Republican lawmakers repeated long standing complaints that other bills in the package, which are theoretically meant to carry out the provisions of the main spending bill, often create major policy in their own right. These were among those measures accompanying the budget: legislation to curtail the state Board of Equalization's power despite an eleventh hour effort from opponents that included oil companies, unions, and small businesses; a bill to make the timeline for qualifying a recall ballot measure months longer; and, legislators approved a measure merging the voter-approved November 2016 ballot measure that legalized recreational use of marijuana with medical legislation previously passed by lawmakers to create a singular regulatory system in California. 

This week's plan settles months of disagreement between doctors, the Legislature, and the Governor on how to spend more than $1.2 billion in tobacco tax revenue generated by last year's Proposition 56 - Cigarette Tax Increase. Of the total, $546 million would raise reimbursement rates for doctors, dentists, and other healthcare providers. 

Regarding school spending, this totals $74.5 billion for next year, up 4.2% - about $3.1 billion - from the current year. The plan allocates another $50 million to the state-funded After School and Education and Safety program. And, it includes $200 million to continue preschool and childcare provider rate increases included in last year's budget pact. The package increased University of California funding by $131.2 million, and sets a target for UC to enroll 1,500 more students in the coming year. It reflects the Governor's proposal to hold back $50 million until the system carries out recommendations of a recent state audit that criticized the UC Office of the President. The California State University receives an additional $162.3 million. CSU leaders, though, have to find space for students denied entry to their preferred campus or program.
Under the budget plan, the state would end June 2018 with $8.5 billion in the rainy day reserve and another $1.4 billion in the state's regular reserve. The Governor is expected to sign the state's 2017-18 spending plan in the coming days.

Jason Bryant