Winners and losers in CA budget deal

With Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic-led Legislature coming to a budget agreement on Saturday, some winners and losers of the spending plan have become clear. As CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff explains, many programs saw funding cuts, deferrals and delays to find $46.8 billion in fiscal solutions and balance the budget. The effort, according to the governor and legislative leaders, preserves California’s vast social safety net. 

Some winners include:

Local homelessness efforts: The budget includes $1 billion for the sixth round of local homelessness funding. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement that the funding allows cities to “expand shelter capacity, grow street outreach teams, and build more temporary and permanent housing options.” Cities are also expected to receive $250 million over the next two years towards clearing homeless encampments.

Child care advocates: Hoping to create over 200,000 additional subsidized openings at child care facilities by 2028, the budget restores funding for 11,000 new slots. In a statement, Child Care Providers United praised the move: “Providers can’t pay the bills with the love we have for the children in our care.”

Middle-class scholarship recipients: Though a program that provides financial aid to low- and middle-class college students will have a planned reduction of $110 million a year starting in 2025-26, a one-time $289 million boost to a total of $926 million remains intact for 2024-25. Newsom in May proposed to slash it down to $100 million annually, a would-be blow to California’s plans to make college debt-free.

Public universities: The University of California and California State University will each receive about $100 million to $160 million in additional state base funding in 2024-25, with plans for a mix of funding cuts and deferrals the following two years that’ll be restored in 2027-28. The deal allows the systems to spend another year preparing for relatively leaner times.

And some losers: 

Affordable housing advocates: In a blow to efforts helping to ease the state’s housing shortage, the budget plan includes cutting $1.1 billion from various affordable housing programs. 

Health care workers: Not only will $746 million be cut from health care workforce development programs, but the budget delays even further a $25 hourly wage hike for health care workers. The pay raises were supposed to begin June 1, but now will be pushed back until at least October. Learn more about the wage hike in CalMatters’ FAQ.

Cal Grant recipients: A proposal to grow Cal Grant, the state’s key financial aid program, by $245 million has been scrapped. The expansion would have added 137,000 more students by fall 2024. A pared-down plan to expand it to 21,000 more students also didn’t make the final deal.

Climate change advocates: The plan guts $9 billion from the $54 billion spending package approved two years ago for key climate programs.

Read more about the budget deal in Alexei’s story.

State of the State: Now that the budget agreement is done, Gov. Newsom will finally deliver his State of the State address on Tuesday. But it will be pre-recorded, not in person before the Legislature, and will be followed up by a letter, his press office announced Sunday.

Republicans have been blasting the governor for waiting so long to fulfill his constitutional duty, and Assembly GOP leader James Gallagher of Chico posted that Newsom is showing “disrespect” to the Legislature. This is the second year in a row Newsom has decided against the traditional speech.

Besides the state budget, the big decision before the Legislature and Gov. Newsom this week: What will be the final lineup of propositions and bond measures on California’s Nov. 5 ballot?

While there are 15 now, that will change before Thursday’s deadline for any additions or subtractions. Bills must be in print today to be voted on Thursday, so we’ll have a better idea of what may happen. Here’s a current scorecard:

Coming off the ballot: A business-backed measure to limit tax increases, after the state Supreme Court ruled last week, and another business initiative to change a workplace violations law, after a deal with labor. A constitutional amendment to no longer require local voter approval for public housing will be delayed, once the author’s resolution is approved this week.

Maybe coming off: Top Democrats who oppose a measure that would increase penalties for retail thieves and drug traffickers (rolling back Proposition 47 approved by voters in 2014) are trying to persuade proponents to pull it off. If that doesn’t happen, Democrats may add a competing crime measure, KCRA reports.

Also, celebrities and environmental groups are running ads against an industry referendum to overturn a state law limiting where oil wells can go, in part to try to scare the industry into pulling its measure. 

Possibly getting on: Supporters are trying to push through one constitutional amendment to allow targeted support for various demographic groups that are backed by academic research (and chip away at Prop. 209 from 1996), and another to restrict forced labor in prisons. And advocacy groups are urging the Legislature to add bond measures for climate action programs, affordable housing and school construction.

Just added: The Secretary of State’s office announced Friday that a measure has qualified that would expand a program for specialized medical care for children.

And getting changed: A constitutional amendment to lower the voter approval needed to borrow money for affordable housing is being amended so that the powerful California Association of Realtors won’t oppose it, CalMatters housing reporter Ben Christopher scooped on Friday.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld federal approval of the abortion medication mifepristone and California enshrined the right to an abortion in its constitution in 2022, confusion over reproductive health care access in the state remains.

In San Diego, a woman who had a miscarriage in December alleges in a formal public letter that staff members at a CVS pharmacy unlawfully denied her medication that doctors prescribed to help her manage the loss of her pregnancy, writes CalMatters health reporter Kristen Hwang.

Angela Costales and the nonprofit National Women’s Law Center call for CVS to improve its policies and employee training to prevent similar occurrences. Costales has not filed a lawsuit against CVS but isn’t ruling one out, her attorney said.

Costales: “The hardest part is I feel like CVS robbed me of my ability to mourn my pregnancy loss.”

Amy Thibault, a CVS Pharmacy spokesperson, said the company is investigating Costales’ claims. In an email to CalMatters, Thibault said the company has policies that ensure “no patient is ever denied access to medication prescribed by a physician based on a pharmacist’s individual religious or moral beliefs.”

Costales’ allegations underscore the uncertainty health care providers and patients face since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. Said one staff attorney with the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy: “This flip-flopping of changing of laws from day to day does have a detrimental and chilling effect on care people are getting.”

Learn more about the issue in Kristen’s story.

In other health care news:

LGBTQ forms: For years, various health care forms have provided space for patients to voluntarily declare their race, age and other key demographic data to better inform public health responses and treatments. Now, the Legislature is considering a bill that would require health officials to provide space on forms for LGBTQ people to voluntarily note their gender identity and sexual orientation, writes CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow. The measure was proposed after a state audit found that almost all of the dozens of state and local health care forms did not include LGBTQ demographic questions.

Naloxone: After striking a deal with Amneal Pharmaceuticals in April, Gov. Newsom announced Friday that the state will begin offering Naloxone. Naloxone nasal spray can reverse opioid overdoses, including fentanyl. Eligible organizations can receive naloxone for free through the government-run pharmaceutical program CalRx or for purchase through Amneal. In the last four years, opioid-related deaths have skyrocketed. More than 7,300 people died from overdoses in 2022, the latest year final data was available.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal law banning guns from domestic abusers — a ruling that California Attorney General Rob Bonta called “an important victory for public safety” and Gov. Newsom applauded. California has a similar law on the books, but it isn’t always enforced — with deadly consequences. Read the award-winning story by CalMatters investigative reporter Robert Lewis.