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What you should know about the $351.7 billion state budget Newsom just signed
Los Angeles Times • • general
Key Points:
- Governor Gavin Newsom signed California's $351.7 billion state budget, focusing on aiding the poorest residents through a tax system dependent on stock market gains of the wealthy, marking his final budget as governor.
- The budget expands social programs including free school meals, universal transitional kindergarten, and 130,000 subsidized childcare slots, reflecting a significant increase in state spending over Newsom’s tenure.
- Democrats control the budget process, with extensive negotiations involving lawmakers, unions, and business groups, and have increased spending by over $100 billion since 2019-20, funded largely by a 60% increase in revenue.
- Education and Medi-Cal are the largest budget expenditures, with Medi-Cal costs doubling over the past decade due to increased enrollment and services, and the budget maintains or expands coverage despite cost concerns.
- The budget sets aside $6.4 billion of surplus revenue to address future deficits and proposes a constitutional change to allow more reserve savings during economic upswings to avoid cuts in downturns.
