SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown signed a spending plan Wednesday, June 24, that uses California’s growing surplus to fund new initiatives aimed at providing relief to the poor.
The new budget beginning next month will establish an earned income tax credit for working-poor families, boost the number of state-subsidized child care slots and expand state-funded health care coverage to children from low-income families who are in the country illegally.
The state also will adopt an amnesty program for residents who can’t afford to pay off spiraling court fines and traffic penalties that have resulted in 4.8 million driver’s license suspensions since 2006.
Brown announced the signing with a brief message on Twitter. Department of Finance officials planned to provide more details later in the day.
Brown sparingly used his veto authority to trim at least $1.3 million in spending.
A subsequent news release from his office called it “a balanced, on-time budget that saves billions of dollars and pays down debt, while directing more resources to schools and low-income Californians.”
Lawmakers passed a compromise $115.4 billion budget last week to meet Brown’s demands for fiscal restraint by agreeing to use a lower projection for state revenues. Legislative leaders also got to fund their priority social programs to help those who have missed out on the state’s economic recovery.
Atkins, in a statement, called the result “a prudent and progressive budget that will make California a better place to live, work and play.”
The new budget allocates billions more for schools — from kindergarten through community college — and channels additional money to schools with high levels of poor children and English-language learners. Public colleges and universities are also getting more support in exchange for undergraduate tuition freezes.
Republicans supported using Brown’s lower overall budget figure and some even voted for the compromise plan.
Although the budget is complete, the governor and lawmakers still have financial decisions to make.
The Legislature has convened two special sessions to address how California pays for roads, highways and other infrastructure, as well as financial fixes to Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for the poor, which covers more than 12 million Californians, or nearly one-third of the state population.
The governor and legislative leaders also were unable to reach agreement on how to spend a growing pot of money collected from the state’s landmark effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Cap-and-trade funding was taken out of the budget to give them more time to negotiate a way to spend that money.