Democratic legislators in California are likely to disagree with Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on four main proposals in his revised fiscal year 2012-2013 budget plan, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, 5/21).
Background
Brown's $91.4 billion revised budget plan calls for cutting:
- $1.2 billion from Medi-Cal -- California's Medicaid program -- by merging services for beneficiaries eligible for both Medi-Cal and Medicare and reducing payments to hospitals and nursing homes;
- $946.2 million from CalWORKs -- the state's welfare-to-work program -- by limiting the amount of time most adults could be on the program from four years to two years;
- $225 million from In-Home Supportive Services -- which provides services for the elderly and people who are blind or have disabilities -- by eliminating domestic assistance for beneficiaries in shared living environments and reducing worker payments by 7%; and
- $64 million from Healthy Families, California's Children's Health Insurance Program, by moving children out of the program (California Healthline, 5/21).
Contentious Proposals
According to the Chronicle, Democrats and the governor mostly will disagree on four proposals involving cuts to:
- CalWORKS;
- Cal Grants, which provides financial aid for low-income college students;
- Funding that the state provides families to subsidize child care expenses; and
- IHSS.
GOP Disputes Deep Cuts
Republican lawmakers criticized the idea that the state is making deep cuts, noting that only a small amount of Brown's proposals involve permanent reductions to programs that Democrats support.
Robert Huff (R-Diamond Bar) said, "It's definitely a 'kick the can down the road' budget because you're just not going to have any cuts there, or very few."
He said the portrayal of deep reductions is a political strategy to get voters to approve a compromise tax hike initiative that Brown is trying to qualify for the November ballot (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/21).