Don’t like Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget? California Legislature gets to respond
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
BIG DAY IN A BIG WEEK
Sending out a sharp-worded press release is one thing. But how will legislators really respond to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised budget plan? That could become clearer today.
Assembly budget committees on health and public safety will hold hearings to discuss details in the proposal. So will Senate committees on state administration and health. They will be the first of many closely-watched hearings this week as legislators race to agree upon a budget before a June 15 deadline.
Will they push back against Newsom’s proposed changes to Medi-Cal? Commit funding for Proposition 36? Or nix a plan to freeze state worker salary increases next year?
In statements, legislators who chair committees that meet today didn’t reveal much.
State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, a San Diego Democrat who leads a health budget committee, said she looked “forward to reviewing the details” in hearings and having conversations with legislators and the governor “to develop a responsible and equitable final budget. Assemblymember James Ramos, D-San Bernardino, who chairs a public safety budget committee, said the group would “closely vet” Newsom’s plan.
Today is just the start of a busy week, which comes to a head Friday when appropriations committees in the Senate and Assembly will both hold their “suspense file” hearings, where lawmakers can kill controversial and expensive bills.
“Clearly we’re not in a position to continue to do as much as we wish to do and want to do,” Newsom said during his budget presentation. “It’s in that spirit that we ask the Legislature to take a good, hard look at this year’s challenge and next year’s challenge as well.”
We’ll start to have a better idea today of how tough of a look legislators want to take.
AT THE OTHER CAPITOL
Via David Lightman
The U.S. Senate last week rejected an effort by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Democratic colleagues that would have forced the Trump administration to detail efforts to comply with court orders dealing with people who were deported and are being held in El Salvador.
The bid lost 50 to 45 on a procedural vote, with all Democrats voting for the measure and Republicans voting against.
“Hundreds of men have been sent to prison with no trial even. No sentence. No end date. No communication with the outside world,” Padilla said in a Senate floor speech Thursday.
But Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, had a different view.
“Senate Democrats are voting, once again, to defend illegal immigrant criminals,” he said.
Padilla cited a report from CBS’ “60 Minutes” last month saying three-fourths of people deported to a prison in El Salvador have no criminal record.
“If you have committed a crime in the United States of America, then yes, you deserve to be prosecuted. But as we all know — and I hope we continue to respect — that we have a justice system to do just that,” said Padilla, who is the top Democrat on the Senate’s immigration subcommittee.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s a big week.”
— Long-time lobbyist Chris Micheli on the budget-related and appropriations hearings this week in the state Capitol.
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PG&E wants to raise rates again. Why CA bills shouldn’t change much, via Kate Wolffe
‘Trump slump’ or ‘Gavin’s gap’? How California got into a $12 billion deficit, via Nicole Nixon
California state workers say Gavin Newsom’s proposal to halt raises is ‘untenable’, via William Melhado and Stephen Hobbs
