What’s on the line as California approaches budget deadline?
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THEY’RE COOKING
The deadline is looming for California leaders to pass a budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. This Sunday, June 15, is the last day they have to do it. For every day that goes over, lawmakers don’t get paid.
This year, state Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks has a prediction.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “it sounds like we’ll be working into the weekend.”
One thing to watch will be how the Medi-Cal program for undocumented Californians evolves. Medi-Cal is the government-funded health care for very low income people. After the governor released his revised budget in May, there was significant legislative uproar over the suggested changes, which included an enrollment freeze and new $100 monthly premiums. The 33-member Legislative Latino Caucus came out strong against the cuts.
Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, said legislative leaders have made “some progress” to modify the plan.
“I think there is a consensus on both sides they don’t want this budget balanced on the backs of our most vulnerable Californians,” she said.
However, the lawmaker tempered expectations.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to end up being happy with this budget, in the sense of everything being reinstated,” she said. “There’s still definitely going to be cuts across the board.”
One idea that has gained momentum is a possible new revenue source to help offset the $12 billion deficit.
Assemblymember Sade Elhawary, D-Los Angeles, said a coalition of Democrats have been exploring the idea of new corporate taxes for offshore multinational corporations, companies that got tax cuts when President Donald Trump was first in office and companies that have a high proportion of employees on Medi-Cal.
“There’s no, like, real decisions at all yet,” Elhawary told The Bee Thursday. “What I’m so grateful for is that leadership has really taken a closer look.”
Whatever leadership decides, Niello said it won’t be the last word.
“Typically we do go back and change the budget in August or September, and I’m quite sure we will this year,” he said.
WILDFIRE POLICY BUILDS BIPARTISAN BRIDGES
Via Molly Gibbs...
Partisan politics are often a feature of the California Assembly, but some policy areas unite lawmakers. This year, California wildfire response was one of them.
More than a dozen bills pertaining to wildfire prevention and recovery were passed by the Assembly with bipartisan support. Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, called these bills “a bright spot of House of Origin deadline,” in a post on X. Bills authored by both parties made it through ahead of the deadline, including one, Assembly Bill 1227 by Gallagher and two of his fellow Republican Assembly members.
“In the past we’ve found bipartisan support for increasing the money to wildfire prevention in the budget,” Gallagher told The Bee. “But what has always been elusive is making reforms to CEQA or other policy changes that will allow for more of this work to be done in a timely fashion.”
Gallagher’s bill could help on that front. It would extend an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act for certain fuel reduction projects in very high fire hazard zones. The goal of fuel reduction projects is to remove vegetation, or fuel, from an area to make it less susceptible to wildfires. The exemption in this bill cuts through some of the red tape and helps these projects happen sooner. The importance of this bill to all Californians was underscored by the unanimous 76-0 vote that passed it out of the Assembly Wednesday.
Other bills pertain specifically to recovery efforts in the Los Angeles area. Assembly Bill 239, authored by Democratic Assembly members, is one such bill. It would establish a state-led County of Los Angeles disaster housing task force to coordinate resource allocation for those impacted by wildfires that tore through the area in January. This wildfire bill passed by a vote of 79-0.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We pay over $680 billion in federal taxes, including $80 billion we never get back. We are 1/8 of all people in this country. If you hate California, you hate a huge part of what Makes America Great.”
— Assemblymember Isaac Bryan on X
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This story was originally published June 9, 2025 at 4:55 AM.