Newsom’s budget revisions raise serious concerns for Latinos hit hardest by COVID-19

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently released his May revision to the state’s 2020-21 budget. While we understand the fiscal challenges our state is facing with a $54 billion deficit and a looming pandemic induced recession, this is not the time to cut critical programs and retract commitments intended to protect the most vulnerable Californians.

Forced to choose between putting their lives at risk or losing their income, Latino and undocumented workers are on the frontlines working essential jobs. Currently, Latinos comprise 40 percent of the population but 53 percent of positive COVID-19 cases.

Gov. Newsom’s revised budget gives us cause for concern that we are headed in the wrong direction. The May revision fails to reflect that the people most impacted by this pandemic were already the ones carrying the burden of decades of disinvestments.

Here is what concerns us the most about the governor’s budget proposal:

▪ Public education cuts: School districts are facing $6.5 billion in cuts. Latino youth make up 54 percent of California’s K-12 student population and were already more likely than other demographic groups to attend high-poverty schools. Cuts will devastate schools already strapped for cash.

▪ Slashed healthcare for undocumented seniors: The governor withdrew his proposal to expand Medi-Cal access to low-income undocumented seniors. Expediting health coverage to this population could help reduce the spread of the virus. Latinos are dying of health-related complications caused by COVID-19 at disproportionate rates. What’s worse is that more than half of California’s uninsured population is Latino. Although immigration status is not a barrier seeking care among those presenting symptoms of the virus, access to tests remain uneven.

▪ Failure to Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit: Immigrants who file their taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) do not qualify for the California Earned Income Tax Credit. If lawmakers modified this tax credit eligibility to include all taxpayers using an ITIN, 388,000 families would see a boost in their income. About 1 in 3 undocumented workers in California is employed in an industry highly affected by business closures.

▪ Missed opportunity for COVID-19 Contact Tracing: For California to safely reopen, we need to strengthen our public health infrastructure and meet the demand for 40,000+ certified contact tracers. Our state needs to leverage the $1.3B from the CARES Act and ensure we have centralized cadre of culturally competent community health workers that can be deployed in the communities hardest hit by this pandemic. Instead we are leaving this critical work up for counties to enact a plan without the necessary resources they will need to focus attention on this work.

Nearly 40 of 58 counties in California barely have the resources to provide critical public health services now let alone add the work of training, deploying and managing contact tracers. We need a centralized approach that will ensure all communities have a seamless access to testing and tracing.

One opportunity worth considering is a partnership between California’s Department of Public Health and California’s Community Colleges, which serve over 900,000 Latinos students statewide and train a substantial share of the state’s health care workforce. Students can serve as contact tracers in hard-to-reach communities, find employment and help fill a critical public health need.

There is some good news in this budget. The governor proposes to augment the small business guarantee program by $50 million for a total increase of $100 million to fill gaps in federal assistance. The budget revise also maintains a $10 million General Fund investment for the Social Entrepreneurs for Economic Development initiative, providing entrepreneurial training for individuals, including those who are undocumented.

California’s 800,000 Latino-owned businesses make up nearly one-quarter of all small businesses in the state, generating an average of $100 billion in annual sales. The Newsom administration should work with regional economic development funds, cooperative nonprofits and community foundations to make sure these businesses get relief.

There is still time to act. Investing in communities most impacted by the public health crisis will not only help ensure that Latino families can weather the economic fallout created by the pandemic — it will help ensure California as a whole is on its way to a speedy health and economic recovery.