SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A California legislative panel advanced pieces of the state budget Thursday, setting up a vote in the full Legislature ahead of a deadline next week.
A budget conference committee advanced portions of the budget to which leaders of the Assembly and Senate agreed.
It wasn’t clear if Gov. Jerry Brown supports the budget items moving forward. His deputy finance director, Amy Costa, said a key item of disagreement - how to spend tobacco tax revenue - remained unsettled.
Brown last month proposed a $125 billion spending plan, up slightly from the current year but largely preserving the status quo. Lawmakers, who often complain that Brown is too stingy when it comes to spending on social services, pushed to increase payments for Medi-Cal doctors, boost spending on services for the poor and add more money for higher education.
Lawmakers are under increasing pressure to finalize the budget. They’ll lose pay if it’s not approved by June 15. And under new rules approved by voters last year, the final document must be translated to formal legislative language and published online at least three days before a final vote.
Brown returned Thursday afternoon from China, where he spent nearly a week promoting California’s climate change policies and making deals with Chinese officials.
Among the toughest sticking points is how to divvy up $1.2 billion in revenue from a $2-a-pack increase in tobacco taxes approved by voters last year. Brown proposed using the money to cover normal growth in the program, freeing up general fund dollars that otherwise would’ve covered that cost.
The proposal angered doctors and dentists, who helped fund the campaign in support of the tobacco tax and thought much of the money would be used to increase their notoriously low payments for seeing Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal patients.
Legislative Democrats, particularly in the Assembly, looked to boost spending on a variety of safety net programs and other initiatives to help people with low incomes.
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