SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on Gov. Jerry Brown’s California budget proposal (all times local):
2:45 p.m.
California may create its own online community college.
Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing $120 million to get it up and running. He says it will benefit 2.5 million young Californians who have high school diplomas but aren’t accessing higher education.
Brown’s state spending plan released Wednesday also provides money to make the first year of traditional community college free for many students.
On K-12 education, Brown proposes boosting spending by $3 billion for a program aimed at helping California’s neediest students. That’s part of the Local Control Funding Formula, passed in 2013. Brown’s fresh investment is fully funding it two years ahead of schedule.
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2:30 p.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown is projecting California will raise $643 million in taxes during the first year of recreational marijuana sales through licensed stores.
The figure included in Brown’s budget proposal Wednesday is less than the $1 billion in revenue that state experts have previously projected.
State officials have struggled to project how much money the state would raise after recreational marijuana sales began Jan. 1.
Brown and the Legislature have little say over spending marijuana taxes, which must be spent according to a formula approved by voters in 2016. Brown says the first $135 million will pay back the general fund for costs of building the state bureaucracy to regulate marijuana.
The voter initiative also requires money for research, mitigating the effects of past criminalization and treatment of drug abuse.
2:20 p.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s $12 billion spending plan for the state’s prison and parole system includes money to train ex-felons to become firefighters.
His proposal Wednesday comes as the state struggles to maintain enough inmate firefighters while the prison population declines.
Eighty ex-convicts would be trained by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and employed for 18 months by the California Conservation Corps.
The budget separately calls for raising the ceiling to age 25 for young offenders to remain in the Division of Juvenile Justice. That continues a recent trend in treating youthful offenders more leniently with the understanding that their brains have not fully developed.
The age limit was cut from 25 to 23 in 2013 to save money and reduce the juvenile population by about 40 offenders.
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1:50 p.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown says he’s “open to” a state Senate proposal aimed at protecting Californians from paying more taxes under the new federal tax law.
The federal law passed in December caps the state and local tax deduction at $10,000. In 2015, Californians who claimed the deduction claimed an average of more than $18,000.
Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon has a plan that would allow people to pay their state taxes in the form of a charitable contribution. That would then allow them to deduct it from their federal taxes.
Brown says it’s an interesting idea but one that’s not fully fleshed out. He worries the IRS would write rules to prevent it.
Brown’s budget plan introduced Wednesday did not include any changes in response to the federal tax plan. That’s because his budget was finalized in mid-December, before Congress had acted. Brown will submit a revised budget in May.
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10:35 a.m.
The top Republican on the Assembly budget committee says the state’s budget surplus shows that Californians pay too much in taxes.
Assemblyman Jay Obernolte of Hesperia said Wednesday that California’s substantial budget surplus should ideally be returned to taxpayers.
He was reacting to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s nearly $132 billion general fund spending proposal.
The governor seeks to put an additional $5 billion into a Rainy Day Fund for what he says is an inevitable recession.
Obernolte says that’s a good start but the state must do even more to prepare. He says the surplus should be spent on one-time investments instead of new programs that would commit the state to future ongoing spending.
He also wants to pay down debt and liabilities that he said currently exceed $200 billion.
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10:20 a.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown is warning of an inevitable recession despite California’s current strong economy.
The Democratic governor used his last budget proposal Wednesday to once again call for being frugal in his nearly $132 billion spending plan.
He says there have been 10 recessions since World War II and California must prepare now for the 11th.
Brown’s budget largely avoids new spending, instead putting $5 billion in surplus money into the state’s Rainy Day Fund, much more than is required by the state constitution.
The budget also proposes a new online community college. It does not react to the new tax bill in Washington, but Brown says that will be dealt with throughout the budget negotiating process.
He is expected to act as a brake on spending proposals during the coming five months of budget negotiations with the Democratically controlled Legislature.
Brown is termed out of office next year.
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10 a.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a $132 billion budget for California as he kicks off his final year in office.
That’s a 5 percent increase from last year’s budget. It represents Brown’s typically restrained approach to budgeting.
The budget also includes an additional $59 billion in special funds and bonds which are dedicated to specific purposes.
Brown’s proposal is just the first stage of a months-long budget process. Now it heads to the Legislature for revisions. A final spending plan must be signed by the end of June.
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9 a.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown is preparing to release his last state spending proposal before he leaves office.
The proposal set for release on Wednesday kicks off five months of budget negotiations with the Democratically controlled Legislature.
Brown is unlikely to veer from his restrained approach to budgeting. The Democratic governor generally shies away from new ongoing spending that he says the state can’t afford to sustain. He prefers to use much of the state’s higher revenue for one-time expenses like new state buildings or paying down debts for retried state workers.
His caution often puts Brown at odds with senior Democrats in the Legislature, who prefer to use the state’s new money to expand funding for higher education and social services.
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