As key deadlines approach, Newsom and California lawmakers have dozens of deals to make – Pasadena Now

Construction of the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 29, 2024. Photo by Miguel Gutiérrez Jr., CalMatters

It’s time for the people at the California Capitol to play make a deal, or actually, make a lot of deals.

With just two weeks left until the June 15 constitutional deadline to pass a new state budget and less than a month until ballot measures are finalized for the November election, there are dozens, or even hundreds, of individual issues to be resolved .

Most of it is in the much revised 2024-25 budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled earlier this month.

Acknowledging that the budget had a substantially larger deficit than he declared in January, Newsom abandoned his original strategy of using state reserves and paper maneuvers to avoid major spending reductions. The revised version reduces reliance on reserves and generates billions of dollars in real reductions.

Last week, Legislature budget analyst Gabe Petek approved the review for its more realistic approach, although he still has some differences with the administration on revenue estimates and multi-year deficit projections.

“The May review puts the state in a better fiscal position and makes substantial progress toward structural balance,” Petek’s office said in an analysis.

Petek had been especially critical of Newsom’s approach to the budget’s biggest item, financial support for public schools, saying it would create problems in future years. The politically powerful California Teachers Association didn’t like it either and aired video ads criticizing it as a major reduction in school support.

The union’s pressure campaign apparently worked because Politico reported Tuesday that Newsom had reached a deal with the CTA based on a promise to increase school support by $5.5 billion in the coming years.

So apparently it’s a done deal. But as Newsom negotiates with lawmakers on a budget to be enacted by June 15 (which may not be the final version), he still faces demands from dozens of interests affected by the spending cuts to have them rescinded.

Just one of many examples occurred Tuesday, when a coalition of health care and civil rights groups held a news conference to denounce the revised budget’s elimination of home care services for 1,500 elderly or disabled undocumented immigrants to save $94, 7 million.

“It is unacceptable to balance the state budget at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable Californians,” the coalition stated. “Rather than eliminating programs that impact the state’s poorest residents, advocates will urge the Legislature to consider more progressive solutions to ensure California has the resources necessary to care for the most vulnerable Californians.”

Multiply that criticism by 100 or more and it’s the kind of pressure being put on Newsom and a left-leaning Legislature.

The harsh reality, however, is that Newsom faced what he said was a $44.9 billion deficit, primarily because general fund revenues have fallen far short of the more than $200 billion per year that previous budgets had assumed. of Newsom. A budget chart pegs the deficit at $165.1 billion over the four fiscal years starting in 2022-23 and ending in 2025-26.

As Newsom, legislative leaders and interest groups wrangle over the budget, they are also working on potential deals to avoid battles over ballot measures.

They are waiting to see whether the state Supreme Court will take up petitions from Newsom and legislative leaders to block a measure that would dramatically increase restrictions on new taxes. They are also trying to craft a crime legislative package that would appease supporters of a ballot measure to reform Proposition 47, a 2014 measure that reduced certain criminal penalties.

If there is an agreement before June 27, the pending November measure would be abandoned.

CalMatters.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media company that explains California politics and policy.