Newsom backs off cuts

Officials did not formally announce the deal as they continue to haggle over the details of a provision that could streamline construction of housing projects near public transit and allow denser development in cities. Newsom demanded the language — which has encountered resistance from the state Senate.

“We appreciate the strong partnership with the Legislature in reaching this budget agreement,” spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement. “The governor’s signature is contingent on finalizing legislation to cut red tape and unleash housing and infrastructure development across the state — to build more, faster.”

Though the Legislature already passed its own version of the budget earlier this month to meet a constitutional deadline, it relied more on borrowing and less on program cuts than Newsom — who sought to reverse course on recent major expansions of subsidized health care to stabilize California’s long-term finances.

The budget agreement forgoes or delays many of his proposals. Legislative leaders argued against prematurely kicking people out of a vital safety net as they search for other solutions to address a persistent revenue gap that is projected to reach more than $20 billion annually in the coming years.

With officials ultimately agreeing to fewer spending reductions — reflecting a hope by many legislators that California’s economy will eventually rally — the state will pull about $7 billion out of its rainy-day fund and $6.5 billion from other cash reserves to balance the budget next year.

Nevertheless, the plan freezes enrollment by adults without legal status in Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for the poor, starting in January. After California finished gradually opening up the program to that population last year, more new patients enrolled than expected — contributing to about $6 billion in cost overruns that required an emergency appropriation to Medi-Cal this spring.

The budget deal also eliminates dental coverage for those who remain enrolled, starting in July 2026, and creates a $30 monthly premium for undocumented Medi-Cal patients between the ages of 19 and 59 that will take effect in July 2027.

But it rejects the governor’s proposed cuts to their long-term care benefits — as well as to overtime pay for home health aides and funding for reproductive health providers — and does not reinstate a strict asset test that could have pushed thousands of newly eligible older and disabled Californians off of Medi-Cal again.

Public transit agencies and the University of California and California State University also avoid funding cuts under this spending plan — though some of the money for the university systems is deferred, and they will be required to take out zero-interest loans from the state’s general fund in the meantime. The deal includes $45 million to help the struggling Sonoma State University — in Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire’s district — to turn around its financial woes.

Housing, homelessness retain funding

The Legislature successfully pushed to keep $620 million in grants and loans for affordable housing construction and $500 million to support local homelessness services — and to add $100 million in one-time funding for counties to begin implementing Proposition 36. Local government and law enforcement agencies have argued they need far more help to enforce the measure, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last fall to increase penalties and mandate treatment for certain drug crimes. Newsom remains opposed to that approach — which he contends would return California to an era of mass incarceration.

The budget deal maintains his proposal to close a fifth state prison by next October — which could save an estimated $150 million annually — and more than doubles the size of California’s film and television tax credit to $750 million, another gubernatorial priority as production flees the state.

The plan also relies on other internal fund shifts, including directing $1 billion raised from greenhouse gas polluters through cap-and-trade auctions to pay for firefighting and vegetation management projects. Some lawmakers had objected to using money intended to address climate change this way.

The fate of that cap-and-trade system — which Newsom had proposed to reauthorize through the budget — and his controversial push to fast-track the Delta tunnel are among several significant policy questions left unresolved in the agreement. They could still be addressed in follow-up budget bills in the coming weeks or through the regular legislative process by the end of the summer.

The governor also has yet to agree to a legislative proposal to lend up to $1.75 billion to local governments in Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area transit agencies dealing with their own budget crunches.

And all of this could be revisited again later this year or early next year as California warily eyes a major federal tax bill — still being negotiated in Congress — that could result in deep cuts to health care and food aid funding. Liberal state legislators and advocacy groups are turning up the pressure to raise state taxes to offset those losses — something Newsom has previously vehemently opposed.

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