By Bob Walsh
Governor Newsom has signed the budget for the formerly
great state of California for the fiscal year beginning on July 1.
However, his signature is conditional. I confess I have never heard of
this sort of thing before.
His
signature is contingent on either AB131 or SB131 being passed on or
before this coming Monday. These bills make changes to the California
Environmental Quality Act. The law is 50 years old and requires an
expensive and time consuming environmental impact report on pretty much
any project in California that could reasonably be considered
construction. By time consuming I mean YEARS some times. These delays
and costs drive up the cost of housing (among other things) in CA
substantially. Much of the legislature does not want to go along unless
the bills address more fully both labor standards (unionized labor
guarantees) and affordable housing.
The CA budget for next year stands currently at $321 billion.
The
new budget does allow CA to tap into some cap-and-trade money to fund
firefighting efforts, about $1 billion worth. Also it increases the pay
for inmate fire fighters, which is richly deserved. They currently get
from about $6 per day to about $10 per day.
There
WAS a provision in law that guaranteed $1 billion a year to the
so-called High-Speed Rail Authority, thru 2045. The current budget bill
does NOT make that guarantee.
The
current budget does include $80 million to fund Proposition 36, which
passed OVERWHELMINGLY in the state last year. This includes about $50
million for more behavior health beds. This is better than the
governor's first proposal, which was zero, but is much less than the
$400 million the district attorneys and sheriffs assert is needed in the
first year.
The Film Tax Credit, to try to bring movie production back to California, has increased from $330 million to $750 million.
The new budget also includes $10 million to help illegal aliens fight deportation.
It
isn't real clear yet how likely the legislature is to do what the
governor demands. Legislators as a group are not known for moral
courage but they do know which side of their bread the butter goes. We
will know on Monday who wins. It would be nice if it was the citizens
and taxpayers of CA but I wouldn't count on that.
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