Here's your daily briefing...
Budget Coming into Focus: Sacramento lawmakers gained some breathing room as officials revealed that California will have $2.5 billion more to spend in the coming fiscal year than expected. Under plans released by the Governor Thursday, on-again, off-again increases in child care spending would be restored and planned cuts to In-Home Supportive Services, will be less severe. The program provides visiting nursing services to the disabled, enabling more independence and preventing expensive institutionalization. Republicans say the windfall should instead prevent recent increases in fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees.
Brown V. Board (of Regents): Governor Jerry Brown has proposed withholding $50 million in funding from the University of California unless and until the university’s recalcitrant leaders accept reform. The political chess move comes in the wake of an audit that found that university leaders had squirrelled away $175 million in secret accounts while demanding more funding, raising tuition and fees again, while lavishly paying executive administrators.
IHSS Cuts Smaller: Officials running, or at least trying to budget spending in California’s 58 counties are breathing a sigh of relief, or at least half a sigh. With state revenue higher, Sacramento is walking back a promised $600 million funding cut for In-Home Supportive Services. Counties were being asked to back-fill the amount, but with county budgets generally in worse shape than Sacramento’s, that was looking very unlikely. Los Angeles County was considering across the board budget cuts to keep IHSS at least partly afloat.
ACA Repeal Drama Causing Medi-Cal Uncertainty: With the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act hinging on an as yet unscheduled US Senate vote, state officials are playing wait-and-see. Officials are warning that the repeal bill as currently writing would cut an amount from Medi-Cal equal to the entire cost of the 10 campus University of California system.
Salmon off the Menu: Between a quarter million and 300,000 baby Chinook Salmon were killed in their fishery pens near Oroville Wednesday night after an electrical short circuit caused a pump to fail. The pump delivered fresh water and oxygen. The young fish had earlier been rescued from the Oroville hatchery in February when silt and debris kicked up by the spillway failures threatened to kill them.
And on the California Report: State Democrats are praising the Governor’s revised spending plan…A tough talking challenger vows to ‘repeal and replace Devin Nunes (R-Tulare)…Los Angeles leaders look for ways to punish Trump ‘border wall’ contractors…And the next frontier for solar panels — floating on water.