Busting California’s spending cap + John Cox has a bear + Padilla’s public lands bill
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Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
WILL CALIFORNIA TAXPAYERS GET A REFUND?
Via Jeong Park...
California taxpayers could be due for their first state budget refunds in decades thanks to a disco-era spending cap that on only one previous occasion resulted in households getting checks from Sacramento.
It probably won’t be the last time, either, according to a new report from state budget experts at the Legislative Analyst’s Office. In a new report, the LAO says California might exceed the spending cap by tens of billions of dollars through the 2024-25 budget year.
Some are cheering the news that millions of households could be getting money back from Sacramento, making good on the promise of the the 1979 ballot initiative that created the cap.
But other policy advocates are urging legislators to change or get rid of the cap, saying it could prevent legislators from pursuing ambitious proposals, such as single-payer health care.
“Should the needs and priorities of millions of Californians right now take a back seat to the 2.6 million Californians in the disco era” who voted for the spending cap in 1979, asked Scott Graves, research director at the California Budget & Policy Center. “We created a crazy situation,” he said.
The disagreement hinges on the so-called Gann limit, named after the late taxpayer advocate Paul Gann. It caps California’s spending at the 1978-79 level, adjusted for population growth and growth in personal income.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in January telegraphed the likelihood that Californians could get a little money back from Sacramento this year because of the Gann Limit when he presented a $227 billion budget proposal showing state spending exceeding the spending cap by about $100 million.
Since then, the state’s budget outlook grew even rosier, with tax collections coming in $16.7 billion above what Newsom projected, meaning even more money could be doled out directly to taxpayers.
“As revenues have continued to surge this spring, it could trigger the ‘Gann Limit’ – which would be only the second time it’s happened in more than 40 years,” Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer said in a statement. “We’ll know by next week whether we’ve reached this point. If so, it will be reflected in the Governor’s revised budget.”
LABOR HAS NEWSOM’S BACK. JOHN COX HAS A BEAR.
Via Lara Korte...
Be on the lookout for more labor support after a California state union made a big donation to defend Gov. Gavin Newsom from a recall.
The Professional Engineers in California Government, which represents about 11,000 state engineers, recently contributed $250,000 to the main campaign committee supporting Newsom.
Newsom has butted heads with labor in the past, but union representatives and experts told The Bee’s Wes Venteicher that they’ll still support him in this critical time.
“I would guess that by the end of May we’ll be in full campaign mode to defend the governor against the recall,” a spokesman for the California Labor Federation said.
BONUS: John Cox, who lost to Newsom in 2018, is back on the campaign trail for the recall, this time, with a live bear.
We’re not kidding, he’s going to campaign with a 1,000-pound living bear in Sacramento this morning.
His Sacramento stop will kick off his “Meet the Beast Bus Tour,” with more appearances in Napa, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, and Bakersfield. It’s unclear if the bear will join him at those stops, too.
Cox will talk to the media at 10 a.m. today, follow @CapitolAlert on Twitter for the latest updates (and bear pictures).
PADILLA WANTS TO PRESERVE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC LANDS, RIVERS
Via Kim Bojórquez...
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, introduced legislation on Monday that would preserve and increase access to more than one million acres of public lands in California.
The PUBLIC Lands Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-California, would apply to public lands and nearly 500 miles of rivers located in Northwest California, the Central Coast and the Los Angeles region.
“Climate change is an existential threat. The science is abundantly clear and to help combat the threat of climate change we must protect natural spaces,” Padilla said during a press conference in Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale. “(Protecting) land is a key strategy for capturing carbon from the atmosphere, to reducing emissions and ensuring clean air for all.”
Shanna Edberg, director of conservation programs for the Hispanic Access Foundation, said the legislation would provide more recreational opportunities for Latino communities.
“Latinos and other communities of color are almost twice as likely to live somewhere that is nature deprived than white communities, meaning there are far fewer parks, streams, beaches, and other natural places nearby,” Edberg said in a statement. “This legislation is crucial for bringing nature, and therefore equity and justice, closer to our underserved communities.”
Padilla’s plan falls in line with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2020 executive order to conserve 30% of California’s land and coastal water by 2030.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“So apparently California will continue to extract oil for another 2,5 decades... And yet this is somehow seen as “good news”. The gap between the urgency needed and where the discussion is at is becoming more and more absurd. #MindTheGap”
- Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
Transgender reality TV star and former Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner is facing criticism from many members of the transgender community after she said she opposes trans women participating in women’s sports in schools, via Summer Lin.
When California looks back on the COVID-19 pandemic — the most significant health crisis in modern history, with tens of thousands of deaths so far — medical researchers will find some of the most basic details remarkably incomplete, via Jason Pohl, Ryan Sabalow and Phillip Reese.
Kamala Harris’ Senate successor is hanging out with AOC. Why experts say that’s a smart move, via David Lightman.
