By Janet Price, Golden State Republican Women – January 23, 2025
FIRST AND FOREMOST, CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
On to California
THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S BUDGET
Governor Newsom released his 2025 budget plan by the required deadline.
The total budget is $322.3 billion.
This is really a place-holder budget based on best available information and gives the Assembly and Senate parameters to work within.
It is important to note that the Governor is reporting a surplus with the general fund revenues at $218 billion with revenues expected to be higher. Caution should be taken because in the last budget year revenues were expected to provide a surplus of $98 billion but when the actual numbers came in, there was a deficit of over $60 billion per the Legislative Analyst office.
It should also be noted that the budget includes taking $7 billion from the “rainy day fund”.
(And do we also wonder what the impact will be of “property tax” losses from the fire ravaged homes!!)
In terms of spending:
- No projected cuts to education.
Before and after school programs, summer school, and full funding for universal kindergarten and offering free education to about 400,000 four-year-olds are included.
Funding cuts:
- There are funding cuts for wildfire and forest resilience by more than $10 million.(However, total spending has increased on fire prevention over last six years.)
On the homeless front:
- The budget proposes more stringent accounting methods to track spending. (During the last budget there was over $500 million that the auditor could not track, so this is a good thing.)
- As part of the plan on homelessness, the budget proposes a new agency to help coordinate homelessness and creating new policies.
An interesting proposal:
- Budget $7.4 million to provide three (3) months’ supply of diapers for all newborn.(No real idea yet how this will be implemented.)
The Governor pointed out that with President Trump taking office, the state could lose a lot of federal funding so if the budget goes upside down, he can blame President Trump.
NOT TO MENTION “Trump Proofing” California
California Democrats have reached a $50 million agreement to shore up state and local legal defenses against the incoming Trump administration just a week ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration. Half the money would go to fending off any mass deportation plan the new president might enact early in his administration.
Janet Price is President of Golden State Republican Women
