By Charly SHELTON

Governor Gavin Newsom signed the newest California state budget last Thursday, taking effect on July 1 for the 2019-20 fiscal year. It was a budget full of firsts, not only in that it was Newsom’s first budget since being elected but also in the spending level. With a price tag of $214.8 billion, it is the state’s largest budget ever and it increases to record levels spending in several key areas. Over the next couple of weeks, we will look at some of those aspects.

“This budget builds record reserves for a rainy day and pays off debt while doing more than any budget in state history to help families tackle challenges of affordability and confront the cost crisis,” said Gov. Newsom’s joint statement released with California senate president pro tempore Toni Atkins and assembly speaker Anthony Rendon.

“The budget passed by the legislature puts more than a billion dollars in the pockets of working people and small businesses across California. While the Trump Administration attempts to take health care away from families, this budget makes California a national leader in the fight to expand access to health care and to help families, including middle-income families, afford health care coverage. This budget puts the state on the path to universal preschool access and expands childcare for working parents. It also provides ongoing funding to deliver safe drinking water to the million Californians who don’t currently have it.”

Last week, the budget’s allocation of funds provided a second tuition-free year of community college for all residents attending for the first time. There are additional education aspects that the budget addresses.

The budget for K-12 students has increased from 2018’s $97.2 billion to a record high of $103.4 billion, making the average per-student spending tip above $12,000 for the first time. Of that $103.4 billion, $300 million will go to expanding full-day kindergarten classes across the state. And more changes will be made to ensure the future of education funding is protected.

The education system is still recovering from the cutbacks it had to withstand during the last recession, and part of the budget – $687 million – goes to paying off old education debts. But what’s more important is that within the budget there are fortifications to safeguard the funds allocated for students. The mandatory level of education spending can no longer be retroactively lowered to adjust budgets of coming years. The formula for determining minimum spending levels is part of the CA Constitution and, in the past, it has been retroactively changed by legislative vote to affect the formula’s outcome for current decisions. This addendum closes that loophole so that no matter what spending stays consistent and adequate.

This kind of structure is possible to protect the budget when times get tough, as they did during and after the last recession. In 2009, the state faced a $42 billion deficit. This year, there will be a surplus of over $21 billion. So the budget is allocating more into savings funds for rainy days including $400 million in reserve for education, $1.4 billion for emergencies and natural disaster reserves and $16.5 billion for a “just-in-case-there’s-another-recession” fund to help offset debts when the next recession hits. The $16.5 billion will remain untouched until that time.

In all, more than $19 billion is being put away in savings, another record for the state.

There are many other aspects to this new budget including housing, homelessness, health care and public services. Next week, CV Weekly will examine some of those.

  Charly Shelton