This Week Inside the Capitol

This Week Inside the Capitol

January 23, 2012

Legislature Makes No Budget Sense

by Rebecca Burgoyne, 
CFC Research Analyst

With a January 31 deadline to clear their houses of origin, two-year bills are starting to drop by the wayside.  Although many bills remain in fiscal committees, legislators will not recognize the seriousness of the deficit, and continue to spend money the state doesn’t have. A couple of bills would undo or postpone the dissolution of the state’s redevelopment agencies – a move Gov. Jerry Brown is likely to veto – and legislators are still determined to restore the school-bus funding erased by midyear budget triggers. 

SB 810 (Leno, D-San Francisco) – single-payer health care – passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee Friday – despite the enormous state bureaucracy it would create to the tune of billions of dollars. This legislation would establish the California Healthcare System (CHS), a single-payer health care system that would provide coverage for which all 37 million Californians would be eligible. It would combine all state-funded health care systems under one umbrella agency and limit private health insurance, by prohibiting any policies sold in the state that compete with the state system.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a nearly identical bill authored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl in 2008, saying, “’According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, the bill is estimated to cost $210 billion in its first full year of implementation and cause annual shortfalls of $42 billion.’ To place this in proper perspective, our state budget deficit this year started at $24.3 billion. Since this bill is nearly identical to SB 840, and as such, would have a similar fiscal impact on the state, it does not address the veto message.” (Senate Appropriations Committee analysis, SB 810, Jan. 19, 2012.)

The same fiscal committee analysis last week said, “Although the cost [of SB 810] is unknown, it would be a substantial undertaking requiring many hours of expert staff time to determine the cost of a system and to determine a rate and premium structure, as well as consult with stakeholder organizations, policy institutes, and experts in health care financing and universal health care models. Costs could be in the high hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in FY 2012-2013 and ongoing depending on the ongoing role of the commission.” 

Certain legislators don’t seem to live in the same world as many California families, who continue to make sacrifices in a struggling economy. Many families are forced to go without, while these legislators have plans to continue spending, hoping to convince voters to increase taxes on themselves in November. Keep your eye on your state representatives, and let them know you are watching.  

Results from January 9-20

AB 266 PupilRights: Sex-segregated School Programs: Gender Identity (Ammiano, D, San Francisco) State Government: Sports Authority
Assembly Education Committee; removed from consideration

AB 671 Social Worker Supervisor Training and Education (Portantino, D-Pasadena)
Passed Assembly Human Services Committee 4-2
Failed Assembly Appropriations Committee 2-9

AB 1043 Juveniles: Sexting (Torres, D-Ontario)
Assembly Public Safety Committee; hearing cancelled at author’s request

AB 1432 Caylee's Law (Mitchell, D-Culver City)
Passed Assembly Public Safety Committee 4-0
Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee 16-1
Assembly floor

Bill Hearings This Week
On the Assembly floor
AB 1432 Caylee's Law (Mitchell, D-Culver City)
Passed Assembly Public Safety Committee 4-0
Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee 16-1
Assembly floor 

  • Printer-friendly version