Published
4 years agoon
SACRAMENTO — A $214.8 billion budget approved Thursday by California lawmakers would upgrade the state’s aging 911 system following the most devastating wildfire season in state history and help middle class families pay their monthly health insurance premiums.
To fund those changes, however, lawmakers want to impose a new monthly fee on phone bills and tax people who refuse to buy private health insurance, even though the state has a projected $21.5 billion surplus, the largest in at least 20 years.
Related Story: California Lawmakers OK $213 Billion Budget. Here's What's Inside.
Republican Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said it’s “unconscionable” to ask taxpayers to fund the 911 upgrades when there is such a large surplus.The massive spending plan, totaling more than 900 pages, directs the spending of tax dollars in the country’s most populous state.
Lawmakers must still pass more than a dozen other bills to implement the budget. The trailer bills could contain important details, such as how to implement the new 911 fee.
The spending plan is the first under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has 12 days to sign it or veto parts of it.
It would also make California the first state to help people who earn between four and six times the federal poverty level pay their monthly health insurance premiums.
That means families of four who earn as much as $150,500 a year would be eligible.
Lawmakers plan to pay for part of that by taxing people who refuse to purchase private health insurance. That tax had been law nationwide under former Democratic President Barack Obama’s health care law, but Republicans in Congress eliminated the penalty as part of a 2017 overhaul to the federal tax code.
The proposal has angered some Republicans, who note the budget would also make some low-income adults living in the country illegally eligible for taxpayer-funded health insurance. Only adults between 19 and 25 would be eligible.
“The biggest increase in this budget is for people who aren’t even citizens,” said Assemblyman Devon Mathis, a Republican who represents Porterville.
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