Nice Time! Yeah, It’s California Doing Cool Sh*t Again

California Gov. Gavin Newsom yesterday signed into law a $308 billion state budget that’s got all sorts of neat California-y stuff in, it, including tax refunds to most taxpayers in the state to offset the high price of gasoline, health insurance coverage for all low-income Californians regardless of their immigration status, increased spending on reproductive healthcare, new investments to mitigate the effects of climate change, and a plan to keep insulin affordable by having the state manufacture its own damn insulin.

Among other stuff!

Let’s take a look at some highlights, so all of us outside California can be glad we’re not living in a socialist hellhole of economic prosperity and government that helps its citizens. Before you know it, everyone in California’s going to be speaking Danish.

Healthcare

As Newsom had requested back in January, the budget package passed by the state Legislature included funding to cover all Californians who meet the income requirements for the state’s Medicaid alternative, Medi-Cal, regardless of their immigration status. Up until now, the plan had only covered non-citizens up to the age of 26 or over the age of 50, but now all ages are covered whether they’re citizens, permanent residents, or undocumented. As the handout from Newsom’s office says, this means that California is now “the FIRST and ONLY state in the nation that offers universal access to health care coverage,” and by golly that’s something to be proud of. The rule change means that an additional 700,000 people in California will have health coverage.

Also, there’s that insulin thing; the state will spend $100 million to develop its own low-cost insulin supply, partnering with a yet-to-be-contracted drug manufacturer to develop the lifesaving diabetes treatment under the generic drug label CalRx. The actual drug production may take a few years to get rolling.

Abortion, Which Yes Is Also Healthcare

In response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, California will fund expanded access to abortion care, with $205 million

to improve reproductive health care infrastructure and to ensure people seeking abortions can get to clinics.

The agreement earmarked $40 million in one-time funds to subsidize the cost of providing abortions to low-income or uninsured patients, including those who come from out of state. The deal also commits $20 million over three years to create the California Abortion Support Fund, which would hand out grants to women who need help paying for in-state travel, lodging, child care and other expenses that advocates say prevent many low-income women from accessing abortion services.

Actual travel funding, however, will only help Californians who need to get care move around in-state; no additional funding will be available to help people traveling from outside California to get an abortion.

And coming in November, voters will be able to approve a constitutional amendment to guarantee abortion rights.

Tax Rebates

Thanks to high tax revenues as the economy has improved, California has another record budget surplus, roughly $97 billion. To help offset the costs of inflation, especially higher gas prices resulting from more demand than there’s supply, the state will give a tax refund to most California taxpayers:

Households that earn less than $500,000 per year and single people who earn less than $250,000 per year will get between $200 and $1,050, depending on how much money they make.

Republicans had been pushing for a suspension of state gas taxes, but the Lege went with a broader tax refund instead.

“We did tax refunds because we value dollars in your bank account versus pennies at the pump,” said Assemblymember Phil Ting, a Democrat and chair of the Assembly Budget Committee.

Skinner said the thanks belonged to “California voters who gave California a progressive tax system that ensures the wealthiest among us pay their fair share,” and that also made Republicans sad, because what about the rich? Easy! The richest one percent of Californians contributed about half of the state’s tax revenues, and by golly, living in California is worth it for most of them. (Research shows that moving to avoid taxes is actually fairly rare — it happens, but moving is such a pain in the ass that not even the wealthy do it lightly.)

Also Too!

Among other things in the budget, Newsom touted $53.9 million in new investments to help with climate mitigation, including improving infrastructure and funding firefighters. Another $4.3 billion will go to upgrading energy infrastructure and expanding green energy sources. Also too, Californians will vote this fall on an initiative to tax the very rich to fund infrastructure for electric vehicles.

The state will spend $2.2 billion on addressing homelessness, with help for bridge housing to get people into homes, and to help unhoused people get shelter. Other new spending will pay for “universal preschool, free school meals, expanded before and after school programs, more counselors for our schools, [and] free community college.”

God, it sounds like hell, doesn’t it?

[Politico / Cal Matters / Fresno Bee / Governor Newsom press release / Photo (cropped): Robert Couse-Baker, Creative Commons License 2.0]

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