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February 16, 2022 - This brief analyzes the Governor’s proposed spending plan for a $300 million ongoing General Fund augmentation for the California Department of Public Health, describes merits of the proposed plan and identifies ways it could be strengthened, and offers issues for legislative consideration.
February 16, 2022 - Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance
February 11, 2022 - In this post, we analyze the Governor’s proposal to provide food assistance to currently ineligible immigrants aged 55 and older. First, we provide some essential background on California’s food assistance programs, then we describe the Governor’s proposed expansion, and finally provide an analysis of the proposal as well as issues for legislative consideration.
February 11, 2022 - In this post, we provide some basic background on the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, an update on recent program changes and caseload trends, and an overview of the Governor’s CalWORKs budget proposals.
February 10, 2022 - This post provides an update on the state's home- and community-based services spending plan, which was conditionally approved by the federal government in January 2022. We describe the quarterly updates the state will need to provide the federal government and ways to ensure legislative oversight over implementation of HCBS spending plan.
February 9, 2022 - This brief analyzes the Governor’s budget proposal for Medi-Cal. We include an analysis of the administration’s caseload projections, provide options for renewing the managed care organization tax (that the Governor proposes to let expire), and provide our assessment of the discretionary budget proposals to provide equity and practice transformation payments and eliminate certain existing provider payment reductions.
February 2, 2022 - This post summarizes the Governor’s budget assumptions and proposals related to the Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) program, including the Governor’s intent to increase SSP grants in 2023-24. The post also summarizes other SSI/SSP goals the Legislature could pursue relative to the intended 2023-24 SSP grant increase.
February 2, 2022 - This post describes the Governor’s budget assumptions and proposals related to the In-Home Supportive Services program and offers relevant issues for Legislative consideration.
Update (2/7/22): Time requirement for incentive payment to IHSS providers in the state’s HCBS spending plan has been updated.
January 13, 2022 - On January 10, 2022, Governor Newsom presented his proposed state budget to the Legislature. In this report, we provide a brief summary of the proposed budget based on our initial review. In the coming weeks, we will analyze the plan in more detail and release several additional budget analyses.
Update (1/21/22): Includes a corrected estimate of Governor’s Budget proposals that are excludable under the State Appropriations Limit (SAL).
December 15, 2021 - Presented to: Assembly Committee on Judiciary Assembly Committee on Health
November 22, 2021 - The 2021‑22 spending plan provides just over $23 billion from the General Fund for human services programs. This is an increase of over $6 billion, or 37 percent, compared to the revised prior-year spending level. This significant increase is primarily the result of higher spending in several different departments and programs.
November 17, 2021 - This post describes our fiscal outlook for Medi‑Cal, the major factors that we expect to drive changes in General Fund spending in Medi Cal, and a number of our key underlying assumptions. (Specifically, this post concerns projections of Medi‑Cal local assistance spending within the Department of Health Care Services [DHCS].)
November 9, 2021 - Examines Medi-Cal enrollment of Department of Developmental Services (DDS) consumers and the fiscal effect that additional Medi-Cal enrollment would have on the DDS budget and on state costs overall.
Correction 11/19/21: Corrected average annual per person fee-for-service cost in Medi-Cal.
October 27, 2021 - As part of the 2021‑22 spending plan, the administration and the Legislature agreed to spend $6 billion ($1.7 billion General Fund) over three fiscal years (starting in 2021‑22) on broadband infrastructure. Of the $6 billion, $4.372 billion is appropriated in 2021‑22—$4.322 billion in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) fiscal relief funds and $50 million General Fund. This post details the key actions and events that preceded the 2021‑22 budget agreement, outlines the agreement (including a breakdown of the 2021‑22 appropriations), and describes key components of accompanying changes in state law—Chapter 112 of 2021 (SB 156, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review). We note that while the administration and the Legislature are considering other broadband-related changes through administrative action and the legislative policy process, this post focuses on broadband infrastructure funding in the spending plan.
October 22, 2021 - The spending plan provides $33.7 billion General Fund for health programs. This is an increase of $6.7 billion, or 25 percent, compared to the revised 2020‑21 spending level. This year-over-year increase primarily is due to significant growth in projected General Fund spending in Medi-Cal. About two-thirds of the increase in General Fund Medi-Cal spending reflects technical budget adjustments (for example, adjustments due to projected caseload increases), while the remaining one-third reflects a large number of discretionary policy augmentations.