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 8, 2021 - Presented to: Assembly Budget Subcommittee No.1 On Health and Human Services Hon. Dr. Joaquin Arambula, Chair
February 5, 2021 - This publication describes how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spending is reflected in the California Department of Public Health’s budget. It offers options for how the Legislature can express its COVID-19-related goals and priorities in light of the administration’s reliance on midyear budget adjustments, provides an evaluative framework for assessing the administration’s proposals, and recommends an after-action review of the state’s public health response.
February 21, 2023 - This post analyzes the Governor's proposed delays and reductions to certain health workforce initiatives adopted in the 2022-23 budget.
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).
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.
February 13, 2024 - This brief provides an overview of the Governor’s proposed budget for the Department of Developmental Services and analyzes proposals to delay service provider rate reform and create a new Master Plan for Developmental Services. We then raise oversight issues for legislative consideration.
October 23, 2023 - This post summarizes overall spending in the 2023-24 budget package for health programs. It is part of our California Spending Plan series, which contains posts focused on each major sector of the state budget.
February 22, 2010 - In this report, we identify significant problems in the state’s ability to accurately track AIDS–related cases. These gaps in the surveillance database weaken the state’s ability to use it as an effective tool to track and respond to trends in the disease. These problems also affect the state’s ability to collect additional federal funding that could otherwise be available to offset the cost of state AIDS programs. We recommend two actions that the state could take: First, have the state Office of AIDS (OA) take steps to ensure that persons receiving services through state–supported programs are reflected in the HIV surveillance database. Second, require electronic reporting by laboratories that must provide HIV data to local health departments. These changes, our analysis indicates, would make the state’s surveillance database more complete, improve the state’s knowledge of disease trends, and make the state more competitive for federal AIDS funding.
March 3, 2022 - This brief analyzes the Governor’s three major behavioral health budget proposals. We include analyses of the Governor’s proposals to (1) provide funding for behavioral health bridge housing, (2) provide funding to implement certain solutions developed by the felony incompetent to stand trial solutions workgroup, and (3) add mobile crisis intervention services as a new Medi-Cal benefit.
February 1, 2021 - This report analyzes the Governor’s major budget proposals for the universities, covering base funding, enrollment, students’ basic needs, faculty professional development, and deferred maintenance.
March 29, 2022 - In this post, we provide an overview of the proposed 2022-23 Department of Developmental Services (DDS) budget and assess the three main new discretionary proposals. We then raise oversight issues for legislative consideration.