See below in press release for additional information.
Senator Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach)) criticized Senate Democrats for passing a budget that did not tackle the affordability issues they promised to work on this year. Despite legislative Republicans offering an alternative budget proposal to meet the needs of Californians, Democrats passed a placeholder budget that was filled with misplaced priorities while ignoring a missed opportunity to invest in public safety.
Senator Strickland released this statement:
"Senate Democrats are once again out of touch with the needs of California families. They have an addiction to overspending, but on misplaced priorities, including funding the controversial ‘train to nowhere.’
“In contrast, they have overlooked a missed opportunity to fully fund the anti-crime initiative by only allocating $110 million for one year, which barely addresses the issue. Even more frustrating is the lack of funding for the core components of Prop. 36 - supervision and accountability - that are essential to the initiative.
“If this were a test on California's priorities, Senate Democrats would fail. It’s time for our legislative leaders to prioritize what truly matters to our communities – public safety and statewide affordability.”
Legislative Democrats proposed using $2.5 billion of the state reserves and increase borrowing by $1.5 billion. By increasing ongoing spending and using one-time resources, this budget will worsen the ongoing deficits by roughly $6 billion per year.
Outline of Democrats and Governor’s budgetary wasteful spending:
- $10.8 billion Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented immigrants in both the Governor’s budget proposal and Legislative Democrats’ budget;
- Another $20 million slush fund to sue the federal government, which is on top of the $50 million slush fund that the governor already granted to the attorney general earlier this year to sue the federal government;
- $750 million to bail out the Bay Area Regional Transit;
- $41 million for the failing High-Speed Rail from legislative Democrats, including the passage of a bill that would cost $700,000 for an economic viability study of the project; meanwhile, governor proposes $1 billion in his May Revision;
Breakdown of meager $110 million in one-time funding for Prop. 36:
- $50 million for the county behavioral health departments
- $30 million for the judicial branch to support workload and initial implementation
- $15 million for the judicial branch for pretrial services
- $15 million for local public defenders
- $0 dollars added for local probation departments, which is key to the success of Prop. 36