San Francisco – Over the past ten years, the Assembly has prioritized planning for inevitable revenue shortfalls while ensuring that meaningful progress has been made to serve Californians. In today’s unveiling of his 2023-24 Budget Blueprint, Serving California: Making Government Work, Assembly Budget Chair Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) emphasized protecting the progress made over the last ten years.
“We have spent a decade preparing for revenue shortfalls, and with the robust General Fund reserves and Rainy Day Fund, California is prepared to weather future economic downturns while still prioritizing the gains that we have made in K-12 and early childhood education, our higher education institutions, homelessness support, and health care,” said Ting. “Thanks to this planning and the voters for supporting Proposition 2, there are many solutions available to us to ensure that access to vital services and programs won’t be cut.”
With the Legislative Analyst’s Office projecting a $24 billion budget problem, the Assembly will focus on protecting the progress made without stopping investments and ensuring oversight of funds to make Government work for all Californians.
Among the highlights of the Serving California: Making Government Work Budget Blueprint:
- Protecting Classroom Funding: Continuing to protect Proposition 98; preserve school funding; provide certainty for schools to make investments to reserve learning loss; emphasize educator retention and compensation; continue progress towards debt-free college
- Keep Focus on Infrastructure: Oversight of climate infrastructure efforts; expedite shovels on the ground
- Protect Health and Human Services Expansions: Complete full expansion of Medi-Cal for All; maintain public health investments; fully implement Developmental Services rates
- Move Forward on Housing and Homelessness: Leverage affordable housing investment opportunities; demand accountability on homelessness spending
- Improve How Government Works: Oversee efforts to improve the quality, value, and customer service of the state Government
See below for a copy of the Assembly Budget Blueprint.
# # #
Contact: Jessica Duong, jessica.duong@asm.ca.gov