From the Sacramento Bee:
As budget negotiations continue, California lawmakers on Monday sent Gov. Gavin Newsom an unfinished spending plan that will allow them to keep getting paid.
Monday’s budget vote was largely a formality. Lawmakers have to pass a budget by June 15 to continue receiving their salary, under a 2010 law approved by voters through a ballot initiative.
In the meantime, lawmakers and Newsom are working to hammer out a budget deal...
Democratic legislators are angling to avoid roughly $14 billion in cuts Newsom proposed in May that would be triggered July 1 if Congress does not send states more financial assistance.
They called those proposed cuts “draconian” and laid out what they described as a more “empathetic” approach. The lawmakers argue that deep cuts to programs that help low-income people will cause more Californians to rely on government assistance and become homeless in the future, ultimately costing the state more.
On Monday, they passed their own budget plan, which attempts to avoid slashing education and health care funding by delaying cuts in anticipation of future economic relief, even as they acknowledged that they will need to make changes as negotiations continue. Their plan contains about $7 billion in cuts that would be triggered Oct. 1 if more revenue doesn’t come through...
Both Newsom and lawmakers are lobbying the federal government for more aid, which they argue states desperately need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I remain confident that something will happen at the federal level to mitigate the impact at the state level,” Newsom said at a Monday news conference...
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