THE BUZZ: With any luck, we're less than 24 hours away from getting the final votes on California's massive $300 billion state budget. The Assembly and Senate will convene tonight at 6 p.m. for floor sessions in their respective chambers, where they're expected to vote on more than a dozen budget trailer bills — the details of which have been in print for only a few days. The deal reached Sunday night between Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins is the result of months of closed-door negotiations, and reflects the Democratic leaders' shared goal to tackle some of the state's biggest problems. Top of mind is, unsurprisingly, abortion. Lawmakers had always factored in some money for reproductive health care and abortion access, but proposed spending since the start of the year has steadily increased as Democrats have grew more anxious that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. In January, Newsom proposed spending $68 million on services and programs, then, after POLITICO published a draft majority opinion, the administration added another $57 million at the May revision for a total of $125 million. But the bill on deck for the Legislature's vote goes even further, spending $200 million on reproductive rights investments, including $20 million over three years to create the California Abortion Support Fund — meant to help individuals pay for all the auxiliary costs that come with traveling to the state to terminate a pregnancy. The state is also poised to put up $40 million in grants for abortion providers who serve poor and uninsured patients, including those who travel to California from other states. The other high-priority issue for lawmakers is sending some kind of inflation relief to constituents. After months of stalemates (and one investigatory committee on price gouging) Newsom, Atkins and Rendon landed on a deal to send $9.5 billion in direct payments to Californians making less than $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for joint filers, capturing an estimated 97.5 percent of taxpayers. The size of the check — ranging from $200 to $1,050 — depends on one's income level, filing status and dependents. More on the details here. Lawmakers are also aiming to temporarily suspend the state diesel tax, but don't hold your breath for a gas tax break. The deadline to halt the scheduled increase came and went weeks ago without legislative action, and now the tax will increase from 51 cents a gallon to 54 cents on Friday. Other spending areas we're eyeing:
- A 13 percent total increase to the local control funding formula for schools, which includes a cost of living adjustment of 6.56 percent.
- $1.3 billion in retention checks for health care workers most affected by the pandemic. Full time workers could get up to $1,500.
- $19 billion over multiple years for climate and energy investments. Most of the details have yet to be finalized, legislative leadership said, but are expected to include items to harden California against drought, wildfires and extreme heat.
- The allocation of the remaining $4.2 billion of Proposition 1A funds for the High Speed Rail Authority to focus on finishing the Merced-Bakersfield segment — something Newsom has been pushing for more than a year. The budget also establishes the Office of the Inspector General to provide additional oversight to the project.
Looming over the entire budget process is an ominous warning from state analysts that California is heading toward a fiscal cliff in the coming years due to spending limits codified by the state's voters in the 1970s. This year's budget is $11 billion under the disco-era Gann Limit, lawmakers said, but they're keeping one eye to the future, talking about drafting a ballot measure for 2024 that would change the limit. Failure to modernize the Gann limit, legislative leaders said in their summary report, likely will result in the need to make "significant reductions to education and non-education programs funded in the state budget." BUENOS DÍAS, good Wednesday morning. Rendon will join labor icon Dolores Huerta on the steps of the Capitol this morning to celebrate California extending Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented Californians as young as 26 in the budget deal reached this week. Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit us up: jwhite@politico.com and lkorte@politico.com or follow us on Twitter @JeremyBWhite and @Lara_Korte. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "You told me this whole week you weren't coming up here. Why did you lie to me? … Don't come up here." House Minority Speaker Kevin McCarthy to White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Jan. 6 after hearing Trump urge his supporters to march on the Capitol, as Hutchinson recounted in an explosive testimony before the Jan. 6 select panel Tuesday. TWEET OF THE DAY: California Rep. Barbara Lee @BLeeForCongress. "When I was 16, I traveled to Mexico to a back-alley clinic to get an abortion. This fight is personal to me. I will continue to do everything in my power to advance legislation that guarantees access to a safe, legal abortion no matter where you live. I'm not giving up." WHERE'S GAVIN? Nothing official announced. NEW HIRE: We're pleased to announce the hiring of our first California politics editor, Ben Fox. Ben joins POLITICO after more than two decades as a reporter and editor with the Associated Press, a career that took him to San Diego; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Miami and, most recently, Washington, D.C. He starts working with the California team this week, and he and his family plan to move to the Sacramento area in July. Drop him a line at BFox@politico.com.
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