Legislature passes placeholder budget, while talks with Gov. Newsom continue

Monday, June 15, 8 p.m.   

The Assembly and Senate approved a budget plan, mostly along party lines, while negotiations with the governor’s office continues over how to deal with a massive budget deficit should additional federal aid not be forthcoming. The main difference remains disagreements over making deep cuts in education and a range of other programs as proposed by Newsom, effective July 1. The Legislature wants to defer making any cuts until October, in the hope that the federal government will approve billions of dollars in additional aid.

If that aid doesn’t materialize — and at the moment the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is balking at adopting anything like the HEROES Act approved by the House of Representative last month — the Legislature’s budget would avoid cuts to child care and K-12 by using up more of the state’s reserves and delaying payment of a portion of funding for school districts to the following school year.