SACRAMENTO – (INT) – Governor Brown is proposing a $131.7 billion General Fund budget plan for 2018-19.

It claims to fill the state’s Rainy Day Fund to its constitutional target, fully implements the state’s K-12 school funding formula two years ahead of schedule and provides $4.6 billion for the first year of a 10-year transportation improvement plan.

In contrast to the $27 billion budget gap of 2011, the 2018 fiscal plan reflects a one-time surplus and increases funding for education, health care and other core priorities.

Amid growing uncertainty about the impacts of new federal policies, combined with a longer-than-average economic expansion, the budget banks higher revenues into reserves and pays down debts and liabilities.

“California has faced ten recessions since World War II and we must prepare for the eleventh. Yes, we have had some very good years and program spending has increased steadily,” said Governor Brown in his budget letter to the Legislature. “Let’s not blow it now.”

Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chair Jay Obernolte (R-Hesperia) responded. “I’m pleased that the Governor agrees we must continue to set aside money for the rainy-day fund, but we still need to do more to prepare for future downturns. The surplus should be used to fund one-time investments in our state’s infrastructure – not on new programs that commit the state to future ongoing spending," Obernolte said.

Story Date: January 22, 2018