Published on Jun 28, 2012 by Sue Dormanen in Community Clinic Voice.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new budget for California late Wednesday, June 27, that relies heavily on voters approving his proposed tax hikes in November, Associated Press reports.

The Budget eliminates the Healthy Families Program, transferring beneficiaries to Medi‐Cal over a 12‐month period beginning in January 2013. Overall, the plan cuts more than $1 billion from health related programs to pare down a $15.7 billion deficit, California Healthline reports.

The budget, in full, is posted at: http://www.dof.ca.gov

Read more on the budget from the Governor's office.

Democratic leaders agreed to Brown's request to phase in a two-year time limit for new welfare recipients to find work under the state's welfare-to-work program known as CalWORKS, and also agreed to eliminate Healthy Families, a children's health insurance program for low-income working families, by slowly moving 880,000 children into Medi-Cal. 

The spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 assumes voters will approve Brown’s tax hike on the November ballot. If voters reject that tax initiative, a series of automatic cuts will be triggered, including three weeks less of public school for the next two years. 

Brown believes the tax initiative will raise $8.5 billion in the new fiscal year starting July 1 by increasing the sales tax by a quarter cent to 7.5 percent for four years, and boosting the income tax on people who make more than $250,000 a year for seven years. 

Read more from California Healthline.

The budget is available at: 
http://www.dof.ca.gov